Background

Henry Wilson was born in Farmington, New Hampshire on February 16, 1812, one of several children born to Winthrop and Abigail (Witham) Colbath.

His father named him Jeremiah Jones Colbath after a wealthy neighbor who was a childless bachelor, vainly hoping that this gesture might result in an inheritance. Winthrop Colbath was a militia veteran of the War of 1812 who worked as a day laborer and hired himself out to local farms and businesses, in addition to occasionally running a sawmill.

Education

The Colbath family was impoverished and, after a brief elementary education, at the age of 10 Wilson was indentured to a neighboring farmer, where he worked as a laborer for the next 10 years.

At Natick, Massachusetts, whither he travelled on foot, he learned the trade of shoemaker, and during his leisure hours studied much and read with avidity.

Career

He completed Sedding's Italianate Renaissance Revival Church of Our Holy Redeemer, Exmouth Market, London (1887–8), where he added the campanile, and (again with Sedding) designed the Church of St Peter, Mount Park Road, Ealing, London (1889–93), where curvaceous Gothic forms are used with power and originality.

One of his loveliest creations is the monument to Canon E. D. Tinling (d. 1897) in Gloucester Cathedral.

He also designed the sculpted frieze over the entrance to Leonard Stokes's Church of All Saints, London Colney, Herts.

The Republicans nominated Wilson for the vice-presidency in 1S72, and he was elected; but he died on the 22nd of November 1875 before completing his term of office. He published, besides many orations, a History of the Anti-Slavery Measures of the Thirty-Seventh and Thirty-Eighth United States Congresses (1865); Military Measures of the United States Congress (1868); a History of the Reconstruction Measures of the 'Thirty-Ninth and Fortieth Congresses (1868) and a History of the Rise and Fall of the Slave Power in America (3 vols. , 1872 - 1875), his most important work. The best biography is that by Elias Nason and Thomas Russell, The Life and Public Services of Henry Wilson (Boston, 1876).

Achievements

• Wilson's chief claim to fame is as an Arts-and-Crafts designer of exquisite enamel- and metal-work, jewellery, and sculpture (he was Master of the Art Workers Guild in 1917 and President of the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society (1915–22)), and had a distinguished career designing church-furnishings, including the decorations (1895–1910) for Edmund Evan Scott's (d. 1895) Sublime Church of St Bartholomew, Ann Street, Brighton, Sussex (built 1872–4), all of the finest Arts-and-Crafts quality, ample and rich.
  
  From 1851 to 1852 he was the Senate's President.

Works

More photos

• book

  • History of the Anti-Slavery Measures of the 37th and 38th United-States Congresses

    (High Quality FACSIMILE REPRODUCTION: Wilson, Henry, 1812-...)

  • History of the antislavery measures of the Thirty-seventh and Thirty-eighth United-States Congresses, 1861-64

    (FACSIMILE REPRODUCTION: 1864History of the antislavery me...)

  • Kansas affairs. Speech of Hon. Henry Wilson, of Massachusetts, delivered in the Senate of the United States, July 9, 1856

    (This reproduction was printed from a digital file created...)

  • The position of John Bell and his supporters

    (This reproduction was printed from a digital file created...)

  • Stand by the Republican colors! Speech

    (This reproduction was printed from a digital file created...)

  • Speech of Hon. Henry Wilson, of Massachusetts

    (This reproduction was printed from a digital file created...)

  • History of the Rise and Fall of the Slave Power in America; Volume 3

    ( This work has been selected by scholars as being cultur...)

  • Celebration by the Colored people's educational monument association in memory of Abraham Lincoln: on the Fourth of July, 1865, in the presidential grounds, Washington, D.C

    (This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. T...)

  • History of the antislavery measures of the Thirty-seventh and Thirty-eighth United-States Congresses, 1861-64

    (This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. T...)

Politics

In 1848 he left the Whig party and became one of the chief leaders of the Free Soil party, serving as presiding officer of that party's national convention in 1852, acting as chairman of the Free Soil national committee and editing from 1848 to 1851 the Boston Republican, which he made the chief Free Soil organ.

For a short time (1855) heidentifiedhimself with the American or Know Nothing party, and afterwards acted with the Republican party.

Having left the Whig Party, Wilson worked to build coalitions with others opposed to slavery, including Free Soilers, anti-slavery Democrats, Barnburners from New York's Democratic Party, the Liberty Party, the anti-slavery elements of the Whig Party, and anti-slavery members of the Know Nothing or Native American Party.

Membership

After the war he became an early member of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States.

Wilson was a member of the Massachusetts State Senate from 1844 to 1846 and 1850 to 1852.

Connections

On October 28, 1840 Wilson married Harriet Malvina Howe (1824–1870). They were the parents of a son, Henry Hamilton Wilson (1846–1866), who attended the Highland Military Academy in Worcester, Massachusetts.

Wife:

Harriet Malvina Howe

Son:

Henry Hamilton Wilson

colleague:

Gerrit Smith

References

• Eulogy on Henry Wilson: Vice-President of the United States Who Was Born in Farmington N H Feb 16 1812, Died in the Capitol at Washington Nov 22 and ... in Natick Mass Dec 1 1875 (Classic Reprint)
• Henry Wilson and the Coming of the Civil War
• Cobbler in Congress: The Life of Henry Wilson, 1812-1875