HENDERSON, Anthony (1763-1810), of 8 Fig Tree Court, Temple and Stafford Row, Pimlico, Mdx.

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1790-1820, ed. R. Thorne, 1986
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency

Dates

29 Mar. 1803 - 7 Dec. 1810

Family and Education

b. 23 Apr. 1763, 3rd s. of Samuel Henderson, linen draper, of St. James’s, Bristol, Glos. educ. St. John’s, Oxf. 1780, fellow: I. Temple 1788, called Feb. 1794; M. Temple Nov. 1794. m. 22 Jan. 1788, Sophia, da. of John Bull of Bristol, 1s. d.v.p. 1da.

Offices Held

Biography

Henderson took up the legal profession on marrying and practised as a special pleader. He came in for Brackley in March 1803 when the death of the 3rd Duke of Bridgewater, for whom he had done business, transferred the latter’s cousin to the Lords and the borough to the Marquess of Stafford’s patronage. Although there was a plan to find him a seat elsewhere in November 1807, to oblige the marquess’s heir, nothing came of it and he retained the seat until his death.1

In Parliament, Henderson voted for Pitt’s question for the orders of the day, 3 June 1803, and for his motion for inquiry into naval strength, 15 Mar. 1804, against Addington’s administration. He was listed a follower of Pitt that month. In the following month he three times (16, 23, 25 Apr.) voted against the ministry on defence. His only certain speeches were against the Nottingham election bill, 29 Apr. 1803, against Sheridan’s view of the Liskeard election, 5 Apr. 1804, and on the legal aspect of two commercial measures in 1803, one affecting the port of his native Bristol.2 He further supported Pitt on his return to power and voted against the censure of Melville, 8 Apr. 1805.

There is no evidence of his attitude towards the Grenville ministry, but it was apparently friendly: taking leaves of absence for illness in March and April 1807, he was reported to have paired on Brand’s motion, 9 Apr. But he did not go into opposition: on the contrary, his next known votes were with government on the Scheldt inquiry, 23 Feb. 1810 and (by pair) 30 Mar.; further, against the release of the radical Gale Jones, 16 Apr. The Whigs had listed him a government man at that time. Subsequently he was at Brighton, in vain attempting to restore his health. He died on his way back to town, 7 Dec. 1810. By his will, dated 7 Jan. 1807, he left all his books to his son Anthony (who died in November 1807); his grand pianoforte, music and music books to his daughter Mary Anne, and his estate in Gloucestershire between them.3 His daughter married on 12 Oct. 1815 Sir Frederick Gustavus Fowke, Bt.

Ref Volumes: 1790-1820

Author: R. G. Thorne

Notes

  • 1. I. Temple Recs. v. 504, 579; HMC Fortescue, ix. 150.
  • 2. J. Wilson, Biog. Index (1806), 279.
  • 3. Gent. Mag. (1810), ii. 597; PCC 232 Crickitt; Bristol Jnl. 7 Nov. 1807.