HUMPHREYS, Major MAY
Buried: 10 Dec 1866
Lot 17176 Section 114

Inscription, front:
"Sacred to the memory of May Humphreys
Died Dec. 7, 1866
Aged 74 Years
Simply to thy cross I cling"

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Green-Wood Cemetery
Section 114, Lot 17176
Inscription, front:
"Sacred to the memory of May Humphreys
Died Dec. 7, 1866
Aged 74 Years
Simply to thy cross I cling"
The left side of the monument is inscribed:
"Mary Anne
Wife of May Humphreys
Died Nov. 12, 1873
Aged 70 Years."

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Major May Humphreys
Birth: 15 Jul 1792 in Simsbury, Hartford, Connecticut
Death: 7 Dec 1866 in New York, New York, New York
Buried: Green Wood Cemetery, Brooklyn, Kings County, NY

Occupation: of firm of Bevan and Humphreys Nov 1829 of, Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

He was first a private jn a 1814 cavalry company in Baltimore
under Capt Henry Thompson. The company name was First Baltimore Horse Artillery (aka Capt. Thompson's Co of Cavalry, Maryland Militia) that served at the Battles of Bladensburg and Baltimore. This company was made up of the merchant elite of Baltimore, including sons of Col John Eager Howard and sons of William Patterson.

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PVT. MAY HUMPHREYS

b. 15 Jul 1792 West Simsbury, CT
d. 7 Dec 1866 New York, NY

He was s/o Reuben Humphreys and Anna Humphrey of West Simsbury, CT and m. Mary Ann Hoppin (d/o George Washington Hoppin and Mary Kennedy Philbrook) cir 1817 in Hartford, CT. May and Mary Ann had issue a daughter and a son: Mary Hoppin b. 1830 in Philadelphia w/o James Boorman Johnston, George Hoppin b. 1834 m. Emilie Julie Barnes. May was a merchant in Baltimore prior to 1816. In the 1816 and 1822/3 Baltimore Directory it shows C & M Humphreys, merchants, 82 Bowley's wharf. He removed to Philadelphia before 1830 as a merchant trading in Jamaica and other ports. In 1834 he was one of the Directors of Insurance Company of Pennsylvania. In the 1837 McElroy's Directory of Philadelphia he is shown as one of the Directors of U S Bank and as a merchant at 5 Walnut Street and residence at 250 Walnut Street. While a Director of U S Bank he formed partnerships trading in cotton for U S Bank in Liverpool with fellow Director Matthew L. Bevan and Bank President Nicholas Biddle's son that eventually brought on the collapse of the bank and led to the economic depression of 1839-43. He was apparently living in Liverpool during those years making a fortune off the cotton trade; returning to New York City cir 1850 where he eventually died at his residence at 18 West 10th Street. He was buried at Green-Wood Cemetery, Brooklyn, NY in lot 17176, section 114.

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The following obituary appeared in The New York Post on 8 Dec 1866:
"There died yesterday, at his residence in this city, Mr. May Humphreys, whose career as a merchant and man of business deserves more than this passing notice. Mr. Humphreys was born in New England, and his father was an officer in the Revolutionary army. At an early period of his life he entered into business at Baltimore, and was present, as a volunteer, at the battle of Bladensburgh in 1814. He subsequently settled in Philadelphia, where he carried on a large business, in the course of which he had frequent occasion to visit the West India Islands, and particularly in Jamaica; was well known and esteemed by the resident planters and merchants of those by-gone days, one of whom, Michael Scott, the author of that well-known book "Tom Cringle's Log" first published as a serial in Blackmood, was his intimate friend. Subsequently, Mr. Humphreys married and resided in Philadelphia, becoming one of the directors of the United States Bank in the palmy days, and, being most esteemed by its president, the well-known Nicholas Biddle, was entrusted by him with the management of the large cotton operations of the United States Bank in 1838-39, and, going over to Liverpool, in the end of 1837, established the house of Humphreys & Biddle, the junior partner of which was a son of the famous financier. At one time in 1838, Mr. Humphreys held the enormous stock of two hundred and fifty thousand bales of cotton for the United States Bank; and in October, 1838, having sold six thousand bales to certain speculators, with the agreement that he would sell no more for a week to ten days, the market instantaneously rose so much that the increase value of his stock required additional fire insurance in spite of the reduction of the six thousand bales. When Mr. Humphreys arrived in Liverpool, he was regarded with some jealousy and dislike as an interloper who was taking away the business of the old established houses; but he had been but a few months there, before he had entirely overcome this feeling by his tact and urbanity, and he managed the immense interests committed to his care so admirably and with such punctilious honor and liberality, that he won golden opinions even from his competitors in business. After closing up the cotton operations of the United States Bank he remained eleven years, as a