Philip Henry

Philip Henry (24 August 1631 – 24 June 1696) was an English Nonconformist clergyman and diarist.

Philip Henry was the eldest son of John Henry, keeper of the orchard at Whitehall, London. His father, son of Henry Williams, was Welsh, born at Briton Ferry, Glamorganshire, on 10 July 1590, and took his father's Christian name as his surname; he rose to be page of the backstairs (a senior personal attendant) to James, Duke of York, and was buried at St. Margaret's, Westminster, on 2 March 1652. His mother, Magdalen, daughter of Henry Rochdale, was baptised at St. Martin's-in-the-Fields on 19 October 1599, and died on 6 March 1645.

Philip Henry was born at Whitehall on 24 August 1631 and named after his godfather, Philip Herbert, 4th Earl of Pembroke, in whose service his father had been. As a child he was playmate to the princes Charles and James, and kept to his dying day a book given him by the latter. Archbishop William Laud took notice of him for his readiness in opening the watergate when Laud came late from the council to cross by boat to Lambeth. (See York House, Strand for a description of watergates on the Thames.) His father took him to see Laud in prison in the Tower of London, when the archbishop gave him some money. After preliminary schooling at St.Martin's he was admitted in 1643 to Westminster School, became a King's Scholar in October 1645, and was a favourite pupil of Richard Busby. His mother, a Puritan, got leave for him to attend the early lecture at Westminster Abbey; and to Busby's diligence in preparing him for holy communion he ascribes his adoption of a religious life in 1647. In May 1647 Henry was elected to a studentship at Christ Church, Oxford, and went into residence on 15 December. He was admitted student on 24 March 1648, just before the parliamentary visitation, which removed Underwood, his tutor, substituting William Finmore (afterwards archdeacon of Chester). He graduated B.A. in 1650/1 and M.A. on 10 December 1652.

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