Hugh Henshall

Hugh Henshall (1734–1816) was an English civil engineer, noted for his work on canals. He was born in North Staffordshire and was a student of the canal engineer James Brindley, who was also his brother-in-law.

Henshall was born to John Henshall and Anne Cartwright (d. February 1776), most likely in Newchapel, Wolstanton. They had five children between 1731 and 1747. Henshall's father John may have assisted James Brindley on early surveys of the Trent and Mersey Canal. The two families became close, and Henshall became a pupil of Brindley. Henshall later met John Gilbert, his brother Thomas Gilbert, and Josiah Clowes. Henshall's sister, Jane, married William Clowes, a local landowner with mining interests and elder brother of Josiah Clowes. Another sister of Henshall, Anne, married James Brindley on 8 December 1765 when she was 19, and he was 49.

In 1778 Henshall purchased the farm and surrounding lands at Greenway Bank, near Tunstall in Staffordshire.

Henshall died on 16 November 1816 and is buried at St. James, in Newchapel.

Henshall worked with Brindley and John Smeaton in 1758 to survey the proposed Trent and Mersey Canal. In 1765 he helped survey the River Weaver from Winsford to Lowton, and in the same year planned a link from Cheshire to the Bridgewater Canal, and surveyed the River Severn. In 1768 Brindley, assisted by Henshall, surveyed the route of the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal. Henshall carried out the survey for the act of Parliament, with Samuel Simcock.

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