Francis Henty (30 November 1815 – 15 January 1889), was an early settler of Australia.[1]
Francis Henty | |
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Born | 30 November 1815 Field Place, Worthing, United Kingdom |
The youngest son of Thomas Henty (1775-1839),[2] and Frances Elizabeth Henty (1777-1848), née Hopkins,[3] Francis Henty was born at Field Place, Worthing, Sussex, on 30 November 1815. He was the younger brother of James Henty (1800-1882), William Henty (1808-1881) and Edward Henty (1810-1878).
He married Mary Ann Lawrence (1821-1881), the daughter of William Effingham Lawrence, at Launceston, Tasmania, on 5 January 1842.[4][5] They had four children: one son, and three daughters.
He emigrated to Tasmania with his father in 1832. He subsequently followed his brother Edward to Portland, Victoria, landing a month later than that Edward, on 14 December 1834.[1] Having returned to Tasmania on a visit in the following year, he called in at Port Phillip (now Melbourne) in September, and assisted Mr. Batman, the founder of the city, to pitch a tent on what was afterwards known as Batman's Hill.
According to Mennell (1892), at that stage, the Henty Brothers had not gone more than twenty miles inland with their flocks.
The Henty brothers engaged in bay whaling at Portland Bay in the 1830s during the winter months.[7] The whale oil and bone (baleen) taken there from captured southern right whales by their men was shipped to Tasmania for export to Britain.
Although Francis Henry continued to maintain his establishment at Merino Downs, he resided in Melbourne for the last few years of his life; and he died at his residence in Kew, Victoria on 15 January 1889.[1][8][9][10][11][12]
There is a passing mention in an article in the Adelaide Observer in 1923 of a ship named Francis Henty which sailed to Melbourne in 1851.[13] It was caught in a typhoon in 1872.[14]
There was also a steam dredge, Francis Henty, built in Glasgow in 1889, by Wm. Simons & Co. Ltd., for the Melbourne Harbour Trust.[15]