No. 4353 Richard Clapp Humphreys, 1836-1912.
From American Series of Popular Biographies. Massachusetts Edition. This Volume Contains Biographical Sketches of Representative Citizens of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Boston: Graves & Steinbarger, 1891.
RICHARD CLAPP HUMPHREYS, a widely known and respected citizen of Boston, son of Henry and Sarah Blake (Clapp) Humphreys, was born on June 10, 1836, at his present place of residence, on the old homestead property which has been owned and occupied by the family for upward of two hundred and fifty years, or from the time of its purchase by Jonas Humphreys, the immigrant progenitor in 1637. He inherits though various lines the blood of seven generations of Dorchester folk, numbering among his ancestors not a few of the early settlers of the historic town, twin sister of Boston, of which it is now a part. From Jonas Humphreys the line of descent is as follows: Elder James, Hopestill, Jonas, Henry, Deacon James Deacon Henry, Deacon Richard.
Jonas Humphreys became a member of the church in Dorchester in 1639. His son James, who was born at Wendover, England about 1608, was for many years Ruling Elder in the Dorchester church, three of his descendants, as above shown, being successively Deacons. Hopestill, son of Elder James, was engaged in the Narragansett Swamp fight with the Indians in December, 1675. He married in 1677 Elizabeth Baker; and their son Jonas, born in 1696, married Susanna Payson, by whom he had eleven children. Henry, born in 1726, third child of Jonas and Susanna, married Abigail Clapp, daughter of Ebenezer, Jr., and Hannah (Pierce) Clapp and grand- daughter of Ebenezer, Sr., and Hannah (Clapp) Clapp. Ebenezer Clapp, Sr., was a grandson of Nicholas Clapp, who came to Dorchester about 1633, and his wife, Hannah, a grand-daughter of Captain Roger Clapp, who came over in the “Mary and John” in 1630, and was one of the first settlers of Dorchester.
Deacon James, born in 1753 on “Monday, June 4, Artillery Election Day,” served in the war of the Revolution, holding the rank of Sergeant. He married in 1777 Elizabeth Capen, daughter of Richard and Hannah (Clapp) Capen. The house in which he was married is now standing on Washington Street, near Melville Avenue. It was built before 1650.
Deacon Henry Humphreys, twelfth child of Deacon James, was born April 8, 180l, on the family estate in Dorchester, and died in the same house, April 19, 1896. The tanning business conducted by him for a long period had descended in the family, and had been carried on from the time of Jonas Humphreys in l637. His wife, whose maiden name was Sarah Blake Clapp, was born in Dorchester, near the spot where stood the first free public school in this country. She was a daughter of Richard and Mary (Blake) Clapp. Of the thirteen children born to her and her husband, three sons and two daughters ate now living, Richard C. being the oldest survivor. Mrs. Humphreys died in 1850, at the age of about forty years.
The school days of Richard C. Humphreys began when he was four years old and continued till he was fifteen, when he was graduated from the grammar school under Master Elwell Woodbury. At the age of sixteen he entered the employ of J. H. Upham & Co., grocers; and, becoming a partner after nine years of faithful service, he remained in the business twenty years. Associated for the next eight years with Messrs. Holbrook & Fox, real estate dealers, Kilby Street, Boston, he then retired from commercial activities.
In these later years, he having received more than fifty appointments from the courts, executor, administrator, guardian, or trustee his business interests have been mainly connected with the care and settlement of estates, no small part of his time being given to philanthropic and educational work and other forms of public service. He was a member of the Boston School Board from 1883 to 1895 and of the Board of Overseers of the Poor from 1890 to 1898, president of the Dorchester Board of the Associated Charities and of the Dorchester Relief Society; treasurer (1899) of the Public School Association of Boston and the Massachusetts School for the Feeble-minded, assistant treasurer, New England Hospital for Women and Children and of the Boston Home for Incurables.
In religion a Unitarian, he is a Deacon of the First Parish Church of Dorchester, organized in 1630, now occupying its new house of worship on the old site, Meeting House Hill. He is also treasurer of the parish, treasurer of the Unitarian Sunday-School Society, treasurer Christian Register Association, and was for twelve years president of the Norfolk Conference. He is a life member of the American Unitarian Association and a member of the Unitarian Club.
Mr. Humphreys married, first March 5, 1863, Miss Sarah E. Beals, of Dorchester. She died in 1889; and on June 30; 1892, He married for his second wife Mrs. Susan M. Clapp, of Dorchester, daughter of Alexander Campbell, of Cherryfield, Me. He has one child, a son, by his first wife; namely, Clarence B. Humphreys, born in 1873.
