Humphry William Woolrych (1795–1871) was an English lawyer, known as a legal writer and biographer.

Life

He was the son of Humphry Cornewall Woolrych and Elizabeth, elder daughter of William Bentley of Red Lion Square, London, and was born at Southgate,

Middlesex Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a historic county in southeast England. Its area is almost entirely within the wider urbanised area of London and mostly within the ceremonial county of Greater London, with small sections in neighbouri ...

, on 24 September 1795. He was educated at

Eton College Eton College () is a public school in Eton, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1440 by Henry VI under the name ''Kynge's College of Our Ladye of Eton besyde Windesore'',Nevill, p. 3 ff. intended as a sister institution to King's College ...

, and matriculated at St. Edmund Hall, Oxford, on 14 December 1816, but did not take a degree. He was admitted student at

Lincoln's Inn The Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn is one of the four Inns of Court in London to which barristers of England and Wales belong and where they are called to the Bar. (The other three are Middle Temple, Inner Temple and Gray's Inn.) Lincoln ...

on 24 November 1819, and

called to the bar The call to the bar is a legal term of art in most common law jurisdictions where persons must be qualified to be allowed to argue in court on behalf of another party and are then said to have been "called to the bar" or to have received "call to ...

in 1821. In 1830 he was called ''ad eundem'' at the

Inner Temple The Honourable Society of the Inner Temple, commonly known as the Inner Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court and is a professional associations for barristers and judges. To be called to the Bar and practise as a barrister in England and Wa ...

; he was admitted at Gray's Inn on 13 July 1847, and in 1855 he was created

serjeant-at-law A Serjeant-at-Law (SL), commonly known simply as a Serjeant, was a member of an order of barristers at the English and Irish Bar. The position of Serjeant-at-Law (''servientes ad legem''), or Sergeant-Counter, was centuries old; there are wri ...

. Woolrych lived at

Croxley Green Croxley Green is both a village and a suburb of Rickmansworth in Hertfordshire, England. It is also a civil parish. Located on the A412 between Watford to the northeast and Rickmansworth to the southwest, it is approximately northwest of centra ...

, where his father had bought an estate and at 9 Petersham Terrace,

Kensington Kensington is a district in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in the West of Central London. The district's commercial heart is Kensington High Street, running on an east–west axis. The north-east is taken up by Kensington Garden ...

. He died at Kensington on 2 July 1871, and was buried in

Rickmansworth Rickmansworth () is a town in southwest Hertfordshire, England, about northwest of central London and inside the perimeter of the M25 motorway. The town is mainly to the north of the Grand Union Canal (formerly the Grand Junction Canal) and t ...

cemetery.

Works

Woolrych as serjeant-at-law wrote about the degree, soon to be abolished: *''Remarks on the Rank of Queen's Serjeant'', 1866; *''The Bar of England and the Serjeant-at-law'', 1867; and *''Lives of Eminent Serjeants-at-law'', 1869, in two volumes. His legal textbooks and tracts were: * ''Rights of Common'', 1824; 2nd edit. 1850. * ''Law of Certificates'', 1826. * ''Law of Ways'', 1829; 2nd edit. 1847. * ''Commercial and Mercantile Law of England'', 1829. * ''Law of Waters and Sewers'', 1830; 2nd edit. 1851. * ''History and Results of Present Capital Punishments in England'', 1832. * ''Our Island: a Novel'' non. 1832, 3 vols. * ''Four Letters on Bill for General Registry of Deeds'', 1833. * ''Law of Window Lights'', 1833. * ''New Highways Act'', 2nd edit. 1836. * ''Treatise on Criminal Statutes of 7 Will. IV & 1 Vict.'' 1837. * ''New Inclosure Act'', 1837; with notes and indexes, 1846. * ''Treatise on Misdemeanours'', 1842. * ''Law of Party Walls and Fences, including the New Metropolitan Buildings Act'', 1845. * ''Treatise on Sewers and Drainage Acts''; 2nd edit. 1849; 3rd edit. 1864. * ''Public Health Act'', 1849. * ''Legal Time, its Computations and Reckonings'', 1851. * ''Metropolitan Building Act'', 1856; 2nd edit. 1877; 3rd edit. 1882. * ''Game Laws'', 1858. * ''Criminal Law as amended by Statutes of 1861'', 1862. * ''Private Executions'', 1867. Woolrych also wrote: * ''Winter: a Poem'', 1824, which was inspired by Thomson's ''Seasons''. * ''A Series of Lord Chancellors, Keepers, and other Legal Officers from Queen Elizabeth until the Present Day'', 1826. *
The Life of Sir Edward Coke
', 1826; and * ''Memoirs of the Life of Judge Jeffreys'', 1827. He published in 1842 a second edition of Charles Penruddocke's ''Short Analysis of the Criminal Law of England'', was a contributor to the ''Globe and Traveller'', and read papers to the Law Amendment Society.

Family

Woolrych married, on 3 July 1817, at Abbot's Langley, Hertfordshire, Penelope, youngest daughter of Francis Bradford of Great Westwood, Hertfordshire. She died at 9 Petersham Terrace on 23 September 1876, aged 76, and was also buried at Rickmansworth. They had issue three sons and four daughters. His third daughter, Anna Maria Raikes Woolrych, married, on 2 July 1862, John James Stewart Perowne.

Notes

;Attribution {{DEFAULTSORT:Woolrych, Humphry William 1795 births 1871 deaths English barristers English legal writers English biographers People from Southgate, London People educated at Eton College Alumni of St Edmund Hall, Oxford People from Croxley Green Serjeants-at-law (England) 19th-century English lawyers