The first son of Henry Slade and Charlotte Lousley received the same name as his father, baptised in September 1817.  As noticed, we have nothing first hand from Henry, but the comments made in the letters written to him do provide a sketch of the time he spends in Australia and India.

Henry, it seems, does have an eye for a fine form.  Apparently engaged to marry Anne Fuller, this arrangement had become shattered following the interference from her mother.  On his trip to Tasmania he noticed a particularly good looking woman, reassuring his mother that he had also found time to attend the prayer meetings in Hobart.  One Captain Dring gave the impression that he intended to ship his daughter out to Calcutta for Henry Slade.  Calcutta had plenty to offer and Henry accepted it, making regular trips to the nautches, watching the dancing girls perform.  This line of behaviour culminates in the news, shocking to most, that he plans to return and marry Mrs Elizabeth Fuller, the mother of his now dead former fiancée, Anne Fuller.  This, of course, comes to nothing, if it ever existed at all - since she seems to have spread the story - and he marries Frances Pool after his return.

Henry’s ship The Westmoreland probably left Yarmouth for Australia.  They went by way of St Jago and arrived at Swan River early in 1840.  He had assembled an expedition, taking with him a number of people from the surrounding villages, planning to go for two years.  John Herbert accompanied him as a servant.  The Swan River colony had come into life much later than the settlements on the East Coast.  Some forty years after The First Fleet, settlers landed to found the Swan River colony.  This settlement began without any convict presence, the settlers being free, adventurers and pioneers in search of a fortune.  Frederick Slade had perhaps come out early in the life of the colony.  Henry arrived just over ten years after the colony’s establishment.  The letters actually mention the Western Australia Company, although in connection with a second foundation: Australind.  Early on we find signs that he may not settle down and a trip to Tasmania follows soon.  This trip had the objective of acquiring livestock and he duly fulfilled that objective, returning on the Brig Jean.  He may have visited there the estate belonging to his relatives, the Axfords.  The climate in Swan River proves testing - scorching hot, poisonous insects - and the work seems physically hard as well.  Furthermore, he finds the place full of wickedness and rough behaviour.  Nevertheless, he announces his plan to stay for five years, perhaps doing more of the charter business mentioned by his mother.  He even sends home for more supplies and more people, a message that gets some of the people in Blewbury excited at the earnings prospects.  We hear stories from someone who has seen Henry’s servant ‘fat as a pig’.  Notwithstanding all of this, Henry decides to leave Swan River by Christmas 1841. We cannot tell whether Henry left any business in place at Swan River.  The letters tell us that his uncle and aunt remained out there once he had gone to India.  Nevertheless, perhaps some Slade linkage with this part of the world did continue.  Years later, we know that Walter Edward Slade, Henry’s nephew, son of his brother Benjamin, died at Freemantle on his return to Adelaide.  He may have called in at Freemantle to manage some family business, only to die there.

A gap in the letters of some sixteen months occurs, after which we discover that Henry has dropped anchor in Calcutta, without sign of arrival in England.  Subsequent letters refer frequently to the amount of unpaid debts piling up interest until we hear that his uncle Frederick helps to sell up Henry’s position in Swan River.  His parents pay his bills with Mr Gillott in London.  It seems that a wool venture in Swan River failed to the tune of £90.  We learn much less about his affairs in Calcutta, save only that he works as the manager for a Mr Paul, perhaps a box-wallah of some sort.  He also suffers from illness and enjoys a good social life.

During this period we learn the rather startling news that he apparently plans to marry Mrs Elizabeth Fuller.  Reading back through the letters we can perhaps spot this relationship bubbling under the surface.  Apparently Mrs Fuller constantly works herself up into a frenzy that Henry may have married abroad.  We know that Henry does correspond with Mrs Fuller, but the information as to his intention of marrying her comes from a conversation between Mrs Fuller and his mother.  With a macabre touch, she alters her dead daughter Anne’s clothes to fit her for the occasion.  We know more about this process since a gap of some eighteen months occurs before the two final letters.  These come from his brother Benjamin, but seem addressed to him as returned to England.  No mention of Mrs Fuller occurs.  We find him in the 1851 Census married to Frances Pool.  She probably comes from Liverpool, but the Census gives her three birthplaces, including Aston Upthorpe.  The 1861 Census records her birthplace as Cricklade.  We will remember that Henry’s sister, Charlotte Workman, went to that place with her husband in search of a new medical practice early in the 1840s.  By 1851, of course, his father has died.  Both he and his brother Benjamin appear as farmers of the estate, split between them, with the younger brother having the larger acreage.  So, after his great adventure, Henry returns to follow in the well-trodden footsteps of centuries.

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