Transcript

of

Sir John Heathcote-Amory, Bart. [Obituary]

Trans. Devon. Assoc., 46, (1914), p. 40.

by

Maxwell Adams (Ed.)

Prepared by Michael Steer

The obituary was read at the Association’s July 1914 Tavistock meeting. Sir John was a businessman and influential Liberal politician. Born John Amory, he was the maternal grandson of John Heathcoat, M.P. for Tiverton, and assumed the additional surname of Heathcoat by Royal licence. He was a partner of J. Heathcoat & Co, lace manufacturers, and also represented Tiverton in the House of Commons between 1868 and 1885. In 1874 he was created a baronet. In 1867 he commissioned the country house of Knightshayes Court under the design of William Burges. He was succeeded in the baronetcy by his second but eldest surviving son Ian.  The obituary, from a copy of a rare and much sought-after journal can be downloaded from the Internet Archive. Google has sponsored the digitisation of books from several libraries. These books, on which copyright has expired, are available for free educational and research use, both as individual books and as full collections to aid researchers.

Sir John Heathcoat-Amory, Bart., joined the Association in 1891 and was one of the Vice-Presidents for the meeting held in that year at Tiverton.
On his mother's side Sir John was a grandson of John Heathcoat, who invented the stocking-frame and horizontal pillow now in use throughout the lace-making districts. The inventor was a Midlander, but when the Luddite rioters wrecked his factory at Loughborough he moved his works to Tiverton. His daughter Anne, who married Mr. Samuel Amory, of The Priory, Homerton, the late baronet's father, and her sister Eloise, were the coheirs of the large fortune which John Heathcoat made. Like his grandfather before him, Sir John sat as M.P. for Tiverton, and represented that borough in the Liberal interest from 1868 to 1885, when his constituency disappeared in the redistribution. A baronetcy was conferred on him in 1874, and he then added his grandfather's name to his own, and adopted the motto Amore non vi. He married in 1863 the daughter of Mr. William Unwin and by her had three sons, Ian, Harry, and Ludovic, noted in the west for their stature and their keen sporting proclivities.
Sir John was himself a keen sportsman and maintained two packs of hounds, free of all subscriptions, the harriers since 1859, and the stag-hounds since 1896.
A fine sportsman, a model landlord, and one of the most popular residents in the west, he died at Knightshayes Court, Tiverton, on 26 May, 1914, in his eighty-sixth year.