Author: Woolrych, H. W.
Biography:
WOOLRYCH, H. W. (1795-1871: ancestry.com)
Humphry William Woolrych was born 24 September 1795 and baptised at All Saints, Edmonton, London, the only son of Humphry Cornewall Woolrych (1761-1816) and his wife Elizabeth Bentley (1769-96), who had married at St. George the Martyr, Holborn, in 1793. He was educated at Eton and St. Edmund Hall , Oxford, (matric. 1816) before proceeding to Lincoln’s Inn where he qualified as a barrister in 1821. He was also at the Inner Temple in 1830. He married Penelope Bradford (1799-1876) on 3 July 1817 at Abbots Langley, Hertfordshire. They had three sons and four daughters, all of whom survived into adulthood. He signed the preface to his poem Winter (1824), a not very original imitation of Thomson, from Keppell Street [Bloomsbury, London], and the title page described him as Barrister-at-Law. In a professional capacity he wrote a series of legal works on a wide variety of topics: enclosures, sewers, game laws, highways, window lights, and much else. However, he is probably now best remembered for his general works on criminal law and in particular capital punishment. His History and Results of the Present Capital Punishments in England; to which are added, Full Tables of Convictions, Executions, etc. (1832) is still of historical interest. He also wrote a number of legal biographies: The Life of Sir Edward Coke (1826), Memoirs of the Life of Judge Jeffreys (1827), Lives of the Eminent Serjeants-at-Law of the English Bar (1869). He subsequently became a Justice of the Peace and from 1855 until his death was Sergeant-at-Law. The family lived in the country at Croxley House, Rickmansworth (which he had inherited from his father) for long periods before moving back to London where he died on 2 July 1871 at 9 Petersham Terrace, South Kensington, leaving an estate of almost £14,000, with his widow and youngest son as executors. (ancestry.co.uk 2 Apr. 2022; findmypast.co.uk 2 Apr. 2022; Worcester Journal 4 Apr. 1816; Morning Chronicle 5 July 1817; Morning Post 10 July 1871) AA