Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Heald, William Margetson
HEALD, WILLIAM MARGETSON (1767–1837), divine, born at Dewsbury Moor, Yorkshire, in 1767, was educated at Batley grammar school; attended medical lectures in Edinburgh and in London; joined the class of John Hunter during the last course of lectures given by him; commenced practice as a surgeon and apothecary at Wakefield, but soon abandoned the profession. He was admitted a sizar of Catharine Hall, Cambridge, on 2 July 1790, and became pensioner on 5 Nov. 1791 (College Admission Register). He graduated B.A. in 1794 and M.A. in 1798. After taking holy orders he was curate successively at Balsham, Cambridgeshire, where he took pupils, and about 1798 at Birstal, near Leeds. From 1801 to 1836 he was vicar of Birstal, and on his resignation (June 1836) the Archbishop of York presented the benefice to his son, William Margetson Heald. He died in January 1837 (Gent. Mag. new ser. vii. 435).
While he was studying medicine at Edinburgh, Heald published a mock heroic poem, in six cantos, called ‘The Brunoniad,’ 4to, London (cf. Critical Rev. February 1790, lxix. 161–3). It gives a humorous account of the medical contests which the eccentricities of Dr. John Brown (1735–1788) [q. v.] occasioned. At the time Heald was evidently a friend of the Brunonian system.
[R. V. Taylor's Biographia Leodiensis, pp. 366–7.]