Henstridge Family

The following information has been provided by Deryck Skinner of Adelaide, South Australia.  Deryck is a great grandson of Henry and Mary Ann Henstridge nee Sherwood.

Henry arrived in South Australia in 1850 as a baby with his father, Frederick Henstridge and his mother Maria Smith. Henry was born on 25 September 1849 in the Union Workhouse at Wilton.  He wasn't christened until 20 January 1850 at South Newton, virtually the eve of his departure to Australia.  He died on the 6 October 1908.  Henry spent all his childhood and young adulthood in and around Mt. Gambier.  At the age of 12 he was taken on as an indentured apprentice with the local newspaper, the Border Watch.    He trained as a compositor, a trade which he followed for the rest of his working life.

On the 17 September 1870 he married Mary Ann Sherwood at Mt. Gambier.  The couple then produced 9 children, Edith Mary, Oliver Clarendon, Jessie Isabel, Osborne Sherwood, Alfred Charles, Francis Leslie, Harold St. Clair, Evelyn Maria and Ivy Muriel.

Edith was born in Mt. Gambier, while Oliver was born in Warrnambool, Victoria.  I haven't as yet been able to discover what Henry was doing there, or the duration of his stay.

Jessie was born in Adelaide in 1877, as were the rest of their children, so obviously he was back in South Australia by then.

According to an obituary which was published in the Australia Typographical Journal, on 1 November 1908, he "Paid a brief visit to Melbourne" before settling in Adelaide.  Some of the information contained in the obituary does not gel with the information I have put together, so I am treating this with some caution.

The obituary is interesting in that it shows that Henry was employed by the Advertiser from the time of his coming to Adelaide, until he resigned, probably through ill health, shortly before his death.
Henry was quite active in the printing industry union movement, filling the position of President of the Typographical Society in 1888-9 and serving as a delegate at a union conference in Melbourne in the same year.  He was also a trustee of the Society's mortality fund over a period of almost 21 years. 

On his arrival in Adelaide, Henry moved his family into a house in Brown Street prior to buying a house at 255 Gilles Street on 4 July 1872.  This became the family home which he retained until his death.  He paid a total of 450 pounds which included 140 pounds to the previous owner, plus two separate mortgages of 260 pounds and 50 pounds which were still outstanding.  Henry had repaid the mortgages by late 1881, a good effort considering his circumstances.

He made his final Will only one month prior to his untimely demise, naming his eldest son Oliver, as his executor.  In this Will he bequeathed 'all his houses and land' to his wife. As yet I haven't been able to make sense of this as he seems to  only have had one house according to his probate documents.

One clause in Henry's Will was not strictly adhered to inasmuch as the Gilles Street home was to have remained unsold until Mary died.  Oliver, as the executor disposed of it twelve years after his father's death and set his mother and unmarried sisters up in another home at Fullarton estate in 1920, five years prior to his mother's death.  Three of Henry's daughters became teachers, although to date I have found records only for Jessie Isabel, who taught at Hindmarsh until she resigned in 1894.
Hotels began to play a part in Henry's life, as both  Oliver Clarendon and Jessie married into hotel lessee's families.  Jessie married Rudolf McKay Piper, during this period he was leasing the Areas Hotel at Georgetown.  They moved on to the Caltowie hotel, later the Bridgeport (in partnership) then the Mt. Barker from 1921 to 1924.

© R J Sherwood. 2001