HENRY, Dr Robert, author of the "History of Great Britain, written on a new plan," was the son of James Henry farmer at Muirtown in the parish of St Ninian's, North Britain, and of Jean Galloway daughter of ——— Galloway of Burrowmeadow in Stirlingshire. He was born on the 18th of February 1718; and having early resolved to devote himself to a literary profession, was educated first under a Mr John Nicolson at the parish-school of St Ninians, and for some time at the grammar-school of Stirling. He completed his course of academical study at the university of Edinburgh, and afterwards became master of the grammar-school of Annan. He was licensed to preach on the 27th of March 1746, and was the first licentiate of the presbytery of Annan after its erection into a separate presbytery. Soon after, he received a call from a congregation of Presbyterian dissenters at Carlisle, where he was ordained in November 1748. In this station he remained 12 years, and on the 13th of August 1760 became pastor of a dissenting congregation in Berwick upon Tweed. Here he married, in 1763, Ann Balderston daughter of Thomas Balderston surgeon in Berwick; by whom he had no children, but with whom he enjoyed to the end of his life a large share of domestic happiness. He was removed from Berwick to be one of the ministers of Edinburgh in November 1768; was minister of the church of the New Grey Friars from that time till November 1776; and then became colleague-minister in the Old church, and remained in that station till his death. The degree of Doctor in Divinity was conferred on him by the university of Edinburgh in 1770; and in 1774 he was unanimously chosen moderator of the general assembly of the church of Scotland, and is the only person on record who obtained
that distinction the first time he was a member of assembly.
From these facts, which contain the outlines of Dr Henry's life, few events can be expected to suit the purpose of the biographer. Though he must have been always distinguished among his private friends, till he was translated to Edinburgh he had few opportunities of being known to the public. The composition of sermons must have occupied a chief part of his time during his residence at Carlisle, as his industry in that station is known to have rendered his labours in this department easy to him during the rest of his life. But even there he found leisure for other studies; and the knowledge of classical literature, in which he eminently excelled, soon enabled him to acquire an extent of information which qualified him for something more important than he had hitherto in his view.
Soon after his removal to Berwick, he published a scheme for raising a fund for the benefit of the widows and orphans of Protestant dissenting ministers in the north of England. This idea was probably suggested by the prosperity of the fund which had almost 30 years before been established for a provision to ministers widows, &c. in Scotland. But the situations of the clergy of Scotland were very different from the circumstances of dissenting ministers in England. Annuities and provisions were to be secured to the families of dissenters, without subjecting the individuals (as in Scotland) to a proportional annual contribution, and without such means of creating a fund as could be the subject of an act of parliament to secure the annual payments. The acuteness and activity of Dr Henry surmounted these difficulties; and, chiefly by his exertions, this useful and benevolent institution commenced about the year 1762. The management was entrusted to him for several years; and its success has exceeded the most sanguine expectations which were formed of it. The plan itself, now sufficiently known, it is unnecessary to explain minutely. But it is mentioned here, because Dr Henry was accustomed in the last years of his life to speak of this institution with peculiar affection, and to reflect on its progress and utility with that kind of satisfaction which a good man can only receive from "the labour of love and of good works."
It was probably about the year 1763 that he first conceived the idea of his History of Great Britain: a work already established in the public opinion; and which will certainly be regarded by posterity, not only as a book which has greatly enlarged the sphere of history, and gratifies our curiosity on a variety of subjects which fall not within the limits prescribed by preceding historians, but as one of the most accurate and authentic repositories of historical information which this country has produced. The plan adopted by Dr Henry, which is indisputably his own, and its peculiar advantages, are sufficiently explained in his general preface. In every period, it arranges, under separate heads or chapters, the civil and military history of Great Britain; the history of religion; the history of our constitution, government, laws, and courts of justice; the history of learning, of learned men, and of the chief seminaries of learning; the history of arts; the history of commerce, of shipping, of money or coin, and of the price of commodities; and the history
copy. of manners, virtues, vices, customs, language, dress, diet, and amusements. Under these seven heads, which extend the province of an historian greatly beyond its usual limits, every thing curious or interesting in the history of any country may be comprehended. But it certainly required more than a common share of literary courage to attempt on so large a scale a subject so intricate and extensive as the history of Britain from the invasion of Julius Cæsar. That Dr Henry neither overrated his powers nor his industry, could only have been proved by the success and reputation of his works.
