Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Heywood, Peter
HEYWOOD, PETER (1773–1831), captain in the navy, son of Peter John Heywood, deemster of the Isle of Man, was born at the Nunnery, near Douglas, 6 June 1773. He entered the navy in October 1786 on board the Bounty discovery ship, and sailed in her on the voyage to Tahiti [see Bligh, William; Christian, Fletcher; Adams, John, 1760?–1829]. When the mutiny broke out on 28 April 1789, Heywood was confined by the mutineers, but was allowed to come on deck when the launch was ready to receive Bligh and his party. The boat, however, could not hold them all, and Heywood with some others was left behind, Bligh probably thinking that a boy of his tender years would only be an encumbrance. When the mutineers split into two parties at Tahiti, Heywood was one of those who remained there; and when, on 23 March 1791, the Pandora, under the command of Captain Edward Edwards, arrived in search of the mutineers, Heywood with Stewart, a fellow-midshipman, at once went off to her in a canoe. They were immediately put in irons; and the others at Tahiti having been apprehended, they were all, to the number of fourteen, thrust, handcuffed and heavily ironed, into a sort of cage eleven feet long, built on the after part of the quarter-deck, to which air and light were admitted through two iron gratings each about nine inches square. Of the mutineers who had quitted Tahiti nothing could be discovered in a prolonged search. On 28 Aug. the Pandora, in attempting to pass through Endeavour Straits, struck on the reef since known by her name, and was totally lost. No official attempt was made to release the prisoners, but a few minutes before the ship went down the master-at-arms privately let the keys of the irons fall through the grating, and Heywood with some of his companions managed to get out; the rest, Stewart among them, went down with the ship.
Edwards had assumed these men to be deserving of the severest punishment. All the shipwrecked crew naturally suffered privations; but the prisoners were left stark naked, allowed no shelter, and insufficient food. Both at Batavia, and on the passage to the Cape of Good Hope in a Dutch merchant ship, they were treated with excessive severity. At the Cape Heywood was removed into the Gorgon, where he was allowed daily exercise on deck, and was confined with only one leg in irons. The Gorgon arrived at Spithead on 19 June 1792, when Heywood was sent on board the Hector of 74 guns, whose captain, afterwards Sir George Montagu, treated him with humanity. On 12 Sept. he, with the other prisoners, was brought before a court-martial. The trial lasted for six days, and on the 18th they were all sentenced to death; but Heywood was recommended to mercy in the strongest terms; and the Earl of Chatham, then first lord of the admiralty, was so convinced of Heywood's innocence that he obtained for him an unconditional pardon. Lord Hood, who had been president of the court, advised him to continue in the service, and offered to take him with him in the Victory. His uncle, Commodore (afterwards Sir Thomas) Pasley [q. v.], however, preferred that he should be, for a while, in a private ship, and placed him in the Niger frigate with Captain Legge. In September 1793 he was moved into the Queen Charlotte, bearing the flag of Lord Howe, with Sir Roger Curtis, captain of the fleet, and Captain Sir Andrew Snape Douglas, both of whom had been members of the court-martial. In the actions of 28, 29 May and 1 June 1794 Heywood acted as captain's aide-de-camp, and on the return of the fleet to Spithead was one of the two midshipmen appointed to attend the side when the king came on board the Queen Charlotte. As it was disputed whether Heywood could hold naval rank, Sir Roger Curtis took the opinion of counsel, who held that as the only punishment which the court could pronounce was death, the king's pardon placed him in the position of any other subject. Howe hereupon gave him an acting commission as lieutenant, which, however, was not confirmed till the following March. On 23 June 1795 he was lieutenant of the Nymphe in the action off L'Orient; and in 1798, being then on the East Indian station, was moved into the Suffolk, bearing the flag of Vice-admiral Rainier; having been recommended to him by Earl Spencer, then first lord of the admiralty, who, after careful consideration, had expressed his conviction that Heywood should not be excluded from further promotion, especially in consideration of his good behaviour in later services. In August 1800 Heywood was accordingly promoted to be commander; and on 5 April 1803 was confirmed in post rank. He had previously commanded post ships, by acting order from Admiral Rainier, and had, in addition to the ordinary course of duty, completed the survey of a great part of the east coast of Ceylon, from which the admiralty charts were afterwards published. In 1806 Heywood was flag-captain to Rear-admiral George Murray [q. v.] in the Polyphemus at the Cape of Good Hope and in the River Plate; in 1808 he commanded the Donegal off Brest and in the Bay of Biscay. In 1809 he was appointed to the Nereus frigate, in which he went out to the Mediterranean, and in April 1810 brought back to England the remains of Lord Collingwood. He was afterwards employed on the east coast of South America, till October 1813, when he returned to England in the Montagu, which he commanded in the North Sea and in the Mediterranean till 1816. She was paid off at Chatham on 16 July, and a fortnight later he married. He had no further service, and died in London on 10 Feb. 1831.
[Marshall's Royal Naval Biog. iv. (vol. ii. pt. ii.) 747. This memoir is of superior authority, written mainly from original papers not published elsewhere. The Memoir by Edward Tagart is work of slender merit and much religious padding; United Service Mag. 1831, pt. i. p. 468, and 1833, pt. i. p. 92; Minutes of the Court-martial; Barrow's Eventful History of the Mutiny of the Bounty.]