Obituaries Australia

Henry Anstey, n.d.

The pretty sacred edifice at Oatlands, of which the Rev. Father Kehean as pastor, has been recently raised into special public notice by the intelligence received by the last English mail of the lamented death at Home of Mr. H. F. [Henry Frampton] Anstey, one of the chief pillars of that church in this municipality, and of which he was an attached, devoted, and liberal patron, and to which the deceased gentleman has, it is rumoured, left by his will a handsome bequest, to form a kind of sinking fund to be employed for the maintenance of this structure, as occasion may require. The sad news of the death of Mr. Anstey cast a gloom over very many countenances. From ancestral associations, and his long residence, even from boyhood, upon the splendid estate at Anstey Barton, distant about three miles from the township of Oatlands, necessarily drew around him the people of this part. By universal consent he was elected as their representative in the senate. He was at the head of the local magistracy, in which capacity he comported himself with dignity, temper, and judgment. Added to this, he was active in every local movement for the welfare of the district. He dispensed his patronage with an unsparing and also with a liberal hand, even to a fault. He was honored with a public ovation prior to his regretted departure from Oatlands, at the close of 1859, and his domicile in the Eternal City has been regarded with the friendly solicitude of very many dwellers of Oatlands, who unhappily will never see his face again. He has died, therefore, to the unfeigned sorrow of all classes in this part of Tasmania, who will not soon forget his many good qualities, as well as his usefulness, during the brief public career which he was permitted to hold.