Philip Henry

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Not to be confused with Phil Hendrie.
For the English folk musician, see
Phillip Henry & Hannah Martin
.

Philip Henry
Born24 August 1631
Died24 June 1696(1696-06-24) (aged 64)
EducationWestminster School
SpouseKathrine Mathews (26 April 1660-1696)
Children6
Parent(s)John Henry, Magdalen Rochdale

Philip Henry (24 August 1631 – 24 June 1696)[1] was an English Nonconformist clergyman and diarist. His son Matthew Henry was a notable commentator on the Bible and also a Presbyterian minister.

Early life

Philip Henry was born at

Whitehall Palace. His father's work as a courtier provided a stable income for the family. His mother was Magdalen Rochdale.[2][3]

As a child he was playmate to the princes Charles II and James II, and kept to his dying day a book given him by the latter. Archbishop William Laud took notice of him for his readiness in opening the watergate when Laud came late from the council to cross by boat to Lambeth. His father took Philip Henry to see Laud while the latter was later imprisoned in the Tower of London.[citation needed]

He first attended

Stephen Marshal at St. Martin's.[4][3]

In May 1647 Henry was elected to a studentship at Christ Church, Oxford, and went into residence on 15 December. He was admitted student on 24 March 1648, just before the parliamentary visitation, which removed Underwood, his tutor, substituting William Finmore (afterwards archdeacon of Chester). He graduated B.A. in 1650/1 and M.A. on 10 December 1652.[3]

While at home on leave in January 1649 he saw

his trial, once speaking to his father. Of Charles's execution he gave an eye-witness account, including "[I] can truly say with a sad heart...there was such a Grone by the Thousands then present, as I never heard before & desire I may never hear again."[5]
His father's death left the family in financial difficulties.

Family

He married Katharine Mathews (25 March 1629 – 25 May 1707) on 26 April 1660, at Whitewell Chapel. Katharine was the only child of Daniel Matthews of Bronington and Broad Oak, Flintshire. The couple had six children: John Henry (3 May 1661 – 12 April 1667), Matthew Henry, Sarah Henry, Katharine, Eleanor, and Ann Henry (1667).[6] The eldest daughter, Sarah, wife of John Savage, kept a diary which was later published.

Preacher

Henry preached his first sermon at South Hinksey, Oxfordshire, on 9 January 1653. On the introduction of Francis Palmer, afterwards

Worthenbury Chapel, in the parish of Bangor-on-Dee, same county. In 1654 he was with his pupils at Oxford; from 1655 he was constantly at Worthenbury, where Judge Puleston built him "a very handsome house, and settled it upon him by a lease... for threescore years, if he should so long continue minister at Worthenbury."[3]

The rector of Bangor had been Henry Bridgeman, but the living had been sequestered in 1646. Robert Fogg, the parliamentary incumbent, initially objected to Henry's ordination as minister of Worthenbury, but afterwards withdrew it on Henry's saying he desired Fogg's consent. Accordingly, having undergone an examination by the fourth

classis (constituted by parliament, April 1647), he was ordained with five others at Prees, Shropshire, on 16 September 1657. He made a strongly Calvinistic confession, but said nothing about church government.[3] His ideal was a modified episcopacy on James Ussher
's system. In 1658 a commission of ecclesiastical promotions took Worthenbury Chapel out of Bangor parish, making it with Worthenbury Church (a donative) a new parish, of which Henry was incumbent.

He declined the vicarage of

Sir George Booth in August 1659, and welcomed the restoration of Charles II in 1660.[3]

After the Restoration

At the

Restoration, which Henry, then newly married, welcomed, Bridgeman resumed the rectory of Bangor, and Henry's position was simply that of his curate at Worthenbury Chapel. In September 1660 he was presented at Flint assizes with Fogg and Richard Steel for not reading the common prayer, and again at the spring assizes, without effect. He had taken the oath of allegiance, but refusing reordination he was incapable of preferment. On 24 October 1661 Bridgeman, having failed to arrange matters, came to Worthenbury and read Henry's discharge before a crowd. Henry showed some feeling, but was allowed to preach farewell sermons on 27 October. The Act of Uniformity 1662, which took effect on 24 August 1662, silenced him. He surrendered his house and annuity for £100, to avoid litigation, and left Worthenbury for Broad Oak, Flintshire, a property settled upon his wife.[3]

He consulted

Iscoyd. The Five Mile Act 1665 placed him in a difficulty, Broad Oak being four reputed miles from Worthenbury; on actual measurement it was found to be sixty yards over the five miles. However, he removed for a season to Whitchurch, Shropshire. All this time he was a regular attendant at parish churches, his habit being to stand throughout the service; he forbore communicating simply on the ground of the kneeling posture.[3]

In February 1668 he preached by request in the parish church of

Henry Dodwell the elder.[3]

Last years

At the time of

Monmouth's rebellion he was confined in Chester Castle for three weeks (July 1685) under a general order from the lord-lieutenant. He joined in a cautiously worded address (September 1687) to James II. In May 1688 he was placed on the commission of the peace for Flintshire, but declined to qualify. At the revolution he had great hopes of 'comprehension.' The terms of the Toleration Act he accepted with some reservations. He ministered at Broad Oak in an outbuilding near his house.[3]

His last years were spent in pastoral work. He died at Broad Oak of a sudden attack of colic and stone, on 24 June 1696, aged sixty-four, and was buried on 27 June in Whitchurch Church. Funeral sermons were preached at Broad Oak by Francis Tallents of Shrewsbury, James Owen of Oswestry, and Matthew Henry.[3] A marble tablet was erected to his memory in St. Alkmund's, Whitchurch, bearing a Latin inscription by John Tylston, M.D., his son-in-law. In 1712, when the church was rebuilt, his body was removed to the churchyard, and the monument to the porch. In 1844 a tablet bearing an English version of the epitaph was placed in the north aisle of the church, the original monument being transferred to Whitewell Chapel, near Broad Oak. In 1996 there was a commemoration of his life and ministry at St. Alkmund's to mark the tercentenary of his death.

Works

See also

References

  1. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/12976. Retrieved 20 May 2019. (Subscription or UK public library membership
    required.)
  2. ^ Henry, Matthew (1839). Williams, John Bickerton (ed.). The Life of the Rev. Philip Henry, A.M. W. Ball.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Gordon, Alexander, "Henry Philip", Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, vol. 26, retrieved 20 May 2019
  4. ^ a b c Henry, Matthew (1839). The Life of the Rev. Philip Henry, A.M. W. Ball. pp. 10–12.
  5. ^ Henry, Philip (1882). Diaries and letters of Philip Henry, M.A. of Broad Oak, Flintshire, A.D. 1631-1696. Cornell University Library. London : K. Paul, Trench. pp. 12.
  6. ^ The descendants of Philip Henry, M.A. : incumbent of Worthenbury in the county of Flint, who was ejected therefrom by the Act of Uniformity in 1662. London : Simpkin, Marshall, and Co. 1844. p. 40. Retrieved 23 June 2018.

Further reading

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: "Henry, Philip". Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.

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