James ("The Squire") Humphrys (1805–1899) was a poor law guardian and farmer in Glenstal and Boher, County Limerick. Born in 1805 in Glenstal, he was educated in a hedge school and became a tenant farmer in Glenstal, Co. Limerick leasing from Sir Matthew Barrington, 2nd Baronet of the Barrington baronets of Limerick. He married Margaret Ryan in 1841. He was father-in-law to the Irish revolutionary activist Nell Humphreys.
He became a Poor Law Guardian for the Poor Law Union of Limerick and is described as such in an 1876 newspaper report and in an 1882 court dispute with his landlord Sir Croker Barrington, 4th Baronet about payment of rent. As a result of the dispute, Barrington put the lease on the Humphrys farm at Glenstal up for sale, and Humphrys had to buy it back, which he did. In 1883, he sued Sir Croker Barrington for having allowed sheep to trespass on his lands at Glenstal. He won the case, and Sir Croker was fined.
James Humphrys died in 1899 and Margaret Humphrys in 1909. On her death there was a vote of sympathy at meeting of Limerick Guardians. There is a stained glass window in honour of James and Margaret Humphrys in Murroe Church, erected by one of their children, Rev. James Humphreys.
References
- See Irish Times, 7 August 1882.
- See Fr Mark Tierney, Murroe and Boher - the history of an Irish Country Parish, Dublin, 1966, p.181.
- Limerick Leader, Wednesday 10 February 1909.
- "James Humphrys, "The Squire", of Glenstal". humphrysfamilytree.com. Retrieved 18 December 2017.
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