William Henry was an American businessman and inventor, engaged into gunsmithing and gun manufacturing. He also served as treasurer of Lancaster County from 1777 to his death.
Background
William Henry was born on May 19, 1729, in West Cain Township, Pennsylvania, United States. He was the son of John and Elizabeth (De Vinne) Henry, the former having come to America with his parents from Ireland in 1722, the latter being of Huguenot descent.
Education
Henry’s early youth was spent on the farm and in the acquisition of an elementary education. When he was fifteen years old he went to Lancaster, then the largest inland town in Pennsylvania, and was apprenticed to a gunsmith, Matthew Roesser. He continued with this master for six years and because of his mechanical aptitude became an expert in this difficult craft.
Career
In 1750, at Lancaster, William Henry formed a partnership with a wealthy Jew, Joseph Simon, for the making of firearms. The unusually accurate performance of his rifles soon made his name known throughout the colonies and his business prospered to such a degree that in the course of his life it yielded him a considerable fortune. During the Indian wars which desolated the frontier from 1755 to 1760, Henry served as principal armorer of the troops then called into service. After his return to Lancaster he bought out his partner and thereafter conducted his business alone. He was an enthusiastic student of natural philosophy and maintained a well-equipped laboratory at his gun works, where he engaged continuously in research.
Henry had made some experiments with steam, when, in 1761 on a business trip to England, he met James Watt who explained his own steamengine inventions to him. Upon his return he concentrated his experimental work on the application of steam to the propelling of boats and by 1763 had completed a stern-wheel steamboat.
After 1761 and until the beginning of the Revolution he was busy in his gunshop and laboratory and enjoying a delightful home life. He was the first to recognize the genius of Benjamin West and to extend to him both moral and material help. Fulton, too, in his youth received much knowledge and inspiration from Henry and was a welcome visitor to his home and factory. He contributed an article to the first volume of Transactions (1769 - 1771), describing his invention of a so-called “sentinel register, ” an apparatus utilizing the expansive force of air when heated to open and close the flue-damper in a furnace.
Having no little aptitude for public affairs, Henry held important civil and military offices. He was made a justice of the peace when twenty-nine, and at thirty-six began a ten-year service as assistant burgess of Lancaster. He served three terms as an assistant justice of the county courts and was a member of the state canal commission in 1771. He was a delegate to the state Assembly in 1776 and later, in 1777, became a member of the Council of Safety. As treasurer of Lancaster County from 1777 to his death he rendered noteworthy service in a critical financial period. Finally, he was elected by the Assembly to the Continental Congress in 1784 and died while in office. Throughout the Revolution he was assistant commissary general and disbursing officer of the government for the district of Lancaster. In addition, he served as superintendent of arms and accoutrements and in this capacity established workshops in various parts of the state and directed the making of boots, shoes, hats, and ordnance.
Achievements
Membership
Henry was a member of the American Philosophical Society.
Connections
William Henry married Ann Wood, daughter of Abraham Wood of Darby, Pennsylvania, in January 1755.