1856). His ‘long white locks and his somewhat fantastic dress … were combined with great beauty and vivacity of countenance, and a rare geniality and vigour of discourse. There was a curious combination of rudeness and kindness … of severity and softness in him.’ Henry married, about 1826, Anne Jane Patton, daughter of John Patton, co. Donegal. They had two daughters who died in infancy. Katherine Olivia was the third.
As a Virgilian commentator Henry was acute, original, and profoundly laborious. Conington (Vergil, ii. p. xiii, 4th edit.), among other scholars, praises him highly, and frequently quotes his notes. Henry examined every Virgilian manuscript of any importance, and came to believe in the good preservation of the text, objecting to emendations. He printed privately at Dresden in 1853, 8vo, ‘Notes of a Twelve Years' Voyage of Discovery in the first six books of the Eneis,’ and in 1873, vol. i. (pt. i.), London, of his ‘Æneidea’ (critical, exegetical, and æsthetical remarks on the ‘Æneid,’ with a collation of all the principal editions, &c.). Vol. i. (continued), Dublin, 1877, and vol. ii. Dublin, 1878 and 1879, were published by his literary executor, Professor J. F. Davies. Henry had left his remarkable commentary complete in manuscript, and the remaining portion was issued (1889–1892) by Arthur Palmer [q. v.] and L. C. Purser, fellows of Trinity College, Dublin. Nearly all Henry's writings were privately printed. He composed much verse—some of it distinctly original—and was the author of various vigorously written pamphlets, of which the most brilliant is ‘Strictures on the Autobiography of Dr. Cheyne’ [see Cheyne, John], in which he assails the ‘fashionable physicians’ of his day. Among his other writings may be mentioned: ‘The Eneis, books i. and ii., rendered into English blank Iambic,’ 1845, 8vo; ‘Miliaria accuratius descripta’ [Dublin, 1832], 8vo; ‘Poems, chiefly philosophical, in continuation of my Book [1853] and A Half-year's Poems’ [1854], Dresden, 1856, 8vo; ‘Thalia Petasata, a foot journey from Carlsruhe to Bassano’ (verse), Dresden, 1859, 8vo; ‘Unripe Windfalls’ (prose and verse), Dublin, 1851, 8vo. (See also the list of his works in the Academy, 12 Aug. 1876, p. 163, and Brit. Mus. Cat.)
[Obituary in the Academy, 12 Aug. 1876, pp. 162, 163, by Professor J. P. Mahaffy; information kindly supplied by Dr. Henry's relative, Miss Emily Malone, from her own knowledge, and from that of friends and relations; Henry's Works; Brit. Mus. Cat.]
HENRY, MATTHEW (1662–1714), nonconformist divine and commentator, second son of Philip Henry [q. v.], was born prematurely on 18 Oct. 1662 at Broad Oak, in the chapelry of Iscoyd, Flintshire. As a child he was sickly, but somewhat precocious in learning. His first tutor was William Turner; but he owed most of his early education to his father. On 21 July 1680 he entered the academy of Thomas Doolittle [q. v.], then at Islington, and remained there till 1682. On 30 Oct. 1683, shortly after his coming of age, he entered on the estate of Bronington, Flintshire, inherited from Daniel Matthews, his maternal grandfather. On the advice of Rowland Hunt of Boreatton, Shropshire, he began to study law, and was admitted at Gray's Inn on 6 May 1685. In June 1686 he began to preach in his father's neighbourhood. Business took him to Chester in January 1687. While there he preached in private houses, and was asked to settle as a minister. He gave a conditional assent, and returned to Gray's Inn. On 9 May 1687 he was privately ordained in London by six ministers at the house of Richard Steel. Henry began his ministry at Chester on 2 June 1687. In a few years his communicants numbered 250. In September 1687 James II visited Chester, when the nonconformists presented an address of thanks ‘for the ease and liberty they then enjoyed under his protection.’ A new charter was granted to the city (the old one having been surrendered in 1684), giving power to the crown to displace and appoint magistrates. About August 1688 Henry was applied to by the king's messenger to nominate magistrates. He declined to do so. The new charter was cancelled by another, in which the names of all the prominent nonconformists were placed upon the corporation. They refused to serve, and demanded the restoration of the original charter, which was at length obtained.
A meeting-house was erected for Henry in Crook Lane (now called Crook Street). It was begun in September 1699, and opened on 8 Aug. 1700. In 1706 a gallery was erected for the accommodation of another congregation which united with Henry's. The communicants now rose to 350. In addition to his congregational work (including a weekly lecture) he held monthly services at five neighbouring villages, and regularly preached to the prisoners in the castle. He was an energetic member of the Cheshire meeting of united ministers, founded at Macclesfield in March 1691, on the basis of the London ‘happy union.’ He found time also for his labours as a commentator, which originated in his system of expository preaching. His study was a two-storeyed summer-house, still standing, to the rear of his residence in Bolland Court, White Friars,
