Family and Education

1st s. of William Henshaw of Worth by his w. Agnes. educ. I. Temple 1581, called 1591. m. (1) 2 Dec. 1585, Joan, da. of Richard Wiston, chief surgeon to Queen Elizabeth, 3s. 7da.; (2) Joan, da. of Henry Sayer of Ockley, Surr., s.p.; (3) Katherine (d.1631), da. of Walter Gower of Waldershare, Kent, s.p. suc. fa. 1587.2

Offices Held

Of counsel to corporation of London by 1601.3

Biography

Henshaw’s father migrated from Cheshire to Sussex. Little is known about Henshaw himself. According to some Sussex sources, he became solicitor-general in Ireland, but no confirmation of this has been found. Why this London lawyer should have twice found a parliamentary seat at Whitchurch, where the patronage was in the hands of the ecclesiastical authorities, has not been ascertained. On 8 Nov. 1597, he moved ‘against recusants, and building of cottages adjoining cities’, in which, as a Holborn householder, he had a special interest. During his second Parliament he was appointed to a committee on the Sabbath day (6 Nov. 1601). The following day, during the reading of the bill concerning watchmen, he proposed ‘that the immediate landlords of every such night walker should be bound for the good behaviour of him to the Queen’s use’, but the House would have none of it. He also spoke on 2 Dec. concerning the double payment of debts on shop books.4

Henshaw was dead by 25 July 1631, when his widow made her will.5

Ref Volumes: 1558-1603

Author: R.C.G.

Notes

• 1. Folger V. b. 298.
• 2. J. Comber, Suss. Genealogies Horsham Centre, 168-9; Vis. Surr. (Harl. Soc. xliii), 209; Suss. Arch. Colls. xlvi, 100-8; Vis. Suss. (Harl. Soc. liii), 177-8; DNB (Henshaw, Joseph).
• 3. OR, i. 439.
• 4. Bull. IHR, xii. 11; D’Ewes, 628, 666-7.
• 5. PCC 124 St. John.