But he soon found that his residence at Berwick was an insuperable obstacle in the minute researches which the execution of his plan required. His situation there excluded him from the means of consulting the original authorities; and though he attempted to find access to them by means of his literary friends, and with their assistance made some progress in his work, his information was notwithstanding so incomplete, that he found it impossible to prosecute his plan to his own satisfaction, and was at last compelled to relinquish it.
By the friendship of Gilbert Laurie, Esq. lord provost of Edinburgh, and one of his majesty's commissioners of excise in Scotland, who had married the sister of Mrs Henry, he was removed to Edinburgh in 1768; and it is to this event that the public are indebted for his prosecution of the History of Great Britain. His access to the public libraries, and the means of supplying the materials which these did not afford him, were from that time used with so much diligence and perseverance, that the first volume of his History in quarto was published in 1771, the second in 1774, the third in 1777, the fourth in 1781, and the fifth (which brings down the History to the accession of Henry VII.) in 1785. The subject of these volumes comprehends the most intricate and obscure periods of our history; and when we consider the scanty and scattered materials which Dr Henry has digested, and the accurate and minute information which he has given us under every chapter of the work, we must have a high opinion both of the learning and industry of the author, and of the vigour and activity of his mind: especially when it is added, that he employed no amanuensis, but completed the manuscript with his own hand; and that, excepting the first volume, the whole book, such as it is, was printed from the original copy. Whatever corrections were made on it, were inserted by interlineations, or in revising the proof sheets. He found it necessary, indeed, to confine himself to a first copy, from an unfortunate tremor in his hand, which made writing extremely inconvenient, which obliged him to write with his paper on a book placed on his knee instead of a table, and which unhappily increased to such a degree that in the last years of his life he was often unable to take his victuals without assistance. An attempt which he made after the publication of the fifth volume to employ an amanuensis did not succeed. Never having been accustomed to dictate his compositions, he found it impossible to acquire a new habit; and though he persevered but a few days in the attempt, it had a sensible effect on his health, which he never afterwards recovered.—An author has no right to claim indul-
gence, and is still less intitled to credit, from the public, for any thing which can be ascribed to negligence in committing his manuscripts to the press; but considering the difficulties which Dr Henry surmounted, and the accurate research and information which distinguish his history, the circumstances which have been mentioned are far from being uninteresting, and must add considerably to the opinion formed of his merit among men who are judges of what he has done. He did not profess to study the ornaments of language; but his arrangement is uniformly regular and natural, and his style simple and perspicuous. More than this he has not attempted, and this cannot be denied him. He believed that the time which might be spent in polishing or rounding a sentence, was more usefully employed in investigating and ascertaining a fact: And as a book of facts and solid information, supported by authentic documents, his history will stand a comparison with any other history of the same period.
