HUMPHREYS
,
JAMES
(
c.
1768
-
1830
),
legal writer
;
b. at
Montgomery
, he was the sixth child of
Charles Gardiner
Humphreys
,
solicitor
. Educated at
Shrewsbury school
, he was articled to
William
Pugh
,
Caerhowell, Mont.
, going later to the office of a
solicitor
named
Yeomans
at
Worcester
. In
Nov. 1887
he went to
London
. He became a pupil of
Charles
Butler
and was entered at
Lincoln's Inn
. He was
called to the Bar
on
25 June 1800
and afterwards obtained a good practice as a
conveyancer
. In politics
Humphreys
was a
Liberal
and was friendly with
Fox
,
Sir
James
Mackintosh
,
Sir
Francis
Burdett
, and
Horne
Tooke
. His chief work was
Observations on the Actual State of the English Laws of Real Property, with the outlines of a Code
(
London
,
1826
, 2nd ed.
1827
). This work gave him a high reputation as a
legal reformer
. The changes which he proposed were later adopted.
Humphreys
d.
29 Nov. 1830
in
Upper Woburn Place
,
London
.
Bibliography:
-
Cambrian Quarterly Magazine
, four
volumes, 1829–33
, iii 288;
-
Oxford Dictionary of National
Biography
;
-
Eminent Welshmen
, 1908
.
Author:
Elwyn Evans, M.A., Aberystwyth
