Trading The Heyworth manufacturing business, called Peter Heyworth & Sons, produced goods intended mainly for export to Spain and Portugal. Lawrence persuaded his brothers that it would be beneficial to deal directly with customers in
Lisbon and
Porto rather than through agents based in
London and elsewhere in Britain. He further persuaded them, with some reluctance, to allow him to do that trading and thus in 1805 he left Bacup for Portugal. There he proved to be a surprising success, making and exploiting contacts to further the business. In 1807, he and his brothers, now trading as Heyworth Brothers & Co., then decided to exploit his apparent flair for foreign dealings by establishing a business as
commission agents in
Rio de Janeiro. By 1809, with his brother James partnering him, this business had attracted so many consignments from manufacturers in Lancashire and
Yorkshire that the brothers set up a shipping and commission agency in Liverpool to handle the trade. This new enterprise was operated by and named after Ormerod Heyworth, leaving one brother to run the Bacup manufactory. The South American enterprise expanded to include offices in many locations but the British government then attempted to impose
tariffs on trade there. In 1816, Heyworth returned to Europe and supervised the opening of alternate trading outlets in
Hamburg,
Trieste and
Livorno. He largely disengaged himself from the business in 1820, when he married his second cousin, Elizabeth Aked, and settled down at a property he had bought the year before. This house, called Yew Tree House and situated in the
West Derby area of Liverpool, was set in of grounds; he also owned nearby Rice House and its of grounds.
Railways Heyworth had promotion of railways among his business interests from an early time in their history, and he later persuaded his brothers to dispose of their interests in the family businesses in favour of railway investment: they had withdrawn entirely from trade by 1836. A Lawrence Heyworth of Liverpool is listed as a director of both the
Midland Counties Railway and the
South Eastern Railway in 1841, and he was for some time a director of the
Central Argentine Railway and chairman of the
Kendal and Windermere Railway. He obtained patents relating to steam power in 1838 and was president of Bacup Mechanics' Institution from its foundation in 1839 until his death.
Activism Heyworth was a
Nonconformist in religious belief and became chairman of the
British Anti-State Church Association. Having opposed the imposition of export duties as early as 1815, when the British government had announced its intention to impose a tariff on goods sent to Rio de Janeiro, Heyworth became a supporter of the
Anti-Corn Law League. By the late 1830s, he had become a prominent figure in the free trade movement of
northwest England, being both chairman of and the largest donor to the Liverpool Free Trades Association. He had by this time also become involved in the campaign for repeal of the
Corporation and other
Test Acts. He was an early supporter of the
Complete Suffrage Union (CSU), along with fellow
Radicals such as
Edward Miall and
John Bright. Although sharing similar aims to
Chartism, Heyworth was among those CSU members who were influenced by
Joseph Sturge and objected to the methods of Chartist leaders such as
Feargus O'Connor. The influence of Sturge also played a part in his support for the
abolition of slavery and his membership of a peace movement called the
League of Universal Brotherhood, founded by
Elihu Burritt in 1848. Together with
Joshua Walmsley, he founded the
Financial Reform Association in the same year. Heyworth was also a
temperance campaigner. He supported the
National Temperance League and became president of the
British Temperance Society, as well as of the
British Temperance Emigration Society. The latter association caused him to visit
Wisconsin to promote the organisation's purchase of of settlement land in the
Dane and
Iowa counties.
Politics It was the temperance principle that caused Heyworth not to stand as a
parliamentary candidate for the
Stafford constituency in 1847. Sources differ regarding whether this decision was made by the electors or by Heyworth himself but agree that the cause was the influence of the
brewing industry in that area. Those involved in the industry may have objected to his temperance position, or he may have objected having to take heed of them. In 1848 Heyworth was elected to the
House of Commons as one of the two MPs for the Derby constituency, a candidacy that owed much to his reformist proclivities and to his position as a director of the
Midland Railway, which was based in the town. The result of the
1847 general election in the constituency had been declared void because of bribery and in the by-election of August of the following year both he and
Michael Thomas Bass, neither of whom had stood in 1847, were elected. Bass was returned again in the
1852 general election but Heyworth came third. In March 1853, Heyworth was awarded the seat on petition when it was determined that
Thomas Berry Horsfall had gained victory through bribery. He rarely spoke in the House of Commons, one instance being in support of
Richard Cobden, and did not stand for election to parliament in the
1857 general election or thereafter. He retained his interest in reformist politics but was by now an old man and suffering from deafness. Heyworth died on 19 April 1872, aged 86. == Family and recognition ==