But Dr Henry had other difficulties to surmount than those which related to the composition of his work. Not having been able to transact with the booksellers to his satisfaction, the five volumes were originally published at the risk of the author. When the first volume appeared, it was censured with an unexampled acrimony and perseverance. Magazines, reviews, and even newspapers, were filled with abusive remarks and invectives, in which both the author and the book were treated with contempt and scurrility. When an author has once submitted his works to the public, he has no right to complain of the just severity of criticism. But Dr Henry had to contend with the inveterate scorn of malignity. In compliance with the usual custom, he had permitted a sermon to be published which he had preached before the society in Scotland for propagating Christian knowledge in 1773; a composition containing plain good sense on a common subject, from which he expected no reputation. This was eagerly seized on by the adversaries of his History, and torn to pieces with a virulence and asperity which no want of merit in the sermon could justify or explain. An anonymous letter had appeared in a newspaper to vindicate the History from some of the unjust censures which had been published, and asserting from the real merit and accuracy of the book the author's title to the approbation of the public. An answer appeared in the course of the following week, charging him, in terms equally confident and indecent, with having written this letter in his own praise. The efforts of malignity seldom fail to defeat their purpose, and to recoil on those who direct them. Dr Henry had many friends, and till lately had not discovered that he had any enemies. But the author of the anonymous vindication was unknown to him, till the learned and respectable Dr Macqueen, from the indignation excited by the confident petulance of the answer, informed him that the letter had been written by him. These anecdotes are still remembered. The abuse of the History, which began in Scotland, was renewed in some of the periodical publications in South Britain; though it is justice to add (without meaning to refer to the candid observations of English critics), that in both kingdoms the asperity originated in the same quarter, and that paragraphs and criticisms written at Edinburgh were printed in London. The same
spirit appeared in Strictures published on the second and third volumes; but by this time it had in a great measure lost the attention of the public. The malevolence was sufficiently understood, and had long before become fatal to the circulation of the periodical paper from which it originally proceeded. The book, though printed for the author, had sold beyond his most sanguine expectations; and had received both praise and patronage from men of the first literary characters in the kingdom: and though, from the alarm which had been raised, the booksellers did not venture to purchase the property till after the publication of the fifth volume, the work was established in the opinion of the public, and at last rewarded the author with a high degree of celebrity, which he happily lived to enjoy.
In an article relating to Dr Henry's life, not to have mentioned the opposition which his History encountered, would have been both affectation and injustice. The facts are sufficiently remembered, and are unfortunately too recent to be more minutely explained. That they contributed at first to retard the sale of the work is undeniable, and may be told without regret now that its reputation is established. The book has raised itself to eminence as a History of Great Britain by its own merits; and the means employed to obstruct its progress have only served to embellish its success.
Dr Henry was no doubt encouraged from the first by the decided approbation of some of his literary friends, who were allowed to be the most competent judges of his subject; and in particular by one of the most eminent historians of the present age, whose history of the same periods justly possesses the highest reputation. The following character of the first and second volumes was drawn up by that gentleman, and is well intitled to be inserted in a narrative of Dr Henry's life. "Those who profess a high esteem for the first volume of Dr Henry's history, I may venture to say, are almost as numerous as those who have perused it, provided they be competent judges of a work of that nature, and are acquainted with the difficulties which attend such an undertaking. Many of those who had been so well pleased with the first were impatient to see the second volume, which advances into a field more delicate and interesting; but the Doctor hath shown the maturity of his judgment, as in all the rest, so particularly in giving no performance to the public that might appear crude or hasty, or composed before he had fully collected and digested the materials. I venture with great sincerity to recommend this volume to the perusal of every curious reader who desires to know the state of Great Britain in a period which was hitherto been regarded as very obscure, ill supplied with writers, and not possessed of a single one that deserves the appellation of a good one. It is wonderful what an instructive, and even entertaining, book the Doctor has been able to compose from such unpromising materials: Tantum series juncturaque pollet. When we see those barbarous ages delineated by so able a pen, we admire the oddness and singularity of the manners, customs, and opinions, of the times, and seem to be introduced into a new world; but we are still more surprised, as well as interested, when we reflect that those strange personages were the ancestors of the pre-
