Robert Heywood (1633-1690), Governor of the Isle of Man from 1678.

The family came to the Island by marriage. His father, Peter Heywood of Heywood, married before 1640 Alice, daughter of John Greenhalgh of Brandlesome, who was himself Governor of the Isle of Man, and Robert was their son and heir. His own son Peter, born on 10 June 1662, became Attorney-General of the Island and married Leonora, only daughter and heiress of Hugh Cannell, Water-Bailiff, son of John Cannell one of the Deemsters. The Heywoods were at the Nunnery for generations afterwards.

He is chiefly remembered for reviving the racing. The races at Langness had been set up by the seventh Earl of Derby in 1628 and had lapsed after 1651. The entries for the plate survive for 1687, and the Governor himself is at the head of them: Robert Heywood, Esquire, Governor of this Isle, entered a bay gelding called Loggerhead and put down five shillings towards augmenting the plate for the following year. Captain Thomas Hudlston entered a white gelding called Snowball. The articles for the race, dated 14 July 1687, provided among other things that the distance pole might be ridden on either hand at the discretion of the rider.

The standard legal handbook of the Island is dedicated to him. Deemster John Parr addressed his Abstract of the Laws, Customs and Ordinances to the Right Worshipful Robert Heywood, Esquire, Governor of the Isle of Mann, disclaiming any attempt at a succinct module of the whole laws and constitutions of the Isle and offering only a tithe of them, an abridgment or compendium of such laws and Acts as are of use. Parr was not made Deemster until 1693, and Heywood died in 1690, which places the writing of that book in his governorship. It was never printed in his lifetime, and has always been held a work of authority.