in the French foreign office. As a result he entered the French service as a spy, and in return for a salary of a hundred guineas a year supplied information as to the movements and equipment of the English fleet. He warned the French of the intended expedition to Rochefort in 1757, and his warning seems to have contributed to the failure of that enterprise. Hensey conducted his correspondence through a brother who was chaplain to the Spanish ambassador at the Hague. A postman, who knew that Hensey was a Roman catholic, and had observed his frequent foreign correspondence, called the attention of his superiors to the matter, and on opening Hensey's letters evidence was obtained which led to his arrest, on 21 Aug. 1757, as he was leaving the catholic church in Soho Square. After many examinations before the secretary of state, Hensey was committed to Newgate 9 March 1758, and on 8 May was brought before the king's bench and ordered to prepare for his trial. The trial took place before Earl Mansfield on 12 June, occupying all day. The evidence of guilt was overpowering; further letters were found at Hensey's lodgings in Arundel Street, Strand, in a bureau of which he alone had the key, and were conclusively shown to be in his handwriting. There was practically no defence, and such technical objections as were raised were overruled. On the 14th Hensey was condemned to death as a traitor; but on 12 July, the very day appointed for his execution, he received a respite for a fortnight, and this period was afterwards extended, till on 7 Sept. 1759 he was admitted to bail in order to plead his pardon next term. After this Hensey disappears. There is a medallion portrait of him in the ‘Genuine Account,’ and a full-length one of him in fetters in the ‘Genuine Memoirs.’
[A Genuine Account of the Proceedings on the Trial of Florence Hensey, M.D., London, 1758; Genuine Memoirs of the Life and Treasonable Practices of Dr. Florence Hensey, London, 1758 (written between sentence and the day appointed for his execution); Ann. Reg. 1758, pp. 97–9; Gent. Mag. 1758 pp. 240, 287–8, 337–8, 1759 p. 438.]
HENSHALL, SAMUEL (1764?–1807), philologist, born in 1764 or 1765, son of George Henshall, grocer, of Sandbach, Cheshire, was educated at Manchester grammar school. On being nominated to a school exhibition he went to Brasenose College, Oxford, matriculated on 11 Oct. 1782, and subsequently became one of Hulme's exhibitioners. His tutor was Thomas Braithweite, an old Manchester schoolboy, whom he mentions gratefully in his ‘Etymological Organic Reasoner,’ p. 8. He graduated B.A. 14 June 1786, M.A. 12 May 1789, and after taking holy orders was elected a fellow of the college. On 9 Dec. 1792, being then curate of Christ Church, Spitalfields, he was an unsuccessful candidate for the lectureship of St. Peter the Poor, and preached a probationary sermon, afterwards published. In November 1800 he stood, again without success, for the Anglo-Saxon professorship at Oxford against Thomas Hardcastle (Gent. Mag. vol. lxx. pt. ii. p. 1097). In 1801 he was appointed a public examiner in the university. He was presented by his college on 22 Jan. 1802 to the rectory of St. Mary Stratford, Bow, Middlesex, where he died on 17 Nov. 1807, aged 42. A narrow flat stone, on the south side of the chancel, covers his remains, and records that ‘he was rector of the parish five years, ten months, and twenty-six days,’ and that ‘he was married five years, six months, and thirteen days.’
Henshall published: 1. ‘Specimens and Parts; containing a History of the County of Kent and a Dissertation on the Laws from the reign of Edward the Confessour to Edward the First; of a Topographical, Commercial, Civil, and Nautical History of South Britain …, from authentic documents,’ 2 vols. 4to, London, 1798. This was to have been completed in six quarterly parts, but it was discontinued after forty-one pages of vol. ii. had been printed. 2. ‘The Saxon and English Languages reciprocally illustrative of each other; the Impracticability of acquiring an accurate Knowledge of Saxon Literature through the Medium of the Latin Phraseology exemplified in the Errors of Hickes, Wilkins, Gibson, and other scholars; and a new Mode suggested of radically studying the Saxon and English Languages,’ 4to, London, 1798, dedicated to Thomas Astle [q. v.], his ‘avowed patron,’ who had permitted him the ‘unlimited perusal’ of his manuscripts. Richard Gough and Professor Charles Mayo in the ‘Gentleman's Magazine’ (vol. lxviii. pt. ii. pp. 861–5) and Horne Tooke in the ‘Analytical Review’ exposed Henshall's ignorance and self-conceit. 3. ‘Domesday, or an Actual Survey of South Britain, … faithfully translated, with an introduction, notes, and illustrations, by Samuel Henshall … and John Wilkinson, M.D.,’ 4to, London, 1799. This, comprehending the counties of Kent, Sussex, and Surrey, was to be the first of ten similar numbers, which were to contain both volumes of the original. In spite of a boastful advertisement, the book was shown to be full of blunders, and dropped after the first number. 4. ‘Strictures on the late Motions of
