Background
Henry Trigg was born on 30 June 1791 in Gloucester, the son of Henry and Mary Trigg.
Henry Trigg was born on 30 June 1791 in Gloucester, the son of Henry and Mary Trigg.
Trigg was a carpenter and a businessman but due to the economic depression in England following the Battle of Waterloo he felt that his family would have a better chance in the colonies and decided to emigrate to the Swan River Colony, leaving his family until he was set up and could afford their passage. At the age of 38, he emigrated to Western Australia, arriving on the Lotus in October 1829. His personal wealth (₤200) allowed him to take up a land grant of 1,208ha in the colony.
Trigg"s grant encompasses what is now the suburb of Churchlands.
They had a further two children, Stephen (b 1832) and Susannah (b 1833), with a third child, a son who was still born in 1837. In 1838 he was appointed the Clerk of Public Works, following which in December 1839 he has made the Superintendent of Public Works, following the retirement of Henry Willey Reveley, a position in which he remained until his resignation in April 1851 to become a full-time Minister.
He later joined the Wesleyans, but from 1843 he held prayer meetings in the Congregational tradition in his own home. In 1846, a chapel was constructed in William Street, where for six years, Trigg conducted all the services until, 1852, when the London Missionary Society sent out the Reverend James Leonard to be the first ordained Congregational minister.
Trigg Beach and the surrounding suburb of Trigg, north of Perth, was named after him.