Henry Reed (28 December 1806 – 10 October 1880) was an Australian landowner, shipowner, merchant, philanthropist and evangelist.ADB article
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Early life and work

Reed was born at Doncaster, England, on 28 December 1806 to postmaster Samuel Reed (1773-1813) and his wife Mary, nee Rockcliff. When 13, Henry was apprenticed to a merchant at Hull. He left Britain as a steerage passenger on the ''Tiger'', reaching Hobart in April 1827. He travelled north to Launceston where he found work in the store of John Gleadow. In January 1828, he received a land grant of 640 acres (259 ha) at Nile riverlet. Other land aqusitions soon followed. He left Gleadow's employment and established himself as a general merchant. He also began to buy ships, that he employed in trading and

whaling Whaling is the process of hunting of whales for their usable products such as meat and blubber, which can be turned into a type of oil that became increasingly important in the Industrial Revolution. It was practiced as an organized industry ...

voyages. Among his associates in Tasmania at this time were

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and William Buckley. He returned to Britain in 1831, where he married his cousin, Mary Grubb. While there he also formed a business relationship with Henry Buckle & Co. that later helped advance his commercial career. Back in Tasmania by 1832, he plunged again into commerce, importing sugar from

Mauritius Mauritius ( ; french: Maurice, link=no ; mfe, label=Mauritian Creole, Moris ), officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island nation in the Indian Ocean about off the southeast coast of the African continent, east of Madagascar. It incl ...

, and sending his whaling ships to sea.

Later life

Reed's wife died in 1860; she had borne him eleven children. In 1863 he married Margaret Sayres Elizabeth Frith of

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, Ireland, an ardent church worker, by whom he had five children. He helped

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with money and advice in the difficult formative years of the

Salvation Army Salvation (from Latin: ''salvatio'', from ''salva'', 'safe, saved') is the state of being saved or protected from harm or a dire situation. In religion and theology, ''salvation'' generally refers to the deliverance of the soul from sin and its c ...

. Generous gifts were also made to other evangelical work such as the

China Inland Mission OMF International (formerly Overseas Missionary Fellowship and before 1964 the China Inland Mission) is an international and interdenominational Evangelical Christian missionary society with an international centre in Singapore. It was founded i ...

and the East London Christian Mission. He compiled The Pioneer Hymn Book (London, 1870) and published two tracts, 'Be filled with the spirit' and 'Incidents in an eventful life', Dunorlan Tracts, 1-2 (London, 1873). In April 1873, with his family and attendants, he sailed for Launceston where he bought and made Mount Pleasant ''the finest house in northern Tasmania'' and developed Wesley Dale. In 1875, he helped Rev. George Brown to establish the

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and bought for it the steam launch Henry Reed. In

New Britain New Britain ( tpi, Niu Briten) is the largest island in the Bismarck Archipelago, part of the Islands Region of Papua New Guinea. It is separated from New Guinea by a northwest corner of the Solomon Sea (or with an island hop of Umboi the Dam ...

Brown named

Henry Reed Bay Henry Reid Bay (sometimes Henry Reed Bay) is known locally as Homhovulu Harbor. It is a bay on the southerly coast of New Britain that opens into Wide Bay. It forms the furthest penetration of Wide Bay and is defined by Zungen Point on its north ...

in his honour. In Launceston he bought Parr's Hotel in Wellington Street in order to replace it with a mission church, which was completed in 1885 after his death as the Henry Reed Memorial Christian Mission Church, as were the nearby Dunorlan Cottages to provide free housing for elderly indigent women.

References

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Reed, Henry 1806 births 1880 deaths English emigrants to colonial Australia People from Doncaster Australian ship owners Australian pastoralists People from Launceston, Tasmania Australian people in whaling 19th-century Australian businesspeople