Background
John Henry was born in Dublin, Ireland about 1776 and was sent to America at about sixteen and placed under the care of an uncle, a New York merchant.
John Henry was born in Dublin, Ireland about 1776 and was sent to America at about sixteen and placed under the care of an uncle, a New York merchant.
In 1807 Henry was a student-at-law in Montreal, Lower Canada. Here he succeeded in ingratiating himself with the "fur-barons" of the North West Company by defending them against attacks in the newspapers.
During the administration of John Adams, Henry obtained a commission in the United States army as an artillery officer, which about 1802 he resigned. For five years he seems then to have lived on an "estate" in Vermont near the Canadian border.
In 1808 his friends attempted to secure for him an appointment as a puisne judge in Upper Canada; but Francis Gore, the lieutenant-governor of Upper Canada, who had met him, opposed the appointment, on the ground that Henry was "an Irish adventurer, not even called to the Bar, and a citizen of the United States".
Meanwhile, an opening for his talents occurred in another direction. He had made the acquaintance of Herman W. Ryland, the civil secretary of the province and the confidential adviser of the governor-general, Sir James Craig, and when on a visit to Vermont and Boston in the spring of 1808 he wrote a number of letters to Ryland on the political situation in the United States. These letters were shown by Ryland to Craig (as was no doubt intended), and were in turn forwarded to Castlereagh, the secretary of state in London. The result was that early in 1809 Henry was commissioned by Craig to proceed to the United States on a secret and confidential mission with the object of reporting on "the state of the public opinion both in regard to their internal politics and to the probability of war with England. " He was also authorized, if the Federalists should wish to enter into any communication with the Canadian government, to transmit any such communication to the governor-general.
Henry went to Vermont and to Boston; and in the latter place he placed himself in touch with some of the leaders of the Federalist party. He wrote a number of letters to Craig and he was recalled after a stay in the United States lasting only four months. On his return to Canada he devoted himself to trying to obtain preferment as a reward of his services.
Two years later he went to London to prosecute his claims, but his applications to the government resulted only in the reference of the matter back to Quebec; and finally, with his resources at a low ebb, he was compelled to return to America in the autumn of 1811. On board ship, he met another adventurer, the soi-disant Count de Crillon, whose true name was Soubiran, and who was really the son of a French goldsmith. Soubiran, to whom he confided his troubles, immediately urged him to sell his papers to the government of the United States and offered to act as intermediary.
On their arrival at Boston, the two proceeded to Washington, and there Soubiran succeeded in selling Henry's letters to President Madison for the very large sum of $50, 000. The letters, somewhat garbled and abbreviated, were communicated to Congress; and the uproar which they caused against the "infamous intrigues" of the British had an important influence in bringing about the declaration of war in 1812.
Before the letters were published, however, Henry was smuggled out of the country on the United States dispatch boat, the Wasp; and in due course he landed in France. He was in Paris on July 2, 1814; for Soubiran saw him there on that date, and apparently in the interval Henry had lost an eye. Six years later, in 1820, he was a paid informer sent to Italy to discover evidence against Queen Caroline of England, but after this episode he disappears from view.
Henry married Elizabeth Sophia Duché on May 23, 1799 at Christ Church in Philadelphia. She was the daughter of Reverend Jacob Duché, a prominent Episcopal priest.
Elizabeth bore him two daughters, Elizabeth Duché Henry and Sophia Blois Henry.