Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 28.djvu/258

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Humphry
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Humphry

harmonious colouring; the same qualities appear in his crayon portraits, and his works in oil are clever, with much of Sir Joshua's feeling. Humphry was a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London and of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, and a member of the academies of Venice, Florence, and Parma. He was unmarried, but, by a young woman named Delly Wickens, daughter of a shopkeeper at Oxford, was the father of the celebrated collector William Upcott [q. v.], who was born in 1779; to him he bequeathed many of his finest works, which at Upcott's death in 1845 passed to his friend Mr. Charles Hampden Turner of Rook's Nest, Godstone. These were lent to the 1865 miniature exhibition at South Kensington, and are still in the possession of Mr. Turner's family. The National Portrait Gallery possesses crayon portraits by Humphry of Charles, third earl Stanhope, and Joseph Strutt; of his work in oils the portraits of Lord Mulgrave at Greenwich and John Belchier at the College of Surgeons are examples. His portraits of the Duke of Dorset, Mr. Fulke Greville, Signora Bacelli, Kitty Frederick, and many others have been engraved. In 1783 he made for Edmund Malone a drawing of the Chandos portrait of Shakespeare, which was engraved by Charles Knight for Malone's edition of Shakespeare, 1790. Humphry was a staunch friend and admirer of Blake, who coloured many of his illustrated books for him, and at his suggestion the Countess of Egremont gave Blake the commission for one of his most elaborate drawings of the Last Judgment. Some of Humphry's sketchbooks of eastern drawings are in the Brit. Mus. Add. MSS. 15958-65.

There is a fine portrait of Humphry at Knole, painted by Romney in 1772, which has been engraved in mezzotinto by Valentine Green, and in stipple by Caroline Watson; an enamel copy from this by Henry Bone, R.A., is the property of Miss Abbott of Exmouth. Two other portraits, drawn by P. Falconet and G. Dance, were engraved by D. P. Pariset and W. Daniell. In the print room of the British Museum is a crayon portrait of him by himself, and one in pencil, at the age of sixty-one, by Henry Edridge.

[Redgrave's Dict. of Artists; Graves's Dict. of Artists, 1760-1880; Hobbes's Picture Collectors' Manual; Taylor's Records of my Life, ed. 1832 i. 256, &c.; Sandby's Hist. of the Royal Academy; J. T. Smith's Nollekens and his Times; Gent. Mag. 1810, p. 378; Gilchrist's Life of Blake; Prior's Life of E. Malone; Upcott Papers in Brit. Mus. Add. MS. 21113; information from Winslow Jones, esq.]

F. M. O'D.

HUMPHRY, WILLIAM GILSON (1815–1886), divine, born at Sudbury, Suffolk, on 30 Jan. 1815, was son of William Wood Humphry, barrister-at-law, and was brother of George (now Sir George) Murray Humphry, professor of surgery in the university of Cambridge. Humphry was educated at Carmalt's school, Putney, and afterwards at Shrewsbury, under Dr. Samuel Butler [q. v.], becoming in course of time captain of the school. In 1833 he entered Trinity College, Cambridge, and in 1835 gained the Pitt scholarship. Two years later he graduated as senior classic, second chancellor's medallist, and twenty-seventh wrangler, and in 1839 he was elected a fellow of his college. Humphry was intended for the legal profession, but this proved distasteful to him after a brief trial, and in 1842 he took holy orders. For some years he was engaged in work at Cambridge, acting as steward and assistant tutor of Trinity, and he was proctor of the university in 1845-6. From 1847 to 1855 he was examining chaplain to Bishop Blomfield of London. In 1852 Humphry became rector of Northolt, Middlesex. From 1855 until his death in 1886 he was vicar of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, London. He was appointed Hulsean lecturer for 1849 and 1850, and Boyle lecturer for 1857 and 1858, was a member of the royal commission on clerical subscription in 1865, and of the ritual commission in 1869, and was one of the company appointed by convocation in 1870 for the revision of the authorised version of the New Testament. As one of the treasurers of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge he steered the society through at least one period of difficulty and danger, and his business capacity and judgment during the thirty years he held the office were of great service to the society. He was a diligent parish priest, and gave special attention to the educational institutions of his parish. He died on 10 Jan. 1886, and was buried in Brompton cemetery. In 1852 he married Caroline Maria, only daughter of George D'Oyly, D.D. [q. v.], rector of Lambeth.

Humphry published: 1. 'A Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles' (well known as 'Humphry on the Acts'), London, 1847. 2. 'The Doctrine of a Future State,' the Hulsean lectures for 1849(1850). 3. 'The Early Progress of the Gospel,' the Hulsean lectures for 1850 (1850). 4. `The Miracles' (Boyle lectures), 1858. 5. 'The Character of St. Paul' (Boyle lectures), 1859. 6. 'An Historical and Explanatory Treatise on the Book of Common Prayer,' 1st edit. 1853, 5th edit. 1875, reprinted 1885. 7. 'The New Table of Lessons explained.' 8. 'A Word on the