William Humfreys
English ironmonger and politician
Sir William Humfreys, 1st Baronet (also spelled Humphreys; died 26 October 1735), was a British ironmonger and politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1715 to 1722. He was Lord Mayor of London for 1714–15 and a Director of the Bank of England between 1719 and 1730.
He was the only son of ironmonger Nathaniel Humfreys of Candlewick Street, London. His father was the second son of William Ap Humfrey, of Penrhyn, Montgomeryshire. He followed his father into the ironmongery trade of London, and was Master of the Worshipful Company of Ironmongers in 1705. He became an oilman and drysalter in Poultry, London, living afterwards in Bloomsbury Square.
Humfreys was Sheriff of London, 1704–05, and was knighted on 26 October 1704. He was Alderman of Cheap ward from 29 July 1707, and of Bridge Without from 25 January 1733 until his death. From 1711 to 1715, he was a Director of the East India Company. He was Lord Mayor of London for 1714–15, and in that capacity officiated on 20 October 1714 at the Coronation of the British monarch, George I of Great Britain, entertaining the King and his court at Guildhall, London.
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This entry incorporates text from “William Humfreys” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.