of the Moravian Congregation at Lancaster. Henry was the earliest patron of painter Benjamin West, who lodged in Henry's home in Lancaster in 1756 and painted portraits of William and Ann Henry, probably shortly after their marriage. More significantly, Henry encouraged West to paint The Death of Socrates (1756), perhaps the first history painting produced in the colonies; West credited Henry with having initiated the painter's interest in history painting, the genre for which the painter became famous. Legacy Henry's sons carried on his gun business, in Lancaster, in Philadelphia, in Nazareth, Pennsylvania, and then in Boulton, PA. One of his sons, John Joseph Henry, served as a sixteen-year-old rifleman on Benedict Arnold's march on Quebec in the fall and winter of 1775 (he was captured and imprisoned for much of 1776), and later served as president judge of the second District in Pennsylvania from 1795–1811. See also Gelelemend Notes References Jordan, Francis. The Life of William Henry, of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, 1729–1786, Patriot, Military Officer, Inventor of the Steamboat; A Contribution to Revolutionary History. Lancaster, Pa.: New Era Printing Company, 1910. Purcell, L. Edward. Who Was Who in the American Revolution. New York: Facts on File, 1993. . Whitfield J. Bell, Jr., "William Henry (1729–1786)," in Patriot-Improvers: Biographical Sketches of Members of the American Philosophical Society, Volume One: 1743–1768 (Philadelphia, 1997), 349–61. Gordon, Scott Paul. Two William Henrys: Indian and White Brothers in Arms and Faith in Colonial and Revolutionary America. Jacobsburg Historical Society, 2010. Gordon, Scott Paul. "The Ambitions of William Henry." Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 136, no. 3 (2012): 253–284. External links 1729 births 1786 deaths American inventors Continental Congressmen from Pennsylvania 18th-century American politicians Gunsmiths Politicians from Lancaster, Pennsylvania People from Downingtown, Pennsylvania American people of Scotch-Irish descent Colonial American merchants Members of the American Philosophical Society Businesspeople from Lancaster, Pennsylvania