Thomas Large HENLY was an entrepeneur! Born in 1826 he was the son of Abraham Henly, a wine merchant, mill owner and Mayor of Calne. Thomas married Catherine Baily and they had eight children. Thomas was apprenticed as a paper maker and in 1850 he bought Swaddon's Mill in Calne. At this time he also operated a paper mill near Bath. In Calne he used the mill to scutch Flax which he also attempted to grow locally. In 1852 and 1856 he was Mayor of Calne. Following a fire at his mill in 1853 and an unsuccessful attempt to stand for parliament he was declared Bankrupt in 1867. He decided to emigrate to Uruguay. On Saturday 11th January 1868 Thomas Large Henly held a meeting in the Lansdown Arms, Calne at which he outlined his plans to take some 30 Wiltshire farm labourers and their families to Uruguay in South America to cultivate flax. The meeting was widely reported in local papers and in The Times. On Tuesday February 4th this band of 40 people left Calne by train for Liverpool where they set sail on the Tycho Brahe bound for Montevideo via Rio. According to The Devizes Advertiser and The Wiltshire Independant newspapers they left to the cheers and good wishes of more than 1000 people who gathered to see them off. Each family left with gifts from the local Temperance Society. According to a letter received by The Devizes Gazette from Thomas Large Henly they arrived in Paysandú, Uruguay on 9th March 1868 and were about to set out on the last few miles to their destination. That is the last report received from this party. However, at a meeting in Buenos Aires in 1869 and reported in the Buenos Aires Herald, Thomas stated that the yield of flax from this estancia had exceed all expectations. Very little of what happened to the first party is still unknown. Did these farm labourers find their Eldorado as the North Wilts Herald called it? Research in Wiltshire revealed that one Henry WILTSHIRE and his wife Ann were in this party this led to the discovery of his present-day descendants. Henry's wife was in fact Ann HALL daughter of John HALL of Yatton Keynell, Wiltshire and I should be most interested to hear from any members of the HALL family who are related to Ann ie., descendants of her brothers and sisters. Research has also revealed that the Inn-keeper of the Fox and Hounds in Colerne Hight St, in 1891 was John CLACK and his daughter Susan, aged 9 at the time of the census, was born in La Plata, Argentina. I should be most grateful if any present-day members of the CLACK family can cast any light on this family and what they did in Argentina.