Arthur Heelis
(1837-1886)
25 June 1862

Volume 8, page 105, sitting number 10,041.

Born at Pembleton in Lancashire on 16 March 1837, Arthur Heelis was the third son of solicitor and attorney Stephen Heelis of Manchester. When his father died in 1871 he left a fortune amounting to £40,000. His memory survives in the name of the firm Slater Heelis LLP, solicitors of Salford. According to their website: 'Stephen Heelis was so admired in local society that in 1853 he was unanimously elected as Alderman for the Borough of Salford, despite not having sat for the council. Astonishingly, just two years later Heelis was again unanimously elected as Mayor of Salford by the Council. Heelis was even offered (though he declined) a knighthood. One of the founders of the Manchester Law Society, he was twice named President, in 1843 and 1867.'

On 2 April 1859 the Leigh Chronicle and Weekly District Advertiser reported that 'On Monday evening last, a number of gentlemen met at the house of Mr Thomas Smith, the George and Dragon Inn, Tyldesley, to celebrate the coming of age of Mr Arthur Heelis, son of Stephen Heelis, Esq., late Mayor of Salford, who has been undergoing a probation in the cotton spinning business, at Messrs T. Clegg and Co's. [...] The harmony of the evening was admirably maintained till a late hour.'

A notice in the Blackburn Standard on 13 February 1861 described him as a 'Yarn Agent.'

Arthur appears on the 1861 census, aged 24, living at 10 Eccles Road in Salford with his widowed father, older brothers John and Thomas, and four younger siblings. He gave 'Commission Agent' as his profession.

He is probably the same Arthur Heelis who in 1863 became a Captain in the 56th Lancashire Rifle Volunteer Corps in Manchester (Army and Navy Gazette, 26 September 1863). 

At one point he was in business as a cloth merchant with Alfred and William Heather of Manchester but the partnership was dissolved in 1870 (Daily Telegraph & Courier, 8 June 1870).

A list of the plantations of Indian and Ceylon, The Planting Directory for India and Ceylon of 1878, lists Arthur and his younger brother Edward as the proprietor and agent, respectively, of a plantation called Carlabeck at Dimbula in Ceylon [modern-day Sri Lanka].

Arthur's death was announced in the Manchester Courier and Lancashire General Advertiser on 11 December 1886: 'On the 1st December, in Lindula, Ceylon, Arthur Heelis, formerly of this city.' The church of St John's in Lindula is still ornamented with an elaborate stained glass window depicting the three kings worshipping the Christ child; it was placed there 'in loving memory of Arthur Heelis of Carlabeck who died 1st December, 1886. Also of Edward Heelis of Lanadale who died in Malta, 1st February, 1882.'