born in 1786 in Cork, Ireland
died 19. February 1825 in Dublin, Ireland

John Humphreys

writes about Robert Humphreys (I):
 
"We know he was an attorney in Midleton - he's listed in PIGOT'S DIRECTORY of 1824 ('Humphreys, Robert, Attorney'), and the Irish registry of deeds also records him as this.
 

Major Robert Hugh Beresford Humphreys (1888-1950) discovered that he was mentioned in the papers of Lord Midleton's estate. Robert (b. 1786) was one of three men who jointly leased a property in the town under the "Irish tontine", a curious system under which the lease persisted until the last of the three had died; here it says that he left for America, where he was said to have died in the 1840's. However his granddaughter Anne Humphreys (Dad's aunt Anne, called T'Anne by the family) wrote that she never heard he went to America (she said nothing more about him, which suggests she didn't know; but she clearly felt she would have known if he'd emigrated leaving the family behind him). It seems possible that Lord Midleton's people were making up a story - vast numbers emigrated, after all - so that they could draw a line under the lease.

Robert Humphreys was the son of William Humphreys and Rebecca McCarthy.
He married  

 in 1818. The family's residence was, probably, in the parish
of Inchinabacky, just east of Midleton, while the centre of Robert's professional life definitely was
Midleton where he practised as an attorney. The couple had 3 children, Robert, William, and Anne.
Their son

(II) is Robin and Katya Müller's great-great-grandfather.

I also found reports of the marriages of his children: first (in 1844) Robert's daughter Anne married William Perrott. To my surprise they were married at Inchinabacky Church, in a small village not very far from Midleton.  A Topographical Dictionary of Ireland, 1837, says of Inchinabacky that "the Church is in ruins" and that the village is 3 miles  NW of Castlemartyr on the road from Midleton to Youghal; divine service was in 1837 carried out in a pub (I think it refers to licensed premises), and I am not at all sure that Inchinabacky exists anymore.

"

Left: Robert Humphreys' death notices,
 
in "Saunders News-Letter"
of 24. February 1825

We do know that he was never buried in the family plot at Midleton, and that his surviving son and daughter both married members of the Perrott family (Methodists who lived in Cork); and we know that his son was in Cork in 1844, when he received a bequest of £50 from his uncle Daniel (the equivalent purchasing power is over £3000 today).

"
 
Recently (2016) John Humphreys discovered 2 newspaper notices reporting of Robert Humphreys' (I) death. They also explain the fact that he is not buried in Cork.
On 27. January 2016 John Humphreys writes:
 
"

Today I have done a search in the British Newspaper Archive..   one thing that has previously eluded me is now revealed: the death date of G-G-Grandfather Robert Humphreys (b. 1786). Other family trees on Ancestry put his death at 1825, but they cite no sources.
 
Today I found two newspaper death notices, putting his death at Sunday 19th February 1825; not in County Cork, but at his lodging-house in Dublin. Perhaps he was on some kind of business trip. Travelling from Cork to Dublin can't have been particularly easy in those days."

"

Robert Humphreys and

had three children: William, Anne (1821 -1907), and Robert (1825-1910). William died young, according to Dad's notes. Anne married William Perrott, but there isn't an Irish record for this, which suggests the marriage was before 1845 when non-Catholic registration began in Ireland. Anne and William Perrott had 3 sons and 3

f

daughters: Dick, Willie, Bob, Annie (later Connolly), Polly (Garde) and Sarah (Nicholson). William Perrott signed as witness of Robert's receipt of the £50 in 1844."

and (left)
 
in "Southern Reporter and Cork Commercial Courier"  of 26. February 1825