Henry Walton JP (1817–1896) was a New Zealand farmer and politician.
Walton was born in England, the son of a crape manufacturer. Together following his brother Charles, he came to New Zealand in 1840 and arranged at Maungatapere close Whangārei. Henry and Charles Walton came later than workers and together taking into consideration Thomas Elmsley, they conventional farms in the area. Henry Walton’s farm was on the slopes of Maungatapere hill and was called ‘Maungatapere Park’. After the Flagstaff War, Walton employed former soldiers to build stone walls that are still a feature of the area. Henry Walton married Kohura, Te Tirarau Kukupa’s niece, in 1846. After she died in childbirth, he married her sister, Pehi, but she died in a measles epidemic in 1856.
Walton built a road amongst Maungatapere and Whangarei in 1858. He afterward became on the go in coal mining and shipbuilding, and was one of the partners in the timber mill at Te Kōpuru. Walton was one of the founding shareholders in the Bank of New Zealand. The brothers supplied most of the building timber to the Kaipara Timber Mills, and they started the lime kiln that is situated on Limestone Island {Motu Matakohe} in Whangārei Harbour.
On 17 October 1863, he was appointed to the New Zealand Legislative Council, where he served until his resignation on 8 May 1866. On 14 November 1865, he was elected to the Auckland Provincial Council for the Marsden electorate; he resigned upon 28 October 1867. He left New Zealand in 1867 and returned to England to accept over his father’s business. Maungatapere Park was eventually sold for subdivision into farms.
He died in England in 1896.
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