William Henty (born 23 September 1808 in

West Tarring Tarring, officially West Tarring, is a neighbourhood of Worthing, in the borough of Worthing in West Sussex, England. It lies on the A2031 road north-west of the town centre. It is called "West Tarring", or less commonly "Tarring Peverell", to di ...

Sussex Sussex (), from the Old English (), is a historic county in South East England that was formerly an independent medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the English ...

, England). He moved to Tasmania in 1837 and for over 20 years practised as a solicitor. In 1857 he was elected a member of the legislative council for Tamar and was colonial secretary in the

Weston Weston may refer to: Places Australia * Weston, Australian Capital Territory, a suburb of Canberra * Weston, New South Wales * Weston Creek, a residential district of Canberra * Weston Park, Canberra, a park Canada * Weston, Nova Scotia * ...

cabinet. He held this office for five and a half years until his resignation in 1862. He was also an Australian

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

er, who played two games for

Tasmania ) , nickname = , image_map = Tasmania in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Tasmania in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdi ...

in 1851. He has the distinction of having participated in the first ever first-class cricket match in Australia, and having bowled the first ever ball in a

first class cricket First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is one of three or more days' scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officiall ...

match in Australia. He opened the bowling for Tasmania in both innings, bowling right arm

underarm The axilla (also, armpit, underarm or oxter) is the area on the human body directly under the shoulder joint. It includes the axillary space, an anatomical space within the shoulder girdle between the arm and the thoracic cage, bounded superior ...

, and took 4/52, and 5/26 for 9/78 for the match. He returned to England in 1862, where he remained until his death on 11 July 1881 in

Hove Hove is a seaside resort and one of the two main parts of the city of Brighton and Hove, along with Brighton in East Sussex, England. Originally a "small but ancient fishing village" surrounded by open farmland, it grew rapidly in the 19th cen ...

, England at the age of 72. He was survived by a daughter. He was interested in

Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

and after his death a small volume by him, ''Shakespeare with some Notes on his early Biography'', was printed for private circulation. This has little value but contains a memoir of the author by R. Harrison.

References

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Henty, William 1808 births 1881 deaths Australian cricketers Tasmania cricketers People from Tarring, West Sussex English emigrants to Australia Members of the Tasmanian Legislative Council 19th-century Australian politicians

See also

References