J. M. Heathcote
(1800-1892)
9 October 1860

Volume 2, page 29, sitting number 1413.

Identified in the Silvy daybooks as 'J.M. Heathcote', this is John Moyer Heathcote (1800-1892), amateur painter and an early amateur photographer. He was also the author of Reminiscences of Fen and Mere, published by Longmans in 1876, which contains many plates from watercolours of windmills, some of which can be matched with calotype negatives Heathcote produced in the 1850s. [See Ken Jacobson's Etude d'Après Nature, page 57.]

Born on 9 November 1800, he was the eldest son of the politician John Heathcote of Conington Castle in Huntingdonshire, who was the MP for Gatton from 1796 to 1798 and for Ripon from 1798 to 1806. Educated at Eton College and St John's College, Cambridge, in 1857 he stood for election as MP for Huntingdonshire. Although he was elected, his return was subsequently invalidated.

He married on 11 April 1833 the Honourable Emily Frances Ridley-Colborne, daughter of Nicholas William Ridley-Colborne, 1st and last Baron Colborne. Their marriage produced five children.

John Moyer Heathcote died at Conington Castle on 27 March 1892 and was buried alongside his parents in All Saints Church, Conington. He left an estate valued at £75,768.