Wingfield Sculls - Henry Wingfield

Henry Wingfield

Henry Colsell Wingfield, born 1805, an Old Westminster, married Jane Nicholls in Margate, Kent in 1828. Henry Wingfield (“the First” of 3 Henrys) was the grandson of a rich hatter (felt hats), the son of an attorney and was raised at St James’s Parish, Westminster.

He and Jane lived at 37 Great Marlborough Street near Oxford Circus — now rebuilt as a Coffee Republic and O'Neill's Irish Bar. They had two children. In 1842 Jane divorced Henry for adultery. Henry stayed long enough to bury his beloved daughter Emma 10 months later, in a new grand family grave at Kensal Green, Kensington and then emigrated to Prince Edward County — now part of Canada — which juts into Lake Ontario.

He farmed near Picton near South Marysburgh for 20 years, sometimes visiting England. In 1861, Henry Wingfield sold his farm and — wishing to spend his last days in England, embarked for Liverpool. At noon on 4 June 1861, 4 miles off the north point of Newfoundland in fog, his ship, the SS Canadian, struck an iceberg and the Wingfield Sculls Founder and about 30 others of the passengers and crew of 300 went to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean.