She was the eldest daughter of James Keymer, a silk-printer, and his wife Margaret, a sister of Samuel Laman Blanchard.
Her father was a close friend of Douglas Jerrold, and knew other literary men.
[1] Heaton's first published work was verse for children, written to the designs of Oscar Fletsch.
[1] Concise History of Painting (1873) had a new edition in 1888, as part of Bohn's "Artists' Library".
[1] She co-authored with Charles Christopher Black Leonardo da Vinci and his Works (1874), and translated Julius Meyer's biography of Correggio (1876).