reputation as a representative of pert and cunning chambermaids, and her Patch in the 'Busy Body,' her Kitty in 'High Life below Stairs,' her Audrey, and other similar characters, won her high reputation. When, however, she essayed Lydia Languish at the Haymarket and other ambitious parts, she failed. The 'Dramatic Magazine,' 1 Aug. 1829, says she is 'admirable as the representative of waiting-maids and milliners,' but 'does not possess the refined and delicate manners requisite for the heroines of genteel comedy. Her Maria Darlington was by no means good' (i. 161). Charles J. Mathews speaks of her as a young and pretty woman, inimitable as the Bride in the 'Happiest Day of my Life,' Cowslip, and other similar characters. Her representation of Lady Clutterbuck in 'Used up,' of which she was the original exponent, he calls 'delicious,' adding that every word she spoke was `a gem.' Her `intelligent by-play and the crisp smack of her delivery gave a fillip to the scene when the author himself had furnished nothing particularly witty or humorous' (Letter quoted in Memoir of Henry Compton, pp. 286–94). She was the original Chicken in Douglas Jerrold's 'Time works Wonders,' Polly Briggs in his 'Rent Day,' and Sophy Hawes in his 'Housekeeper.' Macready in his diary, 19 July 1837, says: `Spoke to Mrs. Humby, and engaged her for 6l. 10s. a week' (ii. 78). She appears to have been acting in 1844, and in the autumn of 1849 was at the Lyceum, but her later performances, with the dates of her retirement from the stage and death, are untraceable. The late E. L. Blanchard said that she had been seen alive and in obscurity a very few years ago. A not too delicate epigram upon her did something to popularise her name. Her first intention was to appear as a singer; her voice, however, gave way, and her musical performances rarely extended beyond singing chambermaids. Humby practised as a dentist in Wellington Street, Strand, and died in Guernsey. Mrs. Humby subsequently married a stonemason residing at Castelnau Villas, Hammersmith.
[Books cited; Genest's Account of the English Stage; Theatrical Observer, vols. vii. viii. Dublin, 1820–1; Dramatic Mag. 1829; Our Actresses, by Mrs. Baron Wilson, 1844; private information.]
HUME. [See also Home.]
HUME, ABRAHAM (1616?–1707), ejected divine, a native of the Merse, Berwickshire, was born about 1616. He was educated at St. Andrews, where he graduated M.A. Leaving the university, he became chaplain to the widowed Countess of Home, who brought him to London. John Maitland [q. v.], afterwards Duke of Lauderdale, who married the countess's second daughter, took Hume with him on his travels to Paris and Geneva. He subsequently attended on his patron in Scotland, and accompanied him to London in 1643, when Maitland was one of the Scottish commissioners to the Westminster Assembly. While there Hume obtained the vicarage of Long Benton, Northumberland, and on 20 April 1647 received presbyterian orders from members of the fourth London classis, Nathaniel Hardy, D.D. [q. v.], being one of his ordainers. His ministry was popular, but being a strong royalist his politics were obnoxious to Sir Arthur Hesilrige [q. v.], who procured his banishment from England. He lived obscurely in Scotland till 1653, when Hesilrige joined in procuring him the vicarage of Whittingham, Northumberland. He stood out against any acknowledgment of Cromwell's government, and was instrumental in obtaining the appointment of royalist presbyterians to vacant parishes. In 1662 the Uniformity Act ejected him. He became chaplain to Lauderdale, but of this situation he was deprived by inability to take the oath imposed by the Five Miles Act of 1665. Lauderdale offered him preferment if he would conform, and on his refusal cast him off. In 1669 he travelled in France, making the acquaintance of Jean Claude at Charenton. Returning to London, he became chaplain to Alderman Plampin, on whose death he took the charge of a presbyterian congregation in Bishopsgate Street Without. The congregation was broken up, and he retired to Theobalds, Hertfordshire, and preached privately till 1687. On the strength of James's declaration for liberty of conscience he returned once more to London, and was called to a presbyterian congregation in Drury Street, Westminster. How long he held this charge is not known; Glascock was the minister in 1695. He died on 29 Jan. 1707, aged about 92, according to his tombstone in Bunhill Fields. His funeral sermon was preached by Robert Fleming the younger [q. v.]
[Funeral Sermon by Fleming, 1707; Calamy's Account, 1713, pp. 511 sq.; Calamy's Continuation, 1727, ii. 672; Protestant Dissenter's Mag., 1799, p. 349; Wilson's Dissenting Churches of London, 1808, i. 398; Urwick's Nonconformity in Herts, 1884, p. 510 (confuses the Merse with the Mearns).]
HUME, Sir ABRAHAM (1749–1838), virtuoso, was son of Sir Abraham Hume, who died on 10 Oct. 1772, having married on 9 Oct. 1746 Hannah, sixth and youngest
