HENLEY, Jonx, 1692-1750; an English cleigyman known as "Orator Henley," noted for his eccentricities; while at college in Cambridge, Feb., 1712, he under the pseudonym of Peter de Quir addressed a letter to the Spectator displaying no small wit and humor. After graduating he became assistant and then head-master of the gram mar school of his native town, uniting with these duties those of assistant curate, besides publishing in 1714 a poem entitled Esther, Queen of Penia. He also compiled a grammar of ten languages entitled The Complete Linguist. Removing to London, Ile was appointed assistant preacher in Ormond street and Bloomsbury chapels, and in 1723 was presented to the rectory of Chelmondiston in Suffolk; but residence being insisted upon, he resigned both his appointments, and July 3, 1726, opened what he called an "oratory" in Newport market, which he licensed under the toleration act. Ile intro duced many peculiar alterations into his service, and drew up a " primitive liturgy," in which he substituted for the Nicene and Athanasian creeds two creeds taken front the apostolic constitutions; for the Eucharist he made use of unleavened bread and mixed wine; he distributed at the price of one shilling medals of admission to his oratory. He is described by Pope in the Dunciad as "preacher at once and zany of his
age." Besides his sermons on Sunday he delivered lectures on Wednesday chiefly on social and political subjects; and he also projected a scheme for connecting with the "oratory" a university intended to be the foster-mother of the arts and sciences. For some time he edited the Hyp Doctor, a weekly paper established in opposition to the Craftsman, and for this service he enjoyed a pension of £100 a year from sir Robert Walpole. At first his orations drew great crowds, but his audience latterly dwindled almost entirely away.
HEN a t. of Oxfordshire, England, on the left bank of the Thames, 35 m, w. from London. The Thames is here crossed by a handsome bridge. Henley on-Thames is on the branch of the Great Western railway. There are several charities, and a reading-room and valuable library, open to all ratepayers, bequeathed by Dean Aldrich of Henley, who died in 1757. Malting is a principal branch of industry; there are also breweries; and there is a considerable trade in corn, flour, and timber. Pop. '71, 4,523.