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HENRYS OF VIRGINIA, The.
About 1730 there came to Virginia John Henry, son of Alexander Henry and
Jean Robertson, of Aberdeen, Scotland. John Henry was a friend of Robert
Dinwiddie, who became governor of Virginia in 1752. On reaching Virginia,
John Henry settled in Hanover county and resided for a time in the family
of Col. John Syme of that county. To the same Henry family belonged David
Henry, who was a journeyman printer in the same office with Benjamin
Franklin in London, and was afterwards an associate editor of the
Gentleman's Magazine. John Henry's mother was a sister of William
Robertson, the well-known historian and divine. Soon after John Henry's
arrival in the colony, Colonel Syme died, and a few years later his widow
Sarah (nee Winston), daughter of Isaac Winston of Hanover, was wed to him.
From this union were born nine children, two sons and seven daughters. The
oldest son was William, and the second son was Patrick, named after Rev.
Patrick Henry, a brother of John Henry, who, coming to Virginia from
Scotland, had become rector of St. George's parish in Spotsylvania county
in 1733, but moved to Hanover in 1736. Of William Henry there are no
descendants, but of Patrick Henry there are many. By his first wife, Sarah
Skelton, Patrick had six children; and by his second wife, Dorothea
Dandridge, he had ten children. From these are some descendants by the
name of Henry, but most of those who claim Patrick Henry as an ancestor
are descended from one of the six daughters of Patrick Henry, or from one
of his granddaughters. Generally speaking, the sons of Patrick Henry had
female issue rather than male. Among the prominent families of Virginia
who have intermarried with the descendants of John Henry are the Fontaines,
Dan-dridges, Boltons, Ayletts, Roanes, Cabells, Wallers, Deencans,
Fitzhughs, Christians, Curtises, Gren-shaws, Catletts, Millers, Campbells,
Carringtons, Bealles, Harrisons, Sardwells, Rossers, Dabneys, Marshalls,
Armisteads, Mendiths, Whiteheads, Madisons, Breckinridges, Prestons,
Woods, Johnstons, Egglestons, Spencers and many others.
HENRY, Patrick, statesman
and orator: b. Hanover county, Va., May 29, 1736; d. Red Hill, Charlotte
county, Va., June 6, 1799. He was the second son of John Henry, of Hanover
county, Va., and became the well-known orator of the Revolutionary period.
His early life was spent in Hanover county, about twenty-two miles from
Richmond. At a common English school, and under the tuition of his father,
he learned English, Latin and some Greek and mathematics. He was fond of
reading and of the classics; it was his custom to read through Livy once a
year. The customary statement that Patrick Henry was "illiterate" is
incorrect, as his education was the equal of that given at the best
academies in the days immediately preceding and following the Revolution.
At the age of twelve Patrick fell under the influence of Samuel Davis, the
eminent Presbyterian preacher, who preached at Fork church, of which
Patrick's mother was a member. Patrick took Mr. Davies as an example of
eloquence, and also admired his boldness of speech. At fifteen he began
life in a country store, and at nineteen he married Sarah Skelton. He then
undertook to farm and conduct a small store of his own, but in neither was
he very successful. In 1760 he closed out his mercantile business.
About 1760 Mr. Henry
determined to study law. He borrowed Coke Upon Littleton and a Digest of
the Virginia Acts. After a careful study of them for six weeks, he applied
for a lawyer's license. It has been said that the examiners hesitated
about granting his request, but did so because Mr. Henry argued so well on
the natural rights of man. Mr. Henry's success as a lawyer was phenomenal,
and in three years he had probably been counsel in more than one thousand
suits in Hanover and adjoining counties. It seems certain that but for his
previous success he would not have been employed in the "Parsons' Cause."
In this case Mr. Henry represented the people in defending the suit of the
clergy for recovery of salary withheld under an act of the general
assembly of Virginia, said act having been declared void by the King of
England. In other words, it was a case of the will of the people of
Virginia against royal authority. The "parsons" had the law on their side,
but Henry had the sentiment of the people with him. In December, 1763, the
question of damages to be paid the "parsons" was argued before a jury in
the county court of Hanover. Mr. Maury, who had previously had the case
for the people, having retired, it devolved upon Henry to make the
argument when the case was called. There is no doubt that Henry had
studied it with care, and to him the main question was the right of the
people to manage their own affairs without interference from England.
Along this line he made an impassioned appeal, and to some his remarks
concerning the English government seemed treasonable, but the jury agreed
with him and brought in a verdict of only one penny damages for the
plaintiff. The fame of this case went through Virginia and the neighboring
colonies, and Mr. Henry's reputation lawyer and orator was made. His
practice increased greatly, and within the next year he booked 555 fees.
In nearly every important case in Virginia, from this time till his death,
Mr. Henry was employed, as he was considered the most eloquent advocate in
the commonwealth. He usually took the side of right, and in the case of
one Baptist preacher imprisoned for violating the law as to religious
assemblies, he not only defended him without charge, but paid his jail
fees.
In the spring of 1765 a
vacancy occurred in the house of burgesses from Louisa county. Though not
a resident of the county, Mr. Henry was elected to the vacancy. Having
practised regularly in the Louisa courts, he was well known to his
constituency. At the time the stamp act was under consideration by the
house of burgesses, it was composed of the most distinguished men in the
colony, among them: John Robinson, Peyton Randolph, Edmund Pendleton,
George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, George Washington and Richard Bland. The
burgesses, however, were not inclined to take any action, whereupon Mr.
