HENGLER, FREDERICK CHARLES (1820–1887), circus proprietor, was born at Cambridge in 1820. His father, Henry Hengler, was a well-known tight-rope dancer at Vauxhall Gardens. In 1807 he was at the Olympic Theatre, and afterwards had an engagement with Ducrow, in whose service he remained for several years, during which period he taught the circus business to his three sons, Edward Henry, John Milton, and Frederick Charles. After leaving Ducrow, he joined Price and Powell's circus. In 1841 Frederick Charles was a violin and trumpet player in Mrs. James Wild's theatre at Bradford. He afterwards attended to the business department of Price and Powell's travelling circus; but when they became embarrassed they sold their circus to him and his brother Edward, who for some years carried on the business with varied success. About 1856 Edward retired, and with his brother John kept a riding school at Liverpool, where he died on 8 Jan. 1865, aged 45. Frederick Charles, now sole proprietor, on 15 March 1857 established a circus in Liverpool, and erected buildings at Glasgow and Dublin in 1863, at Hull in 1866, at Bristol in 1867, and at Birmingham in 1868. During the summer of 1865 he gave a series of performances at the Stereorama in Cremorne Gardens, Chelsea. In 1871 he purchased the Palais Royal, Argyll Street, Regent Street, London, and converted it into a circus. Here, in addition to the usual equestrian scenes of the ring, he introduced spectacular pieces played by children. ‘Cinderella,’ brought out at Christmas 1871, was very popular. In 1884 Hengler rebuilt his London circus, and reopened it on 14 Jan. 1885. He himself never attempted any character parts, but was a great horse-tamer, and frequently exhibited his trained animals. He died suddenly at his residence, Cambridge House, 27 Fitzjohn's Avenue, Hampstead, Middlesex, on 28 Sept. 1887, and was buried at West Hampstead cemetery. By his wife, Mary Ann Frances Hengler, he left three sons and six daughters. His personalty was sworn to be 59,665l. 2s. 5d. The management of the circuses was left to his two younger sons. A daughter, Jenny Louise, obtained a wide reputation as an accomplished equestrienne.
[Frost's Circus Life, 1876, pp. 48, 110, 123, 125, 160, 187–8, 192–213; Authentic Story of Old Wild's, 1888, p. 56; Era, 15 Jan. 1865 p. 14, 1 Oct. 1887 p. 13; Judy, 13 Dec. 1882 p. 280, with portrait.]
HENLEY, Barons. [See Eden, Morton, first Baron, 1752–1830, diplomatist; Eden, Robert Henley, second Baron, 1789–1841.]
HENLEY, ANTHONY (d. 1711), wit and politician, was son of Sir Robert Henley of the Grange, near Arlesford, Hampshire, M.P. for Andover in 1679, who married Barbara, daughter of Sir Edward Hungerford. Sir Robert Henley, master of the court of king's bench, on the pleas side, a place then worth 4,000l. a year, was his grandfather. Out of the profits of this post Anthony inherited a fortune of more than 3,000l. a year, part of which arose from the ground-rents of the houses in Lincoln's Inn Fields, London. He was a candidate for a demyship at Magdalen College, Oxford, when Dr. Thomas Goodwin [q. v.] was its president under the protectorate, and he gave Addison an account, which was afterwards inserted in the ‘Spectator, No. 494, Sept. 26, 1712,’ of his interview with that grim divine, when he was so alarmed by the only question put to him, whether he was prepared for death, that he could not be induced to present himself again for examination. At Oxford he studied carefully the classical writers, particularly the poets, and when he came to London with a good income and an ample store of classical quotations, he was welcomed by the wits, and was very friendly with Lord Dorset and Lord Sunderland. For some time he was devoted to pleasure, and as his generosity to poor authors became known, he was fed with soft dedications. But after he had recruited his resources with the sum of 30,000l., through his marriage with Mary, daughter and coheiress of Peregrine Bertie (second son of Montagu, earl of Lindsey), by Susan, daughter and coheiress of Sir Edward Monins of Waldershare, Kent, he plunged into politics. He sat for Andover from 1698 to 1700, and for the conjoint borough of Weymouth and Melcombe Regis from 5 Feb. 1702.
As Henley consistently adhered to the whigs, his opponents made strenuous endeavours, but without success, to displace him at Weymouth, and in 1710 they unsuccessfully petitioned against his return. In 1701 he and his friend, Richard Norton of Southwick, Hampshire, also a strong whig, presented an address from the grand jury of that county, praying for the king's return. On 14 Dec. 1709 he moved the address to Queen Anne, urging the bestowal on Hoadly of ‘some dignity in the church’ for his frequent justification of revolution principles. Henley was one of the foremost wits among the whigs who welcomed Swift's appearance in London life after the publication of the ‘Tale of a Tub.’ He once said of Swift that
