William Henty

William Henty

Personal information
Full name	William Henty
Born	(1808-09-23)23 September 1808 West Tarring, Sussex, England
Died	11 July 1881(1881-07-11) (aged 72) Hove, Sussex, England
Bowling	underarm
Domestic team information
Years	Team
1851–52	Tasmania
First-class debut	11 February 1851 Tasmania v Victoria
Last First-class	29 March 1852 Tasmania v Victoria
Career statistics
Competition First-class Matches 2 Runs scored 1 Batting average 0.33 100s/50s 0/0 Top score 1 Balls bowled 224 Wickets 19 Bowling average 9.36 5 wickets in innings 2 10 wickets in match 1 Best bowling 6/40 Catches/stumpings 1/–
Source: [1], 5 January 2011

William Henty (23 September 1808 in West Tarring, Sussex, England – 11 July 1881 in Hove, Sussex, England). He moved to Van Diemen's Land 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 cabinet. He held this office for five and a half years until his resignation in 1862.^[1]

He was also an Australian cricketer, who played two games for Tasmania 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 match in Australia. He opened the bowling for Tasmania in both innings, bowling right arm underarm, 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, Sussex, England at the age of 72.^[2][3]

He was interested in Shakespeare 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.