Charles G. Henderson

Charles Gordon Henderson (July 11 1900 – September 24 1933) was a historian and antiquarian of Cornwall.

Charles Henderson's only quarrel with Cornwall was that it had given him no more than a quarter of his blood. His father, Major J. S. Henderson, was half Scottish and half of the Irish family of Newenham: his mother was a Carus-Wilson from Westmorland. Both, however, were born and bred in Cornwall, and a portion of Cornish ancestry came to him through his mother's mother, one of the Willyams of Carnanton who entered the Duchy in the sixteenth century by the gift of an Arundell manor. He was glad to claim so much hereditary right to Cornwall, and it happened against his wish that he neither began nor ended his life there, but was born in Jamaica and died in Rome.

He was at Wellington College for a short time but left on account of ill-health. For this reason he was frequently sent home from school for rest, and spent a large amount of his time walking over Cornwall and studying Cornish monuments and history He collected a large number of documents from all over the Duchy and published a book on Cornish Bridges in collaboration with Mr. H. Coates. He went to New College, Oxford and took his degree with first-class honours in Modern History in 1922. He was a lecturer at University College, Exeter, and afterwards at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, where he was elected to an official fellowship as tutor in modern history in 1929, He had settled down at Oxford, and was showing great promise as a teacher and lecturer.

On 19 June 1933, he married Mary Isobel Munro, a fellow of Somerville College and daughter of J. A. R. Munro, the Rector of Lincoln College, Oxford; at the end of August, he set out with her for southern Italy. He had been troubled for some months with pains in his chest and they attacked him severely at Monte Sant'Angelo of the Gargano, where he was visiting the shrine of the Cornish patron St. Michael. He died in Rome eleven days later, on 24 September, of heart-failure following pleurisy.

He was buried in the Protestant Cemetery, Rome, between the Porta San Paolo and Monte Testaccio, a place that he knew well. He is buried there with Keats and Shelley and one great Cornishman, Edward John Trelawny.

Mr. Henderson’s publications included "Cornwall; A Guide" in collaboration with J. C. Tregarthen, in 1925; three books on Cornish Churches; and another on Cornish Coasts, moors, and valleys with notes on antiquities. In 1928, he was made a Bard of the Cornish Gorseth at Boscawen-Un, taking the bardic name "Map Hendra" ('Son of Antiquity'). His collection of documents are held at the Courtney Library of the Royal Institution of Cornwall in Truro.

References

*Obituary The Times newspaper, 26 September 1933.
*Article written by A. L. Rowse The Times, 2 October 1933
**Article by Arthur Quiller-Couch found in Essays in Cornish History published after the death of Henderson.

elected works

*"The 109 Ancient Parishes of the Four Western Hundreds of Cornwall" 1955
*"The Cornish Church Guide and Parochial History of Cornwall" 1965
*"The Cornish Church Guide" 1925 ISBN 0-85153-052-4
*"Cornish Saints" with Gilbert Hunter Doble 1927
*"Cornwall: a Survey of its Coast, Moors, and Valleys" 1930
*"The Ecclesiastical History of Western Cornwall" 1962
*"Essays in Cornish history" edited by A. L. Rowse and M.I. Henderson (his wife) 1935
*"Four Saints of the Fal. St. Gluvias, St. Kea, St. Fili, St. Rumon" 1929
*"A history of the Parish and Church of Saint Euny-Lelant" with Gilbert Hunter Doble and R. Morton Nance, and a description of the Church by M.H.N.C. Atchley . 1939
*"A History of the Parish of Constantine in Cornwall" Edited by the Rev. G. H. Doble. 1937
*"A History of the Parish of Crowan ... with explanations of their meaning" by R. Morton Nance, 1939
*"Mabe Church and Parish, Cornwall" 1931
*"Mabe church and parish Cornwall" 1931
*"Old Cornish bridges and streams" 1928
*"Old Devon Bridges" 1938
*"Records of the church and priory of St. Germans in Cornwall" with a preface by the Rt. Rev. the Lord Bishop of Truro . 1929
*"Saint Carantoc" 1928
*"Saint Clether" 1930
*"Saint Cuby" 1929
*"Saint Day" 1933
*"Saint Euny" 1933
*"Saint Gerent, Gerendus, Gerens" 1938
*"Saint Gudwal or Gurval" 1933
*"Saint Mawgan" 1936
*"Saint Melor" 1927
*"Saint Nectan, S. Keyne and the Children of Brychan in Cornwall" 1930
*"Saint Neot" 1929
*"Saint Nonna" 1928
*"Saint Perran, Saint Keverne, & Saint Kerrian" 1931
*"Saint Petrock" 1938
*"Saint Rumon and Saint Ronan" 1939
*"Saint Selevan" 1928
*"Saint Senan" 1928
*"Saint Sezni" 1928
*"Saint Tudy" 1929
*"Saint Winnoc" 1940
*"Some Notes on the Parish of Goran, otherwise St. Goronus" 1936
*"St. Columb Major Church & Parish" 1930
*"St. Constantine, King and Monk, and St. Mervyn" 1930

External links

* samples of Henderson's Cornish writing:
** [http://cornovia.org.uk/htexts/henderson01.html Padstow Church: Its History and List of Vicars, 1927]
** [http://www.st-keverne.com/history/Book/hendersons.html Topography of St Keverne, 1931]
** [http://cornovia.org.uk/htexts/henderson02.html The Three Bad Men of Dry Tree, 1931]