John Heysham

John Heysham M.D. (1753–1834) was an English medical doctor, now remembered as a statistician.

Life Born at Lancaster on 22 November 1753, he was the son of John Heysham, shipowner, by Anne Cumming, the daughter of a Westmoreland farmer. He was educated at a school kept by Quakers at Yealand, near Burton, Westmorland, and then apprenticed for five years to a surgeon at Burton. In 1774 he joined the medical classes at Edinburgh, and graduated M.D. in 1777.

In 1778 Heysham settled in practice at Carlisle, Cumberland and resided there until his death on 23 March 1834. He was buried in St. Mary's Church, and a memorial window was placed at the east end of the south aisle of the cathedral. The table was still relied upon in 1851, for the Institute of Actuaries benchmark published by Peter Gray, William Orchard and Henry Ambrose Smith. The Institute's revision of 1870 caused the obsolescence of the table.

Heysham was also a naturalist, his observations on the flora and fauna of his district being recorded in William Hutchinson's History of the County of Cumberland. He was close to the Carlisle Cathedral chapter, and was thought to have assisted Archdeacon William Paley on questions of design in nature.