[taken from Chapter 3 Manx Worthies, A.W.Moore, 1901]

ROBERT HEYWOOD (b. 1633, d. 1690),

was " clerk of the green wax " for the County Palatine of Lancashire and was appointed Governor of the island in 1678. He is chiefly remembered for the interest he took in insular horseracing. This sport was initiated by James, the 7th Earl of Derby, in 1628, when, with the view of encouraging his tenants to breed good horses, he presented a plate of the value of £5 to be run for by Manx horses on his birthday, the 28th of July. Every one wishing to compete had to enter his name with the clerk of the rolls, giving the name and colour of his horse or mare. The first race under these conditions was run at Langness in 1628, and it seems to have been continued annually until 1651. It was not run again till 1687, when Governor Heywood, " with the consent and approbation of the rest of the Lord's officers and 24 Keys¹ renewed it under the same conditions as in 1628. He himself encouraged the sport in that year by entering " ane bay gelding, called by the name of Loggerhead,"² which ·"fairly won the race . . . at the first two heats,"² and he contributed a shilling " towards augmenting the plate for the next year.² His name is associated with some useful legislation, but, besides what has been stated, we know nothing of him, except that he was buried in the chapel at Castletown, and that his body was removed and interred in the same grave with his son Peter, in Kirk Malew, in 1699.

1 Statutes, Vol. I., pp. 140 and 142.
2 Manx Soc., Vol. XXI., pp. 186-7[sic 183-6].