Henry REED

REED, HENRY (b. Doncaster, England, 28 Dec 1806; d. Tas, 10 Oct 1880). Merchant, philanthropist, evangelist.

Henry Reed's father, a Doncaster postmaster, died when Henry was five and the family was suddenly cast into poverty. Reed recalled that his devout mother took in washing to support the family and pay for elementary schooling. Reed entered a mercantile apprenticeship at thirteen. He emigrated to VDL in 1827, with a letter of introduction to a Launceston merchant, and soon prospered. In 1831, during a wild sea-storm while returning to England to establish trade contacts, he experienced a sudden religious conversion. He became, after some backsliding to cards, billiards and horseracing, a keen Wesleyan. Claiming a 'strong and mighty will', he aspired to 'decided success in spiritual and temporal things'. His puritanism and perfectionism were reflected in his remark that 'it troubles me much when I see things half done or carelessly done'. He became a frequent lay preacher in VDL in the 1830s, showing active concern for 'unfortunates'—the poor, the aged, Aborigines. In 1837, he tells, he spent a night locked up with men to be executed next day, wrestling for their souls.

Returning to England in 1847, Reed relished the larger commercial and religious theatre. His Wesleyanism became less evident, and by 1877 was discarded. In England, Reed combined conspicuous display of wealth with well-publicised preaching tours, mainly in the north. A detractor called his oratory 'Wesleyanic'. A pan-Protestant, Reed moved easily among Baptists and also worked closely with William Booth in East London. By disposition, Reed was a dominator. When Booth was in financial trouble, Reed offered him £10 000 provided Booth ran the East London mission on terms set by Reed. Booth refused, regarding those associated with Reed's missionary preaching as 'poor stuff—as not 'men'—and not envisaging that kind of fate for himself Reed later gave Booth £5000 without strings. Reed contributed extensively to overseas missions, and in Doncaster purchased ten cottages for free occupation by aged Christians. In 1870 he compiled The Pioneer Hymn Book.

Retiring in 1873 to his country estate at Wesley Dale in Tasmania, Reed remained religiously busy. He purchased a steam launch for New Guinea missions—called, naturally, the Henry Reed—and, in Launceston, bought and converted a hotel into an independent, Booth-type, 'mission church'. An action and a gesture typify him: in Yorkshire Reed build, despite some church criticism for ostentation, an enormous villa; but over the entrance he placed his family crest: a wheat sheaf with the words, 'Nothing without the cross'. Reed married twice, first in 1831 to his cousin Maria Susannah Grubb (d. 1860); then in 1863 to Margaret Frith, who survived him and wrote his 'life'. Reed had eleven children by his first wife, five by his second.

M S E Reed, Henry Reed: An Eventful Life Devoted to God and Man (London, 1907); H Fysh, Henry Reed: Van Diemen's Land Pioneer (Hobart, 1973); H Begbie, Life of William Booth (London, 1920)

RICHARD ELY