Unwin Heathcote, Esq.
(1818-1893)
20 October 1862
Volume 9, page 271, sitting number 12,081.
[The Silvy daybooks identify the sitter as ‘Uwin Heathcote Esq,’ The preceding entry is his wife, identified as ‘Mrs Unwin Heathcote.’]
Born on 25 December 1818 at Shephalbury Manor near Stevenage, Unwin Heathcote (later Unwin Unwin-Heathcote) was the son of Samuel Unwin Heathcote (later Samuel Unwin Unwin-Heathcote) and his wife Eleanor née Wigram.
On 21 December 1848 he married Frances Maria Wigram, daughter of the barrister and politican the Rt. Hon. Sir James Wigram.
The couple appear on the 1861 census living at 6 Westbourne Crescent in Paddington with their five children and six servants. Unwin Heathcote gave ‘Barrister not in practice’ as his profession.
He died on 26 February 1893 at his residence, Shephalbury Manor in Hertfordshire, leaving an estate valued at £43,217. His executors were his sons ‘Alfred Heathcote, [a] major in Her Majesty’s Army and Arthur Samuel Heathcote, [a] member of Lloyds.’
‘We regret very much to record the death of Mr Unwin Heathcote, of Shephalbury, Stevenage, a gentleman who was the head of a family for many years, resident in Sutton-in-Ashfield, and highly esteemed both individually and as a family. Some two or three years ago, the deceased gentleman sustained a fall whilst riding, and he has never been in full vigour since that time. It is supposed that this accident accelerated his death. The failure in his health had of late been more pronounced than formerly, doubtless in some measure due to this having survived the span of life ordinarily allowed to man. There was not active disease, we understand, in his system; undoubtedly his death was due more to senile decay than to any other cause. He passed peacefully to his rest on Sunday, at the ripe old age of seventy-four.
‘The deceased gentleman, who was born on December 25th, 1818, was the son of Samuel Unwin Heathcote and Eleanor, the eldest daughter of Sir Robert Wigram’s second wife. Mr Heathcote, who was trained to the Chancery Bar, married in 1848, Frances Maria, the daughter of Vice-Chancellor Sir James Wigram, by whom he leaves a numerous family. His career in life has been principally that of a country gentleman, dispensing his favours to those around him, and, by his death the numerous charitable institutions to which he subscribed will lose a warm supporter. Always affable and engaging in manner, and extremely kind ion disposition, he gathered around him a large circle of friends, who deeply lament his decease. As a County Magristrate and a Member of the County Council, he also rendered valuable service in a temporal lsense, and spiritually, his zeal for the welfare of the Church was manifested by his having saved on various church committees. He was also a member of the diocesan committee to watch Church legislation, and served on the Bishop’s standing council. Politically, he was a Conservative, but his work in this respect was carried out silently and unobtrusively, and he did not figure much in the arena of party strife. His favourite pastimes were shooting, fishing, and sketching, in which he took great delight. He was High Sheriff of the county of Herts. in 1870, and was a considerable owner of property at Sutton-in-Ashfield, Msnsfield, and Tansley, Derbyshire, and his kindness and generosity as a landlord rendered him very popular with his numerous tenants’ (Mansfield Reporter, 10 March 1893)