Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 26.djvu/140

 8vo, two parts; 2nd edit. ‘inlarged,’ same year 12mo, 3rd 1632, 4th 1635, 5th 1640, 7th 1661; new edition by William Turnbull, 1839. 2. ‘Meditations Miscellaneous, Holy, and Humane,’ London, 1637, 12mo; 2nd edit. 1639; 3rd edit., as ‘Dayly Thoughts, or a Miscellany of Meditations,’ &c., London, 1651. Republished as ‘A New Year's Gift, Meditations, &c.,’ London, 1704, 12mo, with a third part by Richard Kidder [q. v.], bishop of Bath and Wells. This edition was reprinted with the original title in 1841 at Oxford.

 HENSHAW, NATHANIEL, M.D. (d. 1673), physician, younger son of Benjamin Henshaw, ‘one of the captains of the city of London,’ who died 4 Dec. 1631, by his wife Anne, daughter of William Bonham, citizen of London, was entered on the physic line at Leyden on 4 Nov. 1653 (Leyden Students, Index Soc., p. 48), proceeded M.D. there, and was admitted to the same degree at Dublin in the summer term 1664 (Cat. of Graduates in Univ. of Dublin, 1591–1868, p. 267). On 20 May 1663 he was elected F.R.S. (, Hist. of Roy. Soc. Append. iv.). He practised in Dublin, but died in London in September 1673, and was buried on the 13th of that month in Kensington Church (parish register). His will, dated 6 Aug. 1673, was proved at London on the following 11 Sept. by his sister, Anne Grevys (registered in P. C. C. 113, Pye). He is author of a curious little treatise entitled ‘Aero-Chalinos: or a Register for the Air; in five Chapters. 1. Of Fermentation. 2. Of Chylification. 3. Of Respiration. 4. Of Sanguification. 5. That often changing the Air is a friend to health. Also a discovery of a new method of doing it, without removing from one place to another, by means of a Domicil, or Air-Chamber, fitted to that purpose. For the better preservation of Health, and cure of Diseases, after a new Method,’ 8vo, Dublin, 1664. The second edition (12mo, London, 1677) was printed by order of the Royal Society, at a meeting held on 1 March 1676–1677, having been prepared for the press by the author's elder brother, Thomas Henshaw [q. v.] (, Athenæ Oxon. ed. Bliss, iv. 446). It was reviewed in the ‘Philosophical Transactions’ (xii. 834–5) by Henry Oldenburg.

 HENSHAW, THOMAS (1618–1700), scientific writer, son of Benjamin Henshaw, and brother of Nathaniel Henshaw [q. v.], was born in Milk Street, city of London, on 15 June 1618. After attending school at Barnet and then in Cripplegate, London, he was entered as commoner at University College, Oxford, in 1634, and remained there five years without taking a degree. He entered the Middle Temple, and on the commencement of the civil war joined Charles I at York. Soon afterwards he ‘went to London to recruit himself,’ and being taken prisoner by the parliamentarians, was allowed to pass out of the country on his giving good security not to join the king's army again. Henshaw sailed to Holland, and afterwards entered the French army, in which he became major. He subsequently travelled through Spain. Passing thence to Italy, he lived in succession at Rome, Padua, and Venice, till a ‘ little before the murther of King Charles I,’ when he got leave to return to England. In 1654 was printed at Spa a ‘Vindication of Thomas Henshaw, sometime Major in the French King's service, in justification of himself against the Aspersions throwne upon him.’ In this he repudiates any share in the plots on behalf of Charles II, but calls Cromwell ‘the greatest murtherer.’

On his return to England Henshaw was called to the bar, but discontinued the practice of the common law on account of ‘the sowre complexion of the times.’ After the Restoration Henshaw was appointed the king's under-secretary of the French tongue and gentleman of the privy council in ordinary. He was chosen one of the fellows of the Royal Society at its first constitution in 1663. Henshaw continued as French secretary under James II and William III (see inscription on his tombstone at Kensington). In 1672 Henshaw attended the Duke of Richmond, ambassador extraordinary to the court of Denmark, as secretary of the embassy and assistant to the duke. The latter died on 12 Dec. of the same year, and Henshaw was commanded to remain in Denmark as envoy extraordinary, and held the office for two years and a half.

Henshaw spent the last years of his life at his house in Kensington, where he died on 2 Jan. 1699–1700. According to his tombstone in the chancel of the parish church there, a daughter Anne, his sole survivor, married Thomas Halsey of Gaddesden, Hertfordshire.

Henshaw published, from the Italian of F. Alvarez Samedo, ‘History of the Great and Renowned Monarchy of China, to which is added a History of the late Invasion and