William Henry

William Henry (1770–1859) was an Irish missionary for the London Missionary Society.

Early life William Henry was born in Sligo, Ireland in 1770, the son of George and Sarah Henry. He trained as a carpenter and joiner and worked in the Sligo shipyards. As a young man, he joined in the persecution of itinerant Methodist preachers but in 1791 was converted and joined the Calvinistic Methodist group known as the Countess of Huntingdon's Connexion. They arranged for Henry's tuition under John Walker, Fellow of Trinity College, Dublin.

The Connexion supported the London Missionary Society, founded in 1795 by Thomas Haweis, chaplain to the Countess. The Society purchased the ship Duff and dispatched 30 missionaries to the South Seas in August 1796. All were tradesmen. There were six married missionaries with their families, among them William Henry and his wife Sarah.

Within a year of arrival, the missionaries became concerned for their safety and left with their families for Sydney where they arrived in May 1798. With James Fleet Cover, William Henry established an itinerant mission based in Parramatta and in 1798-99 preached in the north-western districts of Sydney; Henry's congregation at Kissing Point developed into the congregation of St Anne's. ) sons, James Shepherd Henry (born 1820), was a builder. Ann's brother Isaac Shepherd was apparently also its builder.

After Sarah's death in 1812, and leaving his children in Tahiti, Henry returned to Sydney in 1813 seeking a second wife. He chose Ann Shepherd, the 16-year-old daughter of his friend, James Shepherd of Kissing Point. William and Ann were married by the Reverend Samuel Marsden at Parramatta on 1 June 1813. Henry's conduct shocked some. The first of their ten children was born on the island of Mo'orea (Eimeo) in August 1814. Both of Ann's brothers visited her in Tahiti. James Shepherd joined them on the island of Mo'orea, in 1816, then joined the Church Missionary Society and became a missionary, in New Zealand. Isaac Shepherd came to Tahiti in 1818 with John Gyles, a missionary who had been sent to establish sugar cultivation and a mill on the island. They worked on the project for a year without success and Isaac returned to Sydney in late 1819. The Henry children were sent to Sydney for brief periods, the boys to serve apprenticeships and the girls to improve their "education, needlework and house keeping". Some of the children lived with other missionary families in Sydney. Five year old Josiah, their fifth child, was sent to live with his grandfather Shepherd at Kissing Point in 1827. Joseph Smith the coffee planter in 1835 married Elizabeth Henry (born 1816).

In the eyes of his colleagues in Tahiti and in Sydney, Henry's missionary achievements were overshadowed by the behaviour of the children of both his marriages. Brought up as Tahitian, speaking Tahitian as their first language, they mixed freely with native children, adopting their sexual and social habits, such as tattooing. The Henry children were regarded as social outcasts, the despair of missionary families in the islands and in Sydney where they were sent to learn European ways, accusations of drunkenness, idolatry and promiscuity filled reports to London. Several of the Henry boys turned to trade running guns, liquor, sandalwood and supplies around the islands. The exploits of Captain Samuel Pinder Henry, a son of Henry's first marriage, and Captain George Henry, eldest son of Ann's ten children, became part of the Pacific sea-farers' folklore.