John Haywood was a 25-year-old seaman from Maryland who served aboard the merchant ship Scipion. During the War of 1812, he was captured and held as a prisoner of war at Dartmoor Prison in Princetown, England. Haywood died from gunshot wounds on April 6, 1815, during the Dartmoor Prison Massacre, when British guards opened fire on American prisoners awaiting repatriation to the United States. He was buried at the American Prisoner of War Cemetery in Dartmoor Forest, Devon, England.