[1] By the end of 1780, he had saved sufficient money to enable him, with the help of his parents, to enter the University of Edinburgh with the view of studying for the church.
In a rhyming epistle to Blacklock, Burns attributes Heron's faithlessness either to preoccupation with 'some dainty fair one,’ or to partiality for liquor.
Attributing its failure to a conspiracy against him, he published it under the title St. Kilda in Edinburgh, or News from Camperdown, a Comic Drama in Two Acts, with a Critical Preface, to which is added an Account of a famous Ass Race (1798); the publication attracted no attention.
Returning to New Galloway as a ruling elder, Heron served several years in the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland and frequently spoke with fluency and ability.
[1] In order to obtain more constant literary occupation, he removed in 1799 to London, where he contributed largely to the periodicals, editing the Globe, the British Press, and other newspapers, and acting as a parliamentary reporter.
Its failure and Heron's improvident habits led to his confinement by his creditors in Newgate prison, where, according to his own statement, he was reduced 'to the very extremity of bodily and pecuniary distress.'
On 2 February 1807, from Newgate, he wrote a letter to the Royal Literary Fund, recounting his services to literature, and appealing for aid.
Heron also contributed to the Encyclopædia Britannica, the Edinburgh Magazine, and other periodicals; and was employed by Sir John Sinclair in the preparation of the Statistical Account of Scotland.