sent inhabitants of this island.—The object of an antiquary hath been commonly distinguished from that of an historian; for though the latter should enter into the province of the former, it is thought that it should only be quanto basta, that is, so far as is necessary, without comprehending all the minute disquisitions which give such supreme pleasure to the mere antiquary. Our learned author hath fully reconciled these two characters. His historical narrative is as full as those remote times seem to demand, and at the same time his inquiries of the antiquarian kind omit nothing which can be an object of doubt or curiosity. The one as well as the other is delivered with great perspicuity, and no less propriety, which are the true ornaments of this kind of writing. All superfluous embellishments are avoided; and the reader will hardly find in our language any performance that unites together so perfectly the two great points of entertainment and instruction."—The gentleman who wrote this character died before the publication of the third volume.—The progress of his work introduced Dr Henry to more extensive patronage, and in particular to the notice and esteem of the earl of Mansfield. That venerable nobleman, who is so well intitled to the gratitude and admiration of his country, thought the merit of Dr Henry's history so considerable, that, without any solicitation, after the publication of the fourth volume, he applied personally to his majesty to bestow on the author some mark of his royal favour. In consequence of this, Dr Henry was informed by a letter from Lord Stormont, the secretary of state, of his majesty's intention to confer on him an annual pension for life of 100l. "considering his distinguished talents and great literary merit, and the importance of the very useful and laborious work in which he was so successfully engaged, as titles to his royal countenance and favour." The warrant was issued on the 28th of May 1781; and his right to the pension commenced from the 5th of April preceding. This pension he enjoyed till his death, and always considered it as inferring a new obligation to persevere steadily in the prosecution of his work. From the earl of Mansfield he received many other testimonies of esteem both as a man and as an author, which he was often heard to mention with the most affectionate gratitude. The octavo edition of his history, published in 1778, was inscribed to his lordship. The quarto edition had been dedicated to the king.
The property of the work had hitherto remained with himself. But in April 1786, when an octavo edition was intended, he conveyed the property to Messrs Cadell and Strachan; reserving to himself what still remained unsold of the quarto edition, which did not then exceed eighty-one complete sets. A few copies were afterwards printed of the volumes of which the first impression was exhausted, to make up additional sets: and before the end of 1786, he sold the whole to Messrs Cadell and Strachan. By the first transaction he was to receive 100l. and by the second betwixt 300l. and 400l.: about 1400l. in all. These sums may not be absolutely exact, as they are set down from memory; but there cannot be a mistake of any consequence on the one side or the other.—Dr Henry had kept very accurate accounts of the sales from the time of the original publication; and af-
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ter his last transaction with Messrs Cadell and Strachan, he found that his real profits had amounted in whole to about 3300 pounds; a striking proof of the intrinsic merit of a work which had forced its way to the public esteem unprotected by the interest of the booksellers, and in spite of the malignant opposition with which the first volume had to struggle.
The prosecution of his history had been Dr Henry's favourite object for almost 30 years of his life. He had naturally a sound constitution, and a more equal and larger portion of animal spirits than is commonly possessed by literary men. But from the year 1785 his bodily strength was sensibly impaired. Notwithstanding this, he persisted steadily in preparing his sixth volume, which brings down the history to the accession of Edward VI. The materials of this volume were left in the hands of his executors almost completed. Scarcely any thing remained unfinished but the two short chapters on arts and manners; and even for these he had left materials and authorities so distinctly collected, that there was no great difficulty in supplying what was wanting. This sixth volume was published in the year 1793, with a life of the author prefixed; and it was found intitled to the same favourable reception from the public which had been given to the former volumes. It was written under the disadvantages of bad health and great weakness of body. The tremulous motion of his hand had increased so as to render writing much more difficult to him than it had ever been; but the vigour of his mind and his ardour were unimpaired; and independent of the general character of his works, the posthumous volume will be a lasting monument of the strength of his faculties, and of the literary industry and perseverance which ended only with his life.
Dr Henry's original plan extended from the invasion of Britain by the Romans to the present times. And men of literary curiosity must regret that he did not live to complete his design; but he has certainly finished the most difficult parts of his subject. The periods after the accession of Edward VI. afford materials more ample, better digested, and much more within the reach of common readers.
Till the summer of 1790 he was able to pursue his studies, though not without some interruptions. But at that time his health greatly declined; and, with a constitution quite worn out, he died on the 24th of November of that year, in the 73d year of his age.