Hinckley, Henry Barrett, 1871-1940

Henry Barrett Hinckley, B.A. 1892.

Born March 1, 1871, in Northampton, Mass.; Died July 29, 1940, in Brattleboro, Vt.

Father, Henry Rose Hinckley (B.A. 1859). Mother, Mary Wright (Barrett) Hinckley. Yale relatives include: Rev. Joseph Lyman (B.A. 1767) and Samuel Hinckley (B.A. 1781) (great-great-grandfathers); Jonathan Lyman (B.A. 1802) (great-grandfather); George Hinckley (B.A. 1810) (great-great-uncle); Joseph Lyman (B.A. 1828) (great-uncle); and Benjamin B. Hinckley, Jr., ex-'35 (nephew).

Black Hall School, Old Lyme, Conn., and New Church School, Waltham, Mass. High oration appoint Junior and Senior years; honorable mention Hugh Chamberlain Greek Prize and first Berkeley Premium for Latin Composition Freshman year; shared second Winthrop Prize Junior year; Commencement speaker; Class poet; member Yale Union, Chi Delta Theta, and Phi Beta Kappa.

Attended Harvard Graduate School 1892-95 (M.A. 1895); instructor in English Lake Forest College 1895-96; because of ill-health had not been actively engaged as a teacher since 1895; a student of early English poetry, he published extensive notes and commentaries on The Owl and the Nightingal e; also author of Notes on Chaucer (1907), Poems (1909), and Thersites: A Dramatic Fragment (1913); contributed to Modern Philology and Modern Language Notes ; member Conncticut Academy of Arts and Scienes, Modern Language Association of America, and Episcopal church.

Unmarried.

Death due to carcinoma. Buried in Bridge Street Cemetery, Northampton. Survived by a sister, Rose Hinckley (B.A. Smith Coll. 1895) of Northampton, and two brothers, Edward B. Hinckley, '89, and Benjamin B. Hinckley, '97 (died October 22, 1940; see page 74). Two other brothers, Donald R. Hinckley, '92, and George L. Hinckley, '00, died in 1901 and 1936 respectively.

( Yale University Obituary Record, 1940-43, pages 48-49)

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Henry Rose Hinckley, B.A. 1859

Born December 20, 1838, in Northampton, Mass.; Died June 9, 1918, in Northampton, Mass.

Henry Rose Hinckley was born December 20, 1838, in Northampton, Mass., the son of Samuel Lyman Hin (B.A. Williams 1830), a lawyer, and Henrietta Elizabeth (Rose) Hinckley. His father, who was the son of Jonathan Huntington Lyman (B.A. 1802) and Sophia (Hinckley) Lyman, changed his name in 1831, at the request of his grandfather, Samuel Hinckley (B.A. 1781), and by the act of the Massachusetts Legislature, from Samuel Hinckley, who was judge of the Probate Court for Hampshire County at Northampton from 1816 to 1834, was wounded in the battle of White Plains, while serving in the Revolutionary Army. Samuel L. Hinckley was the grandson of Rev. Joseph Lyman (B.A. 1767, D.D. Williams 1801), a trustee of Amherst Colelge and one of the founders of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, and Hannah (Huntington) Lyman, a grandnephew of Jonathan Lyman (B.A. 1758) and Rev. Eliphalet Lyman (B.A. 1776), a nephew of George Hinckley (B.A. 1810), and a brother of Joseph Lyman (1828). The first Hinckley to come to America was Samuel Hinckley, who brought his family from Tenterden, Kent, England, to Scituate, Mass., in 1635. His son, Thomas Hinckley, was a colonial governor of Plymouth. Henry R. Hinckley's mother was the daughter of Donald Rose, who came from Elgin, Scotland, to this country, and Elizabeth (Singleton) Rose. The latter was a native of South Carolina.

Before entering Yale in 1855, Henry R. Hinckley attended the Mount Pleasant School, Amherst, Mass., the private school of L.H. Dudley at Northampton, Williston Seminary, Easthampton, Mass., Luther Wright's private school at Easthampton, Mass., and Bellerive, Vevey, Switzerland. In college he belonged to the Nautilus Boat Club and Brothers in Unity and was vice president of the Yale Chess Club in Senior year.

He remained in New Haven for two years after graduation, spending his time in study and reading. He then went abroad for a year of travel and study. In the fall of 1862, he entered the Harvard Law School, but a year later entered the Army as a Second Lieutenant of the 5th Massachusetts Cavalry (colored), with which he served until April, 1865. He then spent a few months in Europe. On his return, he went to New York City to finish his law studies and begin practice. He had received the degree of LL.B. At Harvard in 1864. Following his marriage in 1866 he again went to Europe. He later established his home in Northampton, where he followed his profession as a lawyer for a brief period. He afterwards gave his attention to manufacturing, from 1887 to 1908 being president of the Northampton Cutlery Company. He was a member of the first city government of Northampton, serving in the Northampton Common Council in 1884-85 and of the Board of Aldermen during 1885-86. In 1906 he visited the Azores, Algiers, and Italy, and he had made several later trips abroad. He was a member of the Protestant Episcopal Church, but after his marriage attended the First Church of Christ (Congregational) in Northampton, of whose parish he was a member.

Mr. Hinckley died at his home in Northampton, June 9, 1918, after a brief illness due to angina pectoris. He was buried in the Bridge Street Cemetery, Northampton.

He was married in that city June 2, 1866, to Mary Wright, daughter of Benjamin Barrett (B.A. Harvard 1819, M.D. Harvard 1823) and Mary (Wright) Barrett. They had six children: Benjamin Barrett, a graduate of Yale College in 1889 and of the Harvard Law School in 1892; Donald Rose (B.A. 1892, M.D. Harvard 1896), who died October 14, 1901; Henry Barrett (B.A. 1892, Ma.A. Harvard 1895); Rose, who graduated at Smith College in 1895; Benjamin Barrett (B.A. 1897); and George Lyman (B.A. 1900, M.A. 1906). Mr. Hinckley was a cousin of Samuel H. Lyman and Rev. Arthur H. Allen, graduates of the College in 1861 and 1873, respectively.

(Yale University Obituary Record, 1918, pages 569-71)

From the guide to the Henry Barrett Hinckley papers, 1858-1934, 1894-1934, (Manuscripts and Archives)