By way of settlement of a loan Sir William received for his son, the reversion of the wardenship of Manchester Collegiate Church, which was granted by Charles I by letters patent of 14 November 1626.
[1] In 1641, he published Three Sermons preached at the Collegiate Church in Manchester, 8vo, denouncing Romanists and High Episcopalians with bitter prejudice and vindictive sarcasm.
In 1642, he drew up an address from the county of Lancaster to Charles I, containing what was, in effect, an offer to mediate between the King and Parliament for peace and reconciliation.
Along with Richard Hollinworth, he acted as moderator of the Lancashire synod, and in the affairs of the Manchester classis, his influence was predominant, and his care in all matters, especially in providing valuable and pious ministers, was conspicuous.
In this sermon, afterwards printed with the title of Queen Esther's Resolves, or a Princely Pattern of Heaven-born Resolution, he makes pathetic mention of the services of Manchester in the cause of God and the Kingdom and of the impoverished condition of the Church's ministers in that town.
[3] He complied with the Act of Uniformity by "reading the service book" on 14 September 1662 and maintained his position of warden until his death, having no doubt moderated his religious tenets.
Henry Newcome, in dedicating his book, the Sinner's Hope, 1660, to Heyrick, speaks in high laudation of "his much-honoured brother and faithful fellow-labourer in the congregation" at Manchester.