Henry introduced his famous stamp act resolutions, the fifth of which
said: "That the general assembly of this colony have the only and sole
exclusive rights to levy taxes and impositions upon the inhabitants of
this colony." In advocating his resolutions, Henry made an impassioned
speech, of which Mr. Jefferson said: "He appeared to me to speak 'as Homer
wrote' "; and they were adopted by a bare majority. By this Henry became
leader of the revolutionary movement in Virginia. The effect of the
passage of these resolutions was the defiance of British government in
Virginia by the citizens generally. In 1766 the English parliament
repealed the stamp act, but by its assertion of the right to tax the
colonists, the breach grew wider. Mr. Henry's claim was that taxation by
the British parliament was unconstitutional, and his contention became the
basis of resistance to the English government. Henry was a member of the
new house of burgesses elected in 1769, representing Hanover county.
On May 16, 1769, the
burgesses passed resolutions reaffirming the position taken by Patrick
Henry in 1765, that all taxes in Virginia should be laid by the assembly
only. An address to this effect was sent to England, and Mr. Henry was one
of the committee that drew up the paper.
In 1773 the Virginia
assembly appointed a standing committee of correspondence and inquiry
regarding the acts of Great Britain and of the other colonies. Peyton
Randolph was chairman, and Henry a member. The other colonies were
requested to do likewise, and thus was inaugurated a plan of cooperation
among the colonies. In May, 1774, the Virginia assembly, with Mr. Henry
leading, resisted the tyranny of Lord Dunmore, who immediately dissolved
the assembly. Thereupon, on August the first, a Virginia convention met on
the call of the people. By this convention Mr. Henry was elected as one of
Virginia's delegates to the first continental congress at Philadelphia. At
this congress, Mr. Henry remarked, "I am not a Virginian, but an
American," and advocated the establishment of a government free from
England. Thus Mr. Henry was stamped as a revolutionary leader. "While
affairs were going from bad to worse in the other colonies, Lord Dunmore
was getting into deeper trouble in Virginia. A new assembly containing the
same members as the old was prorogued, whereupon the Virginians assembled
in a second Virginia convention at St. John's church, Richmond, in March,
1775. It was here that Mr. Henry made himself famous the world over by his
speech advocating the arming of the colony for defense. The measure was
passed, and Henry was made chairman of the committee to carry out its
provisions. Hardly had forces been collected before Henry had to use them
against Dunmore, who had seized, at Williamsburg, the gunpowder belonging
to the colony. On the approach of Henry towards Williamsburg at the head
of Virginia troops, Dunmore agreed to pay for the powder and fled from
Williamsburg.
In July, 1775, the third
Virginia convention assembled at Richmond, and Patrick Henry was elected
commander-in-chief of the Virginia troops, for Dunmore had determined to
make war on the people. Under Henry's wise direction, Dunmore was driven
from the state. While the struggle was being waged with the royal
governor, a convention met at Williamsburg in May, 1776. A constitution
was drawn up, and on June 29 Henry was elected governor of the new and
independent commonwealth of Virginia For three successive terms (1776-79)
Henry was Virginia's chief executive. During this period he had approved
of the Clark scheme of conquering the Northwest, and thus a great
territory was saved to the United States. On retiring from the
governorship in 1779, he moved to Henry county, from which county he was
returned to the legislature, of which body he was a member at the time of
the invasion of the state by Cornwallis. He was responsible for the
securing by legislature of the proper supplies for General Lafayette for
conducting his campaign against Cornwallis. In 1784 Mr. Henry was again
elected governor without opposition and served for two terms. On the
calling of the Federal convention at Philadelphia in 1787, Henry declined
to go as a member. When the constitution of the United States was
submitted to Virginia for ratification in 1788, he became a member of the
Virginia convention and violently opposed the adoption of the constitution
on the grounds that it violated the rights of the states, or was not
explicit, and would eventually produce trouble in our country. He was the
prophet of the Revolution, and in a sense he was also the prophet of the
War of Secession. When he saw that he could not defeat Mr. Madison, the
great advocate of the constitution, he used his influence for ratification
with amendments, so that to Henry, more than any other man, we owe the
first ten amendments to the United States constitution.
Mr. Henry retired to the
practice of law, declining a seat in the United States senate, and later
refusing the secretaryship of state offered by Washington, and even
rejecting so honorable a position as chief justice of the United States.
However, when in 1798 Virginia and Kentucky adopted resolutions condemning
Congress for passing the alien and sedition laws, Mr. Henry, who
disapproved of them, stood for election to the Virginia assembly from
Charlotte county (where he then resided) and was returned. He never lived
to take his seat. "As long as our rivers flow or mountains stand, so long
will your excellence and worth be the theme of homage and endearment" were
the words of the Virginia Gazette in making the announcement of the death
of the great Henry.
HENRY, William Wiet: b. Eed
Hill, Charlotte county, Va., Feb. 14,1831, the last home of his
grandfather, Patrick Henry; d. Dec. 5, 1900. His father was John Henry,
youngest son of Patrick Henry. William Wirt Henry, having graduated from
the University of Virginia in 1850 as master of arts, studied law, and
three years later began its practice in Charlotte county. He served in the
Confederate army. In 1873 he came to Richmond and was soon one of the
leaders at the bar. Though a lawyer of merit, he is remembered more on
account of his scholarly and historical works. His Life and Letters of
Patrick Henry is his most important work, being a book of deep research.
For many years he was president of the Virginia Historical Society and was
for a term president of the American Historical Association. His address
before the latter body on the Establishment of Religious Liberty in the
United States is consulted by all students of this question. Besides being
president of numerous other bodies, he was at one time president of the
Virginia Bar Association and vice-president of the American Bar
Association. On account of his scholarly attainments, he was honored with
the LL.D. from both Washington and Lee University and William and Mary
College. In 1854 Mr. Henry married Lucy Gray, daughter of Col. James P.
Marshall, of Charlotte county. Of him it has been said: "Mr. Henry was a
model of what we still love to call the old Virginia gentleman." |
