Judging character from the distance of time

One of Robert Geary Henderson's grandchildren
not in any way important to our family story
but a wonderful character photo!

This week I started to move on from the long research into Robert and Catherine Henderson and the logical next step was their son Robert Geary Henderson. As many will know he was a very different man to his father, but it got me thinking about how we judge character through the mists of time.

The photo right is Robert Frederick Henderson jnr, grandson of Robert Geary Henderson. He is not important to our story, but he is such a grim looking character, I could not resist the temptation!

Sometimes there is something written about a person's character, but in my experience this is rare, and often tainted by the context.  A glowing character reference given in a eulogy for example, has to be taken with a grain of salt, because unsavoury character references are unlikely in this context - it is a picture biased by the context.

More often we rely on the actions of a person as recorded by what evidence survives. 

In the case of the first Robert Henderson we have a lot of small pieces of information about his business and personal activities drawn from a range of sources. They generally paint a picture of an ambitious, industrious and basically honest man, even if he did dabble in a bit of smuggling now and then! There are hints that he was ruthless in business dealings.

In contrast, we have very little information about his wife, Catherine Geary. That is not unusual for the times in which she lived where most references were to the husband. But to what extent were the actions of Robert the result of Catherine''s influence? Could it be that the kinder side of Robert that occasionally shows through is actually Catherine quietly influencing from behind the scenes? We will never know!

This is one of the reasons I am writing the chapters of my family history about a couple rather than individuals. I would like to think that the success or otherwise of a family is a result of two people, and because of the paternal nature of earlier times, the women in our family story are often unrepresented. I would hate to think that by combining the stories into one I make it seem that the women don't matter.

People in the past also had different ideas about character. Robert Baden-Powell (the founder of the scouting movement) wrote about how you could judge character by the way a man walked or wore his hat! Needless to say I think that is rubbish!

I don't think you can judge character on appearance, so I would be reluctant to judge the Henderson pictured above on the basis of the photo alone. The context is important - in this case it came from the records at Darlinghurst Prison! More important perhaps is the details of the crime. I would judge a man more harshly if he perpetrated domestic violence than if he stole food to feed his children. But it is a sad fact of history that a man would more likely to find himself in prison for the stealing offence. Domestic abuse went largely unreported.

I found a case this week when a granddaughter of Robert Geary Henderson was beaten in public by her abusive husband. The husband was fined £15. The story justified just three lines in the newspaper!