Henry Charles Stephens
Encyclopedia
Henry Charles "Inky" Stephens (February 1841 – July 1918) was an English businessman and Conservative Party
Conservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...

 politician. He sat in the House of Commons from 1887 to 1900 as the Member of Parliament
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

 (MP) for the Hornsey division
Hornsey (UK Parliament constituency)
Hornsey was a parliamentary constituency covering what is now the Hornsey district of North London. It returned one Member of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from the 1885 general election until it was abolished for the 1983 general election...

 of Middlesex
Middlesex
Middlesex is one of the historic counties of England and the second smallest by area. The low-lying county contained the wealthy and politically independent City of London on its southern boundary and was dominated by it from a very early time...

.

Stephens was born at 71 York Road, Lambeth
Lambeth
Lambeth is a district of south London, England, and part of the London Borough of Lambeth. It is situated southeast of Charing Cross.-Toponymy:...

, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 on 2 February 1841, the son of Dr Henry Stephens and his second wife Anne, of Redbourn
Redbourn
Redbourn is a village and civil parish in Hertfordshire, United Kingdom, lying on Watling Street, 3 miles from Harpenden, 4 miles from St Albans and 5 miles from Hemel Hempstead. It has a population of around 6,000.-History:...

, Hertfordshire
Hertfordshire
Hertfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England. The county town is Hertford.The county is one of the Home Counties and lies inland, bordered by Greater London , Buckinghamshire , Bedfordshire , Cambridgeshire and...

. Dr Henry Stephens (1796–1864) was the inventor in 1832 of an indelible "blue-black writing fluid" which was to become famous as Stephens' Ink and to form the foundation of a successful worldwide company for over 130 years.

The family moved to Finchley
Finchley
Finchley is a district in Barnet in north London, England. Finchley is on high ground, about north of Charing Cross. It formed an ancient parish in the county of Middlesex, becoming a municipal borough in 1933, and has formed part of Greater London since 1965...

, north London, in 1844 where Dr Stephens bought and renovated a large residence named Grove House, in Ballards Lane. The outbuildings of Grove House were used by the inventor as a laboratory for research and manufacture of ink and wood stains; thus Henry Charles grew up among his father's work and learnt the business from a young age.

After an early education in France, the boy returned to England to attend University College School
University College School
University College School, generally known as UCS, is an Independent school charity situated in Hampstead, north west London, England. The school was founded in 1830 by University College London and inherited many of that institution's progressive and secular views...

. He left school at the age of 16 but continued with chemistry and science studies while also involved in the family business. At the age of 23, in 1864, he took over the management of the company upon the sudden death of his father, who collapsed and died at Farringdon station
Farringdon station
Farringdon station is a London Underground and National Rail station in Clerkenwell, just north of the City of London in the London Borough of Islington...

.

The year before (1863), he had married Margaret Agnes Mackereth, the daughter of an old medical-student friend of his father. They lived for a while in Grove House with Stephens' widowed mother, then in 1874 purchased nearby Avenue House
Avenue House
Avenue House is a large Victorian house situated on East End Road in Finchley in the London Borough of Barnet.Built in 1859 on land formerly known as Temple Croft Field, it was acquired in 1874 by ink magnate Henry Charles Stephens who enlarged and improved the house and grounds with advice from...

 and ten acres of adjacent land, on a site formerly known as Temple Croft Field.

Stephens enlarged and improved the house and in the 1870s sought advice about having the grounds developed, and employed landscape gardener Robert Marnock
Robert Marnock
Robert Marnock was one of the outstanding horticulturalists and garden designers of the 19th century and was considered by his contemporaries to be the best exponent of the gardenesque school of landscape gardening....

 (1800–1889). Marnock's plans included lawns, ponds, mounds, paths and steps, and a walled kitchen garden and park-keeper's dwelling known as The Bothy (1882). Stephens added a water tower with adjacent laundry, a lodge, coach house and stable block and arranged for a number of rare trees to be planted throughout the grounds.

About this time the ink factory and offices were moved from Aldersgate Street to 275 Holloway Road, Holloway
Holloway
-Place names:United Kingdom*Holloway, London, inner-city district in the London Borough of Islington**Holloway , originally a mixed population prison, but now a female-only prison...

; in 1892 the factory moved again to nearby Gillespie Road, close to Arsenal
Arsenal
An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, issued to authorized users, or any combination of those...

 station. Stephens was popular in Finchley as a businessman, lecturer and philanthropist and was known as "Inky" Stephens, the uncrowned king of Finchley, as a result.

He was elected as MP for Hornsey
Hornsey (UK Parliament constituency)
Hornsey was a parliamentary constituency covering what is now the Hornsey district of North London. It returned one Member of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from the 1885 general election until it was abolished for the 1983 general election...

, which included Finchley, at a by-election
By-election
A by-election is an election held to fill a political office that has become vacant between regularly scheduled elections....

 in 1887 (defeating the later-to-be-disgraced Horatio Bottomley
Horatio Bottomley
Horatio William Bottomley was a British financier, swindler, journalist, newspaper proprietor, populist politician and Member of Parliament .-Early life:...

) after the sitting Conservative MP was elevated to the peerage. He was re-elected in 1892, returned unopposed in 1895, and stood down from Parliament
Parliament of the United Kingdom
The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body in the United Kingdom, British Crown dependencies and British overseas territories, located in London...

 on a point of principle at the 1900 general election
United Kingdom general election, 1900
-Seats summary:-See also:*MPs elected in the United Kingdom general election, 1900*The Parliamentary Franchise in the United Kingdom 1885-1918-External links:***-References:*F. W. S. Craig, British Electoral Facts: 1832-1987**...

.

Aside from the family business and politics, he was a chemist, and had an interest in agriculture. He owned an estate in Cholderton
Cholderton
Cholderton is a village in the Bourne Valley of Wiltshire, England, close to the border with Hampshire.Cholderton Charlie's Farm, one of 16 Rare Breeds Survival Trust approved farm parks, is located here.-External links:****...

 where he set up the Cholderton and District Water Company
Cholderton and District Water Company
The Cholderton and District Water Company is England's smallest water-supply company, serving an area on the border of Hampshire and Wiltshire in the south of the country...

 in 1904.

He still owned Avenue House in Finchley, which he left to the people of Finchley in his will, as well as its grounds
Avenue House Grounds
Avenue House Grounds is a Local Nature Reserve in Church End, Finchley in the London Borough of Barnet.Avenue House is a Grade II listed building on East End Road. The grounds have been set out as a public park, with lawns, trees including fine old evergreens, and shrubberies. There is also an...

. In 1887 he proposed the establishment of a park in Finchley to commemorate Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee, and this was finally opened in 1902 as Victoria Park, Finchley's first public park.

External links

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