From an interesting historical and biographical volume entitled .. Schools and School-boys of Old Boston” is taken nearly verbatim the following appreciation of Mr. Humphreys: “He possesses in high degree that conservatism that was so striking a characteristic of the Puritan settlers, including his own ancestors, a manifestation of which may be found in the continued residence of the family in one place for so many generations. This quality, the balance wheel of individual character as of the entire social structure, he has never allowed to degenerate in his own person into an unreasoning resistance against true progress or the assertion of a fearless independence. When his intellect has accepted a course of thought or action, the traditions of the past do not prevent him from following it; and, when his conscience and reason have decided that an old principle or method of action is better than some new and fickle alternative, he cannot be moved. In business he is conservative, in politics loyal to the best traditions of his party (Republican), but independent in his judgment of men and measures In social life he is amiable and popular.”
From Men of Progress. Biographical Sketches and Portraits of Leaders in Business and Professional Life in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. (Boston, 1894)
Richard Clapp Humphreys, of Boston, trustee of estates, was born in Dorchester, June to, 1836, son of Henry and Sarah Blake (Clapp) Humphreys. He has the distinction, rare in thiscountry, of having been born on a family homestead dating back to the early seventeenth century. His first ancestors in America, James and Joseph Humphreys, father and son, came from England in 1634, and, settling in Dorchester, erected a house on their farm on the spot where their descendants in the direct line have ever since lived. The house has been twice rebuilt, but a portion of the original one is yet preserved in the present structure. Mr. Humphreys is of the seventh generation born on this historic spot. The Humphreys farm, occupying a large territory, has been so subdivided from time to time with the growth of Dorchester that within its original limits are to-day the dwellings of three hundred families. Henry Humphreys, the father of Richard C., born April 8, z8o1, and still living in the old house, carried on the tanning business in Dorchester, which had descended in the family from the first Humphreys, until his retirement from active pursuits. Mr. Humphreys’s mother, also a native of Dorchester, was born near the spot where the first free public school in this country stood. He is the oldest survivor of a family of thirteen children. He attended school, beginning at the age of four, in a wooden school-house still standing, which then occupied the site now covered by the Edward Everett School-house, but was afterward moved to another lot. This accommodated a primary and grammar school; and he passed through both grades, graduating in 1851. The following year he entered the grocery store of J. H. Upham & Co. at Upham’s Corner, Dorchester, as a boy, and nine years later became a partner. He continued in this business for twenty years, and next entered the real estate business in Boston, associated with Holbrook & Fox, where he remained eight years. Then retiring, he engaged in his present occupation, that of trustee of estates, receiving in course of time more than fifty appointments from the courts as executor, administrator, trustee, or guardian. Much of his time for the past twelve or fifteen years has also been given to charitable, philanthropic, and educational work. During the greater part of this period he has been president of the Dorchester Branch of the Associated Charities of Boston, president of the Dorchester Employment and Relief Society, and an overseer of the poor ; and he is now connected with upward of twenty beneficent and religious organizations, the list including the Massachusetts School for Feeble-minded, the New England Hospital for Women and Children, the Boston Home for Incurables, the Municipal Reform League, the Unitarian Sunday School Union, the Christian Register Association, the Dorchester First Parish Sunday-school, and others. Since r888 he has been a member of the Boston School Committee, in that body serving as chairman of the committees on nominations, supplies, schoolhouses, and annual report, and having a part in much of its important work ; and has interested himself meanwhile in various municipal reforms. He is prominently connected with the First Parish Church of Dorchester,— now the oldest religious society in Boston, with which the Humphreys family have worshipped since the first coming of James and Joseph in x634,— being treasurer of the society and associated in the diaconate with his father, who has held the office for sixty years ; he is president of the Norfolk Unitarian Conference, having held that position for more than ten years, treasurer of the Unitarian Sunday School Society for the past ten years ; and is at present associated with various activities of the Unitarian denomination. In politics he is an Independent Republican, conservative in his views, strong in his convictions, quick to ” bolt ” a bad nomination and to lead or join an unpopular movement in the principles of which he believes. Mr. Humphreys was married March 5, 1863, to Miss Sarah E. Beals, of Dorchester, by whom he had one son: Clarence B. Humphreys. She died in 1889. He married second, June 3o, 1892, Mrs. Susan M. Clapp, daughter of Alexander Campbell, of Cherryfield, Me.
Anthony Mitchell Sammarco. Dorchester. Volume II. (Images of America Series). ( Charleston, SC: Arcadia, 2000), 49.
Richard Clapp Humphreys (1836-1912) was a partn.er in the J.H. Upham & Company in Upham’s Corner before becoming a junior partner of Holbrook & Fox, prominent real estate dealers in Boston In later life he became a trustee of estates, and it is said that “no small part of his time was given to philanthropic and educational work and other forms of public service.” He served as a member of the Boston School Committee, the Board of Overseers of the Poor, the Dorchester Board of Associated Charities, and the Dorchester Relief Society.