Reverend John Heelis
(1833-1896)
25 June 1862

Volume 8, page 105, sitting number 10,040.

John Heelis was the eldest son of solicitor and attorney Stephen Heelis, who was twice elected Mayor of Salford (1855-56, 1856-57). When Stephen died in 1871 the abstract of his will described him as 'late of Manchester and Halton Bank [in] Pendleton.' He left an estate valued at £40,000. 

Born in Manchester on 17 June 1833, John Heelis appears on the 1861 census living at 10 Eccles Road in Salford with his widowed father Stephen and his six younger siblings, aged between 26 and 15. He gave 'Agent' as his profession. In 1871, the abstract of his father's will called him a 'surveyor and valuer,' while the census of that year calls him a 'Civil Engineer Surveyor.' At the time of the 1891 census he was a 'JP, Land Agent and Surveyor.' 

On 28 January 1874 at Tickenhall (Ticknall) in Derbyshire he married Mary Anne Edwards Cox, daughter of the Reverend Richardson Cox, the Vicar of Tickenhall. Their marriage produced five daughters and one son. 

John Heelis died, aged 63, on 23 December 1896 at Broom Cottage, Eccles Old Road, Eccles near Manchester, leaving effects valued at £13,189. The abstract of his will calls him a 'land surveyor.' He was buried in Manchester Southern Cemetery.