Humphry William Woolrych (1795–1871) was an English lawyer, known as a legal writer and biographer.
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, on 24 September 1795. He was educated at Eton 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 on 24 November 1819, and called to the bar in 1821. In 1830 he was called ad eundem at the Inner Temple; he was admitted at Gray's Inn on 13 July 1847, and in 1855 he was created serjeant-at-law.[1]
Woolrych lived at Croxley Green, where his father had bought an estate and at 9 Petersham Terrace, Kensington. He died at Kensington on 2 July 1871, and was buried in Rickmansworth cemetery.[1]
Woolrych as serjeant-at-law wrote about the degree, soon to be abolished:[1]
His legal textbooks and tracts were:
Woolrych also wrote:[1]
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.[1]
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 Raikea, married, on 2 July 1862, John James Stewart Perowne.[1]
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Lee, Sidney, ed. (1900). "Woolrych, Humphry William". Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 62. London: Smith, Elder & Co.