Arthur Heathcote Heathcote (ne Shepley)

Né Arthur Heathcote Shepley, son of James Shepley and Elizabeth Heathcote (the sister and co-heiress of William Heathcote of Demerara), brother of Anne Brailsford (q.v.) and brother-in-law of Thomas Brailsford (q.v.). He changed his name as a condition of inheriting under his maternal uncle's will.

1. Baptism of Arthur Heathcote Shepley son of James (identified as a bread-baker) and Elizabeth Shepley, St Nicholas Liverpool 09/08/1786 (born 12/07/1786). Married Hannah Farmer at Bakewell, Derbyshire, 23/06/1808. Baptisms of children William Heathcote Shepley 09/02/1815, John Shepley 26/05/1817 and Arthur Shepley Shepley (born 25/12/1818) 28/06/1820, all at Darley Derbyshire. Inherited Stancliffe Hall at some point after 1817 and sold it in 1854. Will of Arthur Heathcote Heathcote of Blackwell Bakewell Derbyshire who died 04/07/1869 proved 08/12/1869, effects under £300 resworn 1872 under £3000.

2. An unnamed son of James Shepley and his wife Elizabeth died "on his passage from Demerara", indicating some of the family were present in that colony. This was probably John Shepley, who together with William Heathcote had acted as slave factors in Demerara.

T71/885 British Guiana claim no. 832A-C (Haags Bosch); T71/887 British Guiana claim nos. 2401A-C and 2411A-C.

T71/1258 British Guiana claim nos. 832A-C: Abstract of document shewing the right of Mr Heathcote and Mr & Mrs Brailsford to receive compensation. Will of Wm Heathcote of Demerara 02/02/1811, which left the Stonecliffe [=Stancliffe] House estate in Darley Dale to his elder brother John Heathcote, and if John Heathcote died without male heirs, left estate to Arthur Heathcote Shepley, provided he took the name of Heathcote.

1. Ancestry.com, Liverpool, Lancashire. England. Baptisms, Marriages and Burials. 1639-1812 [database online]; Familysearch.org batch no. C00599-3; Ancestry.com, England and Wales Christening Records 1530-1906 [database online]; Daniel Lysons and Samuel Lysons, 'Parishes: Dalbury - Derby', in Magna Britannia: Volume 5, Derbyshire (London, 1817), pp. 94-129, British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/magna-britannia/vol5/pp94-129 [accessed 04/01/2018]; National Probate Calendar 1869. The names of Arthur Heathcote Heathcote's children are listed in Stephen Glover, The History, Gazetteer, and Directory of the County of Derby: Drawn Up From Actual Observation, and From the Best Authorities; Part II... (Derby, 1829) pp. 360-361.

2. Stephen Glover (Thomas Noble, ed.), The History and Gazetteer of the County of Derby (1833) part 1, vol. 1, p. 393 which includes a family tree; Evelyn Dawsonne Heathcote, Account of Some of the Families Bearing the Name of Heathcote (1899) pp. 207-208; data on slave factors suppled to LBS by Nick Radburn, University of Lancaster, for whose help LBS is grateful.

We are grateful to Kerrie Brailsford and Miranda Kaufman for their assistance with compiling this entry.