- Mayor
- Bolton: 1903-05 (Conservative)
- Born
- Bolton 19 October 1849
- Died
- The Pike, High Street, Bolton 15 August 1910
- Educated
- Bolton High School; Owens College, Manchester; St John's College, Cambridge
- About
-
Barrister.
Son of Robert Heywood, Mayor of Bolton 1839-40.
John Heywood was one of the first Nonconformists to enter Cambridge University when the religious tests were removed.
Like his father before him he was an extensive traveller and was a contributor to the columns of the Bolton Journal and Guardian.
He was originally a Liberal but became a Liberal Unionist when the Liberal Party split over Irish Home Rule in 1886. The Liberal Unionists had effectively merged with the Conservative Party by 1896.
Represented Bradford Ward 1889, East Ward 1890-93 and Hulton Ward from 1901-03. Alderman for Bradford Ward 1903.
He abhorred protracted Council meetings and believed that "the real work can be done in Committees rather than the Council."
He organized the Mayor's Relief Fund in 1904 to feed the town's unemployed workers and their families. The Fund provided hotpot dinners in the Town Hall for as many as 500 of the unemployed. Parcels of food were provided twice a week for their families.
On 3 September 1904 he opened a recreation ground for Halliwell which had been presented to the town by George Harwood MP.
He gifted the land on which High Street Baths and High Street Library were built. He opened the reorganized High Street Library on 21 December 1907.
Unveiled the Thomasson Memorial in Mere Hall, Bolton on 8 March 1906.
He was the proud owner of the Bowyer Bible, which he had inherited from his father, who had bought if for £500 from the estate of John Albinson. The Bible was later donated to the town by the family is now on display in Bolton Museum.
Borough Magistrate 1885.
County Magistrate 1902.
He was Chairman of the Board of Guardians, President of the Poor Protection Society and a Trustee of Chadwick's Orphanage in the Haulgh.
While on the Board of Guardians, Heywood was defeated in the local elections. In spite of this, the Board, recognising his great services to the poor and rate payers alike paid him the unique honour of inviting him to accept the position of Chairman and after due consideration he accepted.
Unitarian - he was, like his father, a staunch member of Bank Street Chapel. His sister, Mary Haslam, was a leading Suffragist and one of the founders of Bolton High School for Girls, predecessor of Bolton School Girls Division.
His wife, Karoline, was Mayoress.
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