HUMPHREY, Thomas (c.1554-1624), of Swepstone, Leics.

A number of men of this name appear in documents of the last two decades of the sixteenth century, but none can be firmly identified as the MP. The status of Thomas Humphrey of Swepstone makes him the most likely candidate, and if he were a minor official on the extensive duchy of Lancaster lands in Leicestershire (of which there is no evidence), this would explain his return for Newcastle-under-Lyme. Humphrey took little part in public affairs outside his own county. In July 1621, ‘being old and in debt’ and childless, he sold the reversion of the manor of Swepstone, retaining only a life interest for himself. He then re-married and, according to the sources, had six children before dying intestate 4 Feb. 1624.1Nichols, Leics. iii(2), 1035, 1050; Vis. Leics. (Harl. Soc. ii), pp. 62, 78; Shaw, Knights, ii. 115; C142/425/64.