His father, Major J. S. Henderson, was half Scottish and half of the Irish family of Newenham: his mother was a Carus-Wilson fromWestmorland. Both, however, were born and bred in Cornwall, and a portion of Cornish ancestry came to him through his mother's mother, one of the Willyamses ofCarnanton inMawgan-in-Pydar.[1]
He was atWellington College for a short time but left on account of ill-health. For this reason he was frequently sent home from school for rest, and spent a large amount of his time walking over Cornwall and studying Cornish monuments and history. He collected a large number of documents from all over the county.
Henderson went toNew College, Oxford and took his degree with first-class honours inmodern history in 1922. He was a lecturer atUniversity College, Exeter, and afterwards atCorpus Christi College, Oxford, where he was elected to an official fellowship as tutor in modern history in 1929. He had settled down at Oxford, and was showing great promise as a teacher and lecturer.
In 1928 Henderson published a book on Cornish bridges in collaboration with Henry Coates. Whenever he was able he would return to Cornwall and continue his historical research which in the early years was concerned very largely with the four westernhundreds (Penwith,Kerrier,Pydar andPowder) but finally he planned a parochial history of the whole county on a grand scale.[2]
On 19 June 1933, he married(Mary) Isobel Munro, a fellow ofSomerville College and daughter ofJ. A. R. Munro, the Rector ofLincoln College, Oxford; at the end of August, he set out with her for southern Italy. He had been troubled for some months with pains in his chest and they attacked him severely atMonte Sant'Angelo on the Gargano, where he was visiting the shrine of the Cornish patronSt Michael. He died in Rome eleven days later, on 24 September, of heart-failure followingpleurisy.[3]
Henderson's publications includedCornwall; A Guide in collaboration withJ. C. Tregarthen, in 1925; three books on Cornish churches; and another on Cornish coasts, moors, and valleys with notes on antiquities. In 1928 he was made aBard of theCornish Gorseth atBoscawen-Un, taking thebardic nameMap Hendra ('Son of Antiquity').[5] His collection of documents is held at theCourtney Library of theRoyal Institution of Cornwall inTruro. The collection includes 16,000 ancient documents, many hundreds of transcripts in Henderson's hand, and his own writings either in published form or in manuscript.[6]
After completing his book on Cornish bridges, Henderson prepared notes for a similar book on the bridges ofDevon. After his death the civil engineer Edwyn Jervoise completed the book and it was published in 1938.[7]
Essays in Cornish History edited byA. L. Rowse and M. I. Henderson (his wife) 1935 – Contents include: essays on Truro, the origin of towns, Fowey, Lostwithiel, Restormel Castle, Mitchell, Luxulyan, Helston, St Ives, the Deanery of Buryan, the Hundreds of Pydar and Powder, Twelve Men's Moor, Black-more, woodlands, and shorter pieces
Some Notes on the Parish of Goran, otherwise St. Goronus 1936
A History of the Parish ofConstantine in Cornwall; edited by the Rev G. H. Doble. 1937
A History of the Parish and Church of Saint Euny-Lelant withGilbert Hunter Doble andR. Morton Nance, and a description of the Church by M. H. N. C. Atchley. 1939
A History of the Parish ofCrowan ... with explanations of place-names byR. Morton Nance, 1939
Old Devon Bridges. Exeter: A. Wheaton & Co. 1938. (completed by Edwyn Jervoise after Henderson's death)
The 109 Ancient Parishes of the Four Western Hundreds of Cornwall 1955 (inJournal of the Royal Institution of Cornwall)
The Ecclesiastical History of Western Cornwall. 2 vols Truro: Royal Institution of Cornwall; D. Bradford Barton, 1962
The Cornish Church Guide and Parochial History of Cornwall. Truro: D. Bradford Barton, 1964 (a reissue of the Parochial history section only fromThe Cornish Church Guide, to which illustrations are added)
^abHenderson, Charles (1935)Essays in Cornish History; edited by A. L. Rowse and M. I. Henderson. London: Oxford University Press; [memoir], p. xvi
^Henderson, Charles (1935)Essays in Cornish History; edited by A. L .Rowse and M. I. Henderson. London: Oxford University Press; [memoir], p. xvi–xvii, xxiii
^Henderson, Charles (1935)Essays in Cornish History; edited by A. L. Rowse and M. I. Henderson. London: Oxford University Press; [memoir], p. xiv
^Henderson, Charles (1935)Essays in Cornish History; edited by A. L. Rowse and M. I. Henderson. London: Oxford University Press; [memoir], p. xxiv
