Henthorn, Thomas

Thomas Henthorn

OCCUPATION: Thomas Henthorn started work in a cotton factory at 8 years of age. He was a bookkeeper in 1871. As of 1881, he was a cotton yarn salesman. He built up from 1889 the first group of cotton mills united under one chairman.

MARRIAGE-CHILDREN: He was married twice. His son, James Taylor Henthorn (1876-1915), by his first wife, Jane who died in 1876 possibly in childbirth, moved to Manchester as a police constable.

MARRIAGE-CHILDREN: His second son, Maurice Clay Henthorn (1887-1934), by his second wife, Emma, also worked in a managerial position in the cotton industry and continued to live at Homeleigh.

OBITUARY: An Oldham Chronicle report on Thomas Henthorn (1849-1913), following his death, showed him to be very active in both the cotton industry and the local community.

OCCUPATION: At the time of his death, he was Chairman of Directors of the Beal Spinning Co.; Shaw Spinning Co.; and Balderstone Mill Co. He was director of the Manchester Cotton Exchange, and a member of the committee of Oldham master cotton spinners, and a founder of the Oldham Chamber of Commerce.

PUBLIC_SERVICE: In local affairs he was a Wesleyan, conservative and on the Compton Local Board in the 1890's.

PUBLIC_SERVICE: At the time of his death he was an overseer of the poor in Crompton. He was a member of the Crompton and Royton Education Committee.

DEATH: Sadly he lost his life, by drowning in the swimming pool at the Hotel Hydro Blackpool where he was a regular visitor. He was suffering from diabetes, feeling run down and lacking in energy and concentration. This condition to which he was unaccustomed, as an active man, must have produced the mental depression leading to his death. Sad to think that it was only a decade or so later when Banting and Bess's discovery might have offered him some hope.

PROBATE: He left an estate of f6400 and lived at a big Victorian house, Homeleigh in Rochdale Road Shaw, which is still standing [as of 1986].