After Henrietta's mother died, she was taken in by her grandmother Margaret Sym Wilson.
[1] By 1833, Henrietta Wilson had moved into her uncle James' house near Edinburgh to care for his invalid wife.
[2] After her uncle's wife died in 1837, Henrietta took over running his house and family.
Wilson also campaigned for qualified nurses to help poorer families if the mother fell sick.
She asked that the proceeds of her last book, The Chronicles of a Garden: its Pets and Pleasures (1863) be donated to the campaign.