Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Hey, Richard
HEY, RICHARD (1745–1835), essayist and mathematician, was born at Pudsey, near Leeds, on 22 Aug. 1745, being the younger brother of the Rev. John Hey, D.D. [q. v.], and of William Hey, F.R.S. [q. v.] He became a fellow of Magdalene College, Cambridge, graduating B.A. in 1768 as third wrangler, and obtaining the chancellor's medal. In 1771 he took the degree of M.A. as fellow of Sidney Sussex College, and in 1779 LL.D. per lit. reg. In 1771 he was called to the bar at the Middle Temple. He was admitted into Doctors' Commons, but obtaining no practice retired from the bar. He was fellow and tutor of Magdalene College from 1782 till 1796, and was also elected one of the esquire bedells. In 1776 he published ‘Observations on the Nature of Civil Liberty and the Principles of Government.’ His chief work was the ‘Dissertation on the Pernicious Effects of Gaming,’ by which he gained a prize of fifty guineas offered through the university of Cambridge. The first edition appeared at Cambridge in 1783, and the third in 1812. Hey in 1784 gained a second prize, offered by the same anonymous donor, by his ‘Dissertation on Duelling,’ which also reached a third edition in 1812. His ‘Dissertation on Suicide’ gained him a third prize of fifty guineas. It was first printed in 1785, again in 1812, when the three dissertations were published together. In 1792, at York appeared Hey's ‘Happiness and Rights,’ in reply to the ‘Rights of Man’ by Tom Paine, pronounced to be an ‘excellent and judicious answer.’ He also wrote a tragedy in five acts called ‘The Captive Monarch,’ which was published in 1794, and in 1796 ‘Edington,’ a novel, in two volumes. His last work was ‘Some Principles of Civilisation, with detached thoughts on the Promotion of Christianity in British India,’ Cambridge, 1815. He had at various times contributed papers to the ‘Philosophical Transactions’ and other magazines. He assisted in editing a pamphlet which gives a scientific account of an Egyptian mummy, with anatomical and other details.
Hey died on 7 Dec. 1835, at Hertingfordbury, near Hertford, in the ninety-first year of his age.
[Leeds Mercury, December 1835; Taylor's Biogr. Leodiensis; Graduati Cantabr. 1823.]