Background
Freshfield was the fourth and youngest son of James William Freshfield and his wife Mary Blacket and was born at Lothbury. His father was a lawyer who established the firm of Freshfields.
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Henry Freshfield
Edit Profilejustice lawyer solicitor author
Education
Henry Freshfield was educated at Charterhouse School from 1824 to 1829.
Career
The family moved to Abney House on Stoke Newington Church Street in the village of that name, then a few miles distnat from the City of London. He became a solicitor with the family firm in 1838. He lived at Hampstead, another suburban village beginning to be encroached upon by the growing metropolis, where he participated in a long and successful struggle to rescue Hampstead Heath from landlords and builders.
He became very prosperous.
In 1874 he acquired Kidbrooke Park, East Grinstead, an 18th-century house with 200 acres (081 km2). He took an active part in local affairs
He was Justice of the Peace for Sussex and presented the village of Forest Row with its village hall. He was High Sheriff for the County in 1885.
As at Hampstead, he was interested in the preservation of open spaces for the people, and was closely involved in the proceedings which led to Ashdown Forest being placed in the hands of conservators charged with preserving the rights of commoners and the public.
Freshfield married Jane Quinton Crawford on 1 October 1840. She was an author and her publications included "Alpine Byways" and "A Tour of the Grisons" (the Swiss Alps now known as Graubünden). Their son Douglas William Freshfield became a mountaineer and travel writer
