HENCHMAN, HUMPHREY (1669–1739), civilian, grandson of Humphrey Henchman [q. v.], born in 1669, became a Westminster scholar in 1684, was elected to Christ Church, Oxford, proceeding B.A. 1691, M.A. 1694, B.C.L. and D.C.L. 1702 (Cat. of Oxford Graduates). He was admitted advocate at Doctors' Commons 23 Oct. 1703. A portrait of him was afterwards hung in one of the courts there. He was an intimate friend of Bishop Atterbury, and stood godfather to his son. Atterbury obtained for him the chancellorship of his see of Rochester in 1714. He was made chancellor of London in 1715. He was one of the counsel for Dr. Sacheverell on his impeachment in 1710. His speeches, which are given in Howell's ‘State Trials,’ are not merely acute and able, but very judicious and to the point (xv. 240, 304, 329, 357). He was also engaged against Whiston in his prosecution for heresy before the court of delegates. He was consulted by the government on several points connected with the treaty of Utrecht, some of the articles of which are said to have been drawn by him. He ‘was also appointed commissary of Essex and Herts, and was her Majesty's advocate in the High Court of Chivalry, in which court we find him promoting a suit before Dr. Isham at the Heralds' College in 1732’ (Welch). He died at his house at Hampton, Middlesex, 15 Aug. 1739, and was buried at Fulham. His wife survived him. Henchman was one of the authors of the Oxford collection of verses written to celebrate the return of William III from Ireland in 1690.
[Welch, List of Queen's Scholars, p. 208; authorities cited there; Notes and Queries, 3rd ser. iii. 150, 256, 316, 317; Coote's Cat. of English Civilians, p. 108; Political State of Great Britain, August 1739, p. 185; London Mag. 1739, p. 412; Gent. Mag. 1739, p. 439 and some references to Henchman and his wife in Musgrave's Obituary Notices; Sloane MS. 4847, No. 10, ff. 57 and 58.]
HENDERSON, ALEXANDER (1583?–1646), Scottish presbyterian divine and diplomatist, was born about 1583 in the parish of Criech, Fifeshire. According to tradition his father was a feuar (tenant farmer), a cadet of the Hendersons of Fordel House, Fifeshire, and his birthplace between the villages of Luthrie and Branton. To the maintenance of a school at Luthrie he left two thousand marks Scots in his will. On 19 Dec. 1599 he matriculated at the college of St. Salvator, St. Andrews, and graduated M.A. in 1603. Soon afterwards he became regent in the arts faculty, and questor. He was licensed to preach in 1611 (before 4 Sept.), and between 17 Dec. 1613 and 26 Jan. 1614 was presented to the parochial charge of Leuchars, Fifeshire, by George Gladstanes [q. v.], archbishop of St. Andrews, whose patronage he had courted. His appointment was obnoxious to the strongly presbyterian parishioners. It is said that the church was barred against his induction, entrance being only effected through a window. In a very few years his views on church government fell in with the prevailing sentiment around him; the story of his being affected by a sermon of Robert Bruce (1554–1631) [q. v.] is a late tradition recorded by Robert Fleming the elder (1630–1694) [q. v.] The early date of his change may be concluded from the fact that John Spotiswood [q. v.], who succeeded Gladstanes in 1615, and was full of zeal for the episcopalian policy, showed him no favour; and that in July 1616, when the degree of D.D. was first conferred at St. Andrews, Henderson was not on the list of those to whom it was offered. In August he took the presbyterian side at the Aberdeen assembly. Two years later at the Perth assembly (August 1618) he distinguished himself by his opposition to the ‘five articles.’ The assembly proposed, without effect, to translate him to Edinburgh with William Scott. On 6 April 1619 he was reported to the synod as having administered the communion not according to the prescribed order. He pleaded that he acted according to his conscience, and disclaimed any intention of behaving with contempt. In the following August he was cited before the privy council as the supposed author of a tract called ‘Perth Assembly,’ really written by David Calderwood [q. v.]
During the next eighteen years Henderson took no prominent part in ecclesiastical affairs, but was acquiring influence in the subordinate church courts of his own locality; between 1626 and 1630 he attended, sometimes as commissioner from his presbytery, the conferences of clergy held in default of a regular convened general assembly. Petitions from these conferences for the convoking of an assembly were disregarded; and in 1630 a royal mandate pressed upon Spotiswood the adoption in Scotland of the English prayer-book and church order. Henderson's importance to the party opposed to these innovations is shown by the efforts made for his promotion to Stirling (29 Sept. 1631), and to Dumbarton (1632). In 1634 and 1635, after Charles's visit to Scotland, a service book and canons, on the English model, were drawn up; the new prayer-book being finally adjusted in December 1636. The attempt to enforce its use
