Henry Shepherd Pearson

Henry Shepherd Pearson (c. 1775–1840) was acting Governor of Penang from 1807 to 1808.

According to "The Worthies of Westmorland" by George Atkinson, Pearson was the second son of Sir Richard Pearson and Hannah Shepherd. He was christened at Saint Mary the Virgin in Dover, Kent on 8 February 1777. Another source holds that he was born in Dover on 20 October 1776 and that his mother was the former Margaret Harrison.[1] In 1820, he married Caroline Lyons, daughter of John Lyons of Antigua and Catherine Walrond, and had the following children:

  • Caroline Pearson (1827–1909), who married barrister and solicitor Charles Evan-Thomas[2] of Glamorganshire, Cardiff, Wales
  • Augusta Pearson (c. 1828–1922), who married barrister and solicitor George Arthur Knightley Howman (later Little)
  • Emily Pearson (1830–1876), who married Captain Cowper Phipps Coles, R.N.
  • Richard Lyons Otway Pearson (1831–1890)
  • Henrietta Maria Pearson (1832–1890), who married Sterling Browne Westhorp
  • Agnes Minna Pearson (1835–1908), who married the Rev. Richard Lister Venables in 1867[3] and had two daughters: Katherine Minna (1870–1956), who married Sir Charles Leyshon Dillwyn-Venables-Llewelyn, 2nd Bt., and Caroline Emily Venables (1872–1963)

When Pearson was writing his will (held in National Archives, PROB 11/1931, Image Reference 227/203) in July 1839, he noted that he was "formerly of Bombay" but currently was "of Liverpool House, Dover" (actually Walmer, Kent) and was residing in Boulogne-sur-Mer, Kingdom of France. He continued to live in Boulogne-sur-Mer and was there when he wrote a final codicil to his will on 14 January 1840, proved on 28 July that year. In his will, Pearson wrote that he wished to be buried where he died in the plainest manner possible. He died on 18 April 1840 in Boulogne-sur-Mer[4][1] and is probably buried in the British section of the Eastern Cemetery there.

  1. ^ a b Burke, John Bernard (ed.; 1848). The Patrician, vol. VI, p. 407. London: E. Churton.
  2. ^ Burke, Bernard (1863). A Genealogical and Heraldic Dictionary of the Landed Gentry of Great Britain and Ireland (4th ed.), part II, p. 1496. London: Harrison, Pall Mall.
  3. ^ Nicholas, Thomas (1872). Annals and antiquities of the counties and county families of Wales, vol. II, p. 926. London: Longmans, Green, Reader, and Co.
  4. ^ 'Deaths', Satirist; or, the Censor of the Times, 26 April 1840, page 8