Henry van Wart (1783-1873)

He was born at Tarrytown, New York, and was a grandnephew of Isaac Van Wart who in 1780 was one of three men who captured the British spy Major John André who was tried and executed for conspiring with Benedict Arnold. Choosing a business career, Van Wart was apprenticed to Irving & Smith in New York City, the senior partner of which was William Irving, elder brother of the author Washington Irving. He married their younger sister, Sallie, heroine of the Story of the Wife in The Sketch Book. They went to Liverpool in England to start up a new branch of Irving & Smith. The firm failed in 1814 in the aftermath of the War of 1812 and the Van Warts returned to New York. He went back to England and established Henry Van Wart, Son & Co. that quickly became successful exporting the city's goods to America. He founded the Birmingham Stock Exchange where a full length portrait of him hangs.

Mrs Van Wart's famous brother often stayed with the family in Birmingham and he wrote several books while their guest. He wrote the famous story of Rip van Winkle through the night at the Van Wart's house on Camden Hill, reading it to his hosts over breakfast the next day. Irving also wrote The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Bracebridge Hall, or, The Humorists, A Medley (1822), and the greater part of The Sketch Book while staying with the Van Warts. Alhambra and Mahomet and his Successors were drafted on his travels but were both completed at the Van Warts in Birmingham. The Van Warts were the parents of six surviving children (listed) and were the grandparents of the sculptor Ames Van Wart.