Henry Propsting was one of nine children born to Ferdinand (also known as Frederick) and  Ann Propsting (nee Bispham) in Monken Hadley, a rural village  north west of London. He was the oldest surviving son, and became a butcher, as was his father.

 His life changed irrevocably in 1830, when he was tried with two other young men in the Middlesex assizes for the theft of 2 live geese. It has been said that he was  found guilty on the evidence of a ten year old boy; and that the geese had attacked him. Whatever the truth of that is, the three young men aged 16, 19 and 19 were found guilty and sentenced to 7 years transportation to Australia.

 In 1831, on the sailing ship Argyle, Henry was taken to the then Van Diemen’s land.

On arrival in Van Diemen’s Land, Henry was first assigned as a labourer, to Harry H Ridler, a Quaker, and then to Isaac Sherwin in Launceston. Isaac was a committed Methodist, but often had Backhouse and Walker as guests and they were able to hold meetings there.  This may have been where Henry first heard Backhouse and Walker and became convinced that Quakerism was for him.

In 1834 Henry married Ann Beazer in Hobart, in 1835 he received his ticket of leave, and in 1837, a full pardon. He resumed his calling as a butcher, and also farmed near the Jordan River. He was able to gain government contracts to supply meat to road gangs and to the convict settlements on the Tasman Peninsula.

 In April 1836, Henry and Ann applied for membership and Joseph Mather, Abraham Flower and Harry Ridler were appointed to visit with them.

 They reported at the next Meeting in May in the following words:

…. we believe Henry Propsting is further advanced in Christian experience than his wife, yet from the length of time they have regularly attended our Meetings for Worship, and their generally consistent conduct we believe it would be safe to accede to their request

The gathered Meeting decided to ask the committee to again visit Henry and Ann, and report more fully and clearly!

 The Friends at the next meeting for Business in June 1836 must therefore have been astonished to receive the resignation of Harry Ridler and the meeting then appoints a group to visit Harry Ridler, and adds Sarah Mather to the group visiting the Propstings, quite a task for a Meeting which usually had fewer than ten members at Business Meetings.

 In September, the group reports back their recommendation that the Propstings are received into membership, and in October, the decision was made to accept them.

 During that time, three visits are made to Harry Ridler re his resignation, but he stands firm and his resignation is accepted at the same Meeting in which the Propstings are accepted.

 In 1842, Harry Ridler, having rejoined the Society earlier,  tendered another resignation, as he had a falling out with another Friend. It was eventually revealed that the Friend in question was Henry Propsting. It was some time before Harry would agree to meet with Henry, who had quickly agreed to meet for mediation. Finally, they met with JWWalker, J Backhouse and R Mather, and the matter ended with the two men shaking hands

 In 1844, Henry quarrels with a neighbour, then full of contrition writes to the Meeting stating that he was in the wrong, has reconciled with the neighbour and is willing to accept any disciplinary measure decided upon. He is visited by weighty Friends who conclude that there was no need to take the matter further.

So, what kind of man was Henry? Stories have been told of his hotheadedness ( of which he was aware and tried his best to keep under control, though  the above story clearly shows not always succeeding); but also of his humility, kindness and forthrightness.

In Nancie Hewitt’s book Friends in Tasmania 1832-1982, she tells the story of Henry happening to pass a block of land being auctioned near the Cascades brewery. He was invited to make an opening bid to ‘start things’ but no other bid was received, and he became the owner. He did not use the land or even visit it for some time, but when he finally did so, he found a house built upon it! He asked the young man who built the house to visit him, and told him that as he, Henry, was the owner of the land, he was also the legal owner of anything built upon it. He asked the man to go home, think about it and return in a fortnight. As you can imagine, the young man was extremely worried. He had built the house upon what he saw as a neglected piece of land, so that he and his new wife could have a place to live.

When he returned, Henry gave him the deeds to the land as a wedding present and told him not to do anything so foolish again!

 Henry’s marriage to Ann Beazer resulted in thirteen or possibly  fourteen children born between 1835 and about 1856, some of them dying in infancy, as was so often the case back then, and one, James, drowning at the age of six, when a boat he was in overturned.

 Ann died in 1857, and Henry remarried in 1859. His second wife, Hannah Cater, was not then a Quaker, but Henry was not disowned for this, possibly the first time this was allowed in Tasmania. They married in the Registrar’s office, perhaps the fact that it was not by a priest made it less reprehensible. Hannah also bore Henry fourteen children

 Henry, having been convinced by the words of Backhouse and Walker so many years earlier, remained a committed member of the Society all his life, becoming an elder, and being on the original board of the Friends’ School when it was established in 1887. He also participated in the civic life of Hobart as an alderman for some years.

 He died in 1901 on the day of his 91st birthday and an obituary to him in the Hobart Mercury states in a much longer article that:

 Mr. Propsting so regulated his life that everyone with whom he came into contact saw in him carefulness in weighing his words, followed by faithfulness in keeping to them; cautiousness in making appointments, joined with punctuality in fulfilment; promptitude in all his monetary transactions, combined with leniency towards others; firmness in stating his own opinion, coupled with readiness to hear the views of others, whilst always open to conviction, and not backward in acknowledging a mistake : these are some of the qualities which greatly strengthen the bonds of human association, and which increase the steadiness of a community.

 An interesting footnote to this story, is that one of Henry’s sons, William Bispham Propsting became a barrister and then a member of Parliament, even serving as Premier for a year. He was found trying to remove the record of his father’s convict past from the Tasmanian archives, presumably as it was considered a matter of shame back then!