Major-General Sir Henry Havelock, a military leader during the Indian Mutiny, was born in Bishopwearmouth on 5 April 1795, as was Joseph Swan, famous for the invention of the incandescent light bulb, on 31 October 1828.
(Davy's invention had been preceded by that of William Reid Clanny, an Irish doctor at Bishopwearmouth, who had also read a paper to the Royal Society in May 1813. The more cumbersome Clanny safety lamp was successfully tested at Herrington Mill and he too won medals, from the Royal Society of Arts).
It was known as St Michael's Church, serving the parish of Bishopwearmouth, but was renamed on 11 January 1998 in recognition of Sunderland's city status.
He was twice married: first, on 9 June 1827, to Maria, daughter of the Rev. Edward Bromhead of Reepham near Lincoln, and, secondly, in March 1847, to Eleanor, daughter of Addison Fenwick of Bishopwearmouth in Tyne and Wear, and widow of W. Brown Clark of Belford Hall in Northumberland.