John Heysham

Born at Lancaster on 22 November 1753, he was the son of John Heysham, shipowner, by Anne Cumming, the daughter of a Westmoreland farmer.

They comprised a record of the annual births, marriages, diseases, and deaths in Carlisle for ten years (to 1788), including a census of the inhabitants in 1780, and again in 1788.

[2] The table was still relied upon in 1851, for the Institute of Actuaries benchmark published by Peter Gray, William Orchard and Henry Ambrose Smith.

[4] 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.