# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Henry, Robert

​HENRY, ROBERT (1718–1790), historian, son of James Henry, farmer, of Muirton, parish of St. Ninian's, Stirlingshire, and Jean Galloway, was born on 18 Feb. 1718. After attending the parish school of St. Ninian's and the grammar school of Stirling, he entered the university of Edinburgh ​with the view of studying for the church. On completing his studies he became master of the grammar school at Annan. He was licensed to preach on 27 March 1746, and in November 1748 was ordained minister of a congregation of presbyterian dissenters at Carlisle. In November 1760 he became pastor of the ‘High Meeting-house,’ Berwick-on-Tweed. He had commenced his ‘ History of England on a New Plan’ in 1763, but found residence in Berwick an almost insuperable obstacle to the proper accomplishment of such a work. His difficulties were, however, removed by his being appointed in November 1768 minister of New Grey Friars Church, Edinburgh, through the influence of Lord-provost Lawrie of Edinburgh, who had married his sister. In 1771 he received the degree of D.D. from the university of Edinburgh, and in 1774 was chosen moderator of the general assembly. He was transferred in 1776 to the collegiate charge of Old Grey Friars Church, where he remained till his death, 24 Nov. 1790. He was buried in the churchyard at Polmont, where a monument was erected.
The first volume of Henry's ‘History of England’ appeared in 1771, the second in 1774, the third in 1777, the fourth in 1781, the fifth in 1785, and the sixth, edited by Laing, posthumously in 1793. The work embraces the period from the invasion of the Romans till the death of Henry VIII, and is divided into periods, the history of which is treated under seven separate headings—civil and military history, history of religion, history of the constitution, government, and laws and courts of justice, history of learning, history of arts, history of commerce, and history of manners. An extraordinary attempt was made by Dr. Gilbert Stuart [q. v.], apparently from mere motives of jealousy, to damage the reputation of the book and stop its sale, by confessedly unscrupulous criticism. Besides penning a scandalously unfair review in the ‘Edinburgh Magazine,’ he endeavoured to secure unfavourable notices of it in as many of the London periodicals as possible (see letters in Disraeli, Calamities of Authors). The disreputable effort practically failed, Henry having before his death drawn as much as 3,300l. from the sale of the work. As a popular and comprehensive history it has much merit, but it lacks original research, while its style and method detract from its literary value. In recognition of his labours Henry, on the recommendation of the Earl of Mansfield, received from George III, on 28 May 1781, a pension of 100l. His history was translated into French in 1789–96, and passed also into several English editions. His books were bequeathed to the magistrates of Linlithgow, to form the nucleus of a public library.
[Life by Malcolm Laing, in the third edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica, reprinted in Scots Magazine, liii. 365–70, and in preface to vol. vi. of Henry's History; Disraeli's Calamities of Authors; Nichols's Lit. Anecd. viii. 329, ix. 679; Nichols's Illustrations of Literature, viii. 229–34; Chambers's Biog. Dict. of Eminent Scotsmen; Hew Scott's Fasti Eccles. Scot. i. 16, 71.]
T. F. H.