Samuel Henshall

Samuel Henshall (1764 or 1765 – 17 November 1807) was an English clergyman and writer, and inventor of a type of corkscrew.

Life Henshall was born in 1764 or 1765, son of George Henshall, a grocer of Sandbach, Cheshire, and was educated at Manchester Grammar School. He went on to Brasenose College, Oxford, matriculating in October 1782, and subsequently became one of Hulme's exhibitioners. His tutor was Thomas Braithweite, an old Manchester schoolboy, whom he mentions gratefully in his "Etymological Organic Reasoner", p. 8. He graduated B.A. in June 1786, M.A. in May 1789, and after taking holy orders was elected a fellow of the college.

In December 1792, being then curate of Christ Church, Spitalfields, he was an unsuccessful candidate for the lectureship of St Peter the Poor, and preached a probationary sermon, afterwards published. In November 1800 he stood, again without success, for the Anglo-Saxon professorship at Oxford against Thomas Hardcastle (The Gentleman's Magazine, volume 70 part 2 p. 1097). In 1801 he was appointed a public examiner in the university. It is known as the Henshall Button Corkscrew, and was manufactured by Matthew Boulton. On 24 August 2009, a commemorative plaque for Henshall's burial place, mentioning his invention, was presented to the Reverend Michael Peet at Bow Church.