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Author: Humphreys, John Doddridge

Biography:

HUMPHREYS, John Doddridge (1795-1846: findmypast.com)

Public records are sparse, partly because of Humphreys’s connection to Protestant Dissent in England. He was the great-grandson of Philip Doddridge (q.v), whose daughter Mary married John Humphreys of Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire, on 5 Nov. 1759. Their son John Doddridge Humphreys (1760-1813) and his wife Mary Wager were the parents of the boy of the same name baptised on 6 Jul. 1795 at Tewkesbury Independent. Nothing is known of his education. He married Mary Davis at Tewkesbury on 30 Apr. 1826; it is not clear whether they had children or not. He settled eventually in Pentonville, London, from where he signed the preface of his most important work, an edition of the Correspondence and Diary of Philip Doddridge in five volumes (1829-31). He also re-edited his ancestor’s hymns from a manuscript that had remained in the family (1839). He later took up the new science promoted by Faraday and others, advocating medical and agricultural applications of electricity. He published a book about “electrophysiology” in 1843 and developed a brand of manure, Humphreys’ Farmer’s Compound, touted for its electrical properties in a book entitled Practical Hints . . . or, Old and New Manures (1844). On four occasions between between 1833 and 1843 he applied successfully to the RLF for support. He died at Pentonville on 17 Sept. 1846. (findmypast.com 1 Feb. 2023; RLF #768; Sun [London] 29 Sept. 1846; The Patriot 29 Sept. 1846)

 

Other Names:

  • John Doddridge Humphreys, Jr.
 

Books written (1):

London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, 1813