Renshaw, Henry

Submitted by Mike Miller

Renshaw, Henry, Judge of the First City Court in New Orleans, was born in this city March 14, 1845, from the marriage of Henry Renshaw with Miss Eliza Ann Rebecca White. Henry Renshaw (Sr.) was born in Philadelphia, Pa., Sept. 22, 1812, and in early manhood came to New Orleans to make it his home and became one of its prominent merchants. The mother of Judge Renshaw was a native of Louisiana, born at Lake Concordia, March 21, 1819. Henry Renshaw, the subject of this sketch, was educated in New Orleans, and at Pass Christian, Miss., and at the Belmont academy, Nelson county, Va. He read law in New Orleans in the office of Clarke & Bayne, a firm of lawyers then enjoying an extensive practice. In Nov., 1866, he was admitted to practice by the supreme court of Louisiana, but continued the course of study at the law department of the University of Louisiana, now Tulane university, where he graduated in March, 1867. He became the partner of the gentlemen in whose office he had been a law student. In 1905 he was appointed by Gov. Newton C. Blanchard as judge to fill a vacancy on the bench of the First City Court in New Orleans. He was elected to succeed himself in this office in 1908, and again in 1912. He has acceptably served as a member of the court and won the reputation of an able jurist. Dec. 20, 1876, Judge Renshaw married Marie Eugenie Deynoodt, a native of New Orleans, and eldest daughter born from the marriage of Joseph Deynoodt with Miss Solidelle Le Gardeur de Tilly, a native of New Orleans. Joseph Deynoodt was born in Ghent, Belgium, and was for some time Belgian consul in New Orleans, but afterwards engaged in sugar culture in Louisiana. Judge Renshaw is a member of the Louisiana Historical society, and manifests great interest in the work to which that society is devoted. Papers from his pen appear in the publications of that society. He is possessed of literary tastes and and the local press has published compositions by him in prose and verse. In religion he is a Roman Catholic. He is a member of the Catholic Alumni sodality.

Source: Louisiana: Comprising Sketches of Parishes, Towns, Events, Institutions, and Persons, Arranged in Cyclopedic Form (volume 3), pp. 569-570. Edited by Alcée Fortier, Lit.D. Published in 1914, by Century Historical Association.