Henry was born on August 31, 1822 in North Hadley, Massachussets, United States, the brother of Levi Stockbridge and the son of Abigail (Montague) and Jason Stockbridge, a farmer of considerable wealth and a man of sufficient influence to serve in the state legislature in 1835 and 1836. He was the descendant of John Stockbridge who emigrated from England about 1635 and settled in Scituate, Massachussets.
After spending his early years on the farm, the boy entered Amherst College, where he graduated in 1845. Instead of returning to his native environment, he went immediately to Baltimore and studied law in the office of Coleman Yellott.
Admitted to the bar in 1848, he soon formed a partnership with Silas Morris Cochran, which was dissolved only when the latter was elected in 1861 to the court of appeals.
In the twelve years before the Civil War, when the Murray Institute was a flourishing forum in Baltimore, he first attracted attention as a leader in its proceedings.
In 1859 he offered himself as a Reform candidate for the state legislature and led the ensuing contest for the seats of the city representatives. A certain degree of victory crowned his efforts, for in the closing days of the session the election was held a nullity. In 1862 he was appointed by Governor Augustus W. Bradford one of the commissioners of the draft, and he served as a special district attorney for the war department.
In 1864 he entered the Maryland legislature, where he became chairman of the committee on the judiciary. In this position he drafted the bill to summon the constitutional convention of that year. When that body convened, he was made chairman of its judiciary committee and thus obtained opportunity to contribute largely to the form of the constitution that abolished slavery in Maryland. He took the stump afterward to insure its adoption.
Active participation in politics lapsed then until 1879, when he accepted the post of chairman of the Republican state committee, where he continued to serve until 1883. During all these years of political activity he pursued an active private practice. In 1865 he served by appointment as judge of the Baltimore County court. In 1867 he failed to be elected to the court of appeals.
For a time he was counsel for the Freedmen's Bureau of Maryland and fought the cause of colored children in the cases arising from apprentice laws that threatened to evade the emancipation clause. What might be termed his extra-professional activities were varied and important.
He died in 1895.
For many years Henry Smith Stockbridge was first vice-president of the Maryland Historical Society and chairman of its publication committee. He was made a vice-president of the Republican National Convention in 1868. He also served as president of the West Baltimore Improvement Association. Besides, Stockbridge was a president of the West Baltimore Improvement Association.
Originally a member of the Whig party, after its dissolution he acted with those opposed to the Know-Nothing party. His earliest inclination toward the Republican party was manifested in his vote for Fremont in 1856. From the outbreak of the Civil War he proved a stanch Unionist.
On August 31, 1852, he married Fanny E. Montague of Sunderland, Massachussets, by whom he had one son, Henry Stockbridge. His nephew was Horace Edward Stockbridge.
