Bishop Henson Papers

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Introduction

	Biography
	Contents
	Arrangement
	Related material - elsewhere
	Bibliography

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Catalogue
JournalsCopy Out-Letter BooksNotebooksPrinted worksSermons and AddressesOut-LettersLife EventsNewspaper cuttingsReminscences of HensonPapers of Others

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Biography

Herbert Hensley Henson was born in London on 8 November 1863, the fifth son of Thomas Henson, a businessman, and his wife Martha Fear. He was educated in Broadstairs and, after a brief spell teaching, at Oxford as a non-collegiate student from 1881. He graduated with a first in 1884 and became a fellow of All Souls College. Ordained deacon in 1887 and priest in 1888, he was appointed to the All Souls living of Barking in 1888. He was moving away from early Anglo-Catholic opinions and developed his preaching, writing, and speaking talents; he also began to be involved in ecclesiastical conflicts after being appointed chaplain of Ilford Hospital in 1895. His reputation as a "stormy petrel" grew further with his canonry of Westminster Abbey, along with the rectory of St Margaret's, from 1900 and also with his role as a proctor in Convocation (1903-1912).
In 1912 he was appointed dean of Durham. He gained great renown for his work as dean, in the university, preaching in the diocese and supporting the interests of the city. His consecration as bishop of Hereford in 1918 aroused strong opposition, many Anglo-Catholics being suspicious of his orthodoxy, but his justice and sympathy gained him great affection in his diocese. As subsequently bishop of Durham (1920-1939), he continued to hold strong views, such as opposing Socialist solutions, which won at least admiration for their conviction, and were tempered by considerable compassion. He was also greatly concerned with Durham Castle's preservation and was a much appreciated speaker in Convocation and the House of Lords. The force and clarity of his writing are best illustrated in his charges Ad Clerum (1937) and in Bishoprick Papers (1946). He also published sermons and addresses and his autobiography - Retrospect of an Unimportant Life 3 vols (1942-1950) - which was based largely on his journal. He was a witty and epigrammatic conversationalist and wrote often delightful and occasionally barbed letters. Henson resigned as bishop of Durham in 1939, had a brief spell as a canon at Westminster Abbey again, and retired to Hintlesham near Ipswich where he continued to write furiously and where he died in 1947. He had married Isabella Caroline, daughter of James Wallis Dennistoun, in 1902; she died in 1949.

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Contents

Diaries kept by Henson throughout his career from 1885 to 1947, along with copy out-letter books for most of his career and some commonplace books, sermons and printed addresses. Also quantities of his out-letters garnered particularly by his friend and colleague C.K. Pattinson, along with newspaper cuttings and some papers of Pattinson's own and some of George Nimmins's. Also quantities of reminiscences about Henson collected by Pattinson, and especially by J.S. Peart-Binns, with various notes and transcripts of Peart-Binns's used to produce his biography of Henson, published in 2013.

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Accession details

Fearne Booker, named in the will of Henson's widow as "her acting daughter" and the inheritor of both of them, gave Henson's papers to Durham Cathedral Library. The receipt of the journals, and arrangements for access, were being discussed by Chapter in 1951. Five volumes of Henson's letter books were received from Mrs Braley in 1963. Others, notably George Nimmins and Charlie Pattinson, subsequently presented the library with Henson's letters to them along with ephemera and recollections about him. J.S. Peart-Binns gave his papers on Henson in 2014.

Conditions of access

Open for consultation.

Copyright and copying

Permission to make any published use of material from the collection must be sought in advance from the Librarian and, where appropriate, from the copyright owner. The Library will assist where possible with identifying copyright owners, but responsibility for ensuring copyright clearance rests with the user of the material

Arrangement

His diaries, copy-letter books and commonplace books have long been ordered chronologically and numbered. The other material has now (2014) been sorted and added to this numerical sequence.

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Processing

Original typescript list of journals, letter and commonplace books input to XML and amplified with the rest of the listed material February 2014 by Michael Stansfield.

Accruals

Further Hensoniana might be anticipated.

Related material - elsewhere

All Souls Oxford, letters to Sir William Anson;
British Library, letters to E. H. Blakeney, Add. MS 63089;
British Library of Political and Economic Science, letters to Violet Markham;
Bodleian Library Oxford, letters to Geoffrey Dawson, letters to Sir James Marchant, correspondence with Lord Selborne;
Lambeth Palace Library, correspondence with R.T. Davidson & letters to A.L. Morrison;
PRO Northern Ireland, correspondence with Lord Londonderry;
Durham University Library SC, letters to H.C. Ferens, reference SGD 40;
Westminster Abbey, letters to J. Boden-Worsley.

Bibliography

Letters of Herbert Hensley Henson, ed Evelyn F. Braley, (1950)
More letters of Herbert Hensley Henson: a second volume, ed Evelyn F. Braley, (1954)
Owen Chadwick, Hensley Henson : a study in the friction between church and state, (Oxford, 1983)
Owen Chadwick, Hensley Henson and the Durham Miners 1920-39, (Durham, 1983)
Matthew Grimley, “Henson, Herbert Hensley (1863-1947)”, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, (Oxford, 2004) [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/33825, accessed 8 Feb 2005]
H. Hensley Henson, Retrospect of an Unimportant Life, (3 volumes, 1942-1950)

J.S. Peart-Binns,“ Life, thought and work of Herbert Hensley Henson : establishment and disestablishment in the Church of England, 1886-1935” (Leeds University MPhil thesis 2008)
J.S. Peart-Binns, Herbert Hensley Henson : a biography (Cambridge 2013)
Patricia L. Van Dyke, “Bishop Hensley Henson and the post-war social problem 1918-1926”, (Durham MA thesis 1991)

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Catalogue

Journals
Journals written up by Henson, by the 1920s on a daily basis, with some volumes missing before then. Numbered by Henson up to 56, but not thereafter.

Copy Out-Letter Books
Volumes into which Henson copied his outgoing correspondence in chronological order, some with the subject as a heading, and some volumes with indexes of correspondents.

Notebooks
Printed works
Sermons and Addresses
Out-Letters
Letters mostly written by Henson, mostly as bishop of Durham.

Life Events
Newspaper cuttings
Reminscences of Henson
Papers of Others