HUMPHREYS, JAMES (c. 1768 - 1830), legal writer
Date of birth: c. 1768
Date of death: 1830
Parent: Charles Gardiner Humphreys
Gender: Male
Occupation: legal writer
Area of activity: Law; Literature and Writing
Author: Elwyn Evans
Born at Montgomery, he was the sixth child of Charles Gardiner Humphreys, solicitor. Educated at Shrewsbury school, he was articled to William Pugh, Caerhowell, Montgomeryshire, going later to the office of a solicitor named Yeomans at Worcester. In November 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 died 29 November 1830 in Upper Woburn Place, London.
Author
- Elwyn Evans
- Cambrian Quarterly Magazine (1829–33), iii 288
- Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
- T. R. Roberts, Eminent Welshmen: a short biographical dictionary of Welshmen... from the earliest times to the present (1908)
Sources
- Wikipedia Article: James Humphreys
Further Reading
Published date: 1959
Article Copyright: http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC-RUU/1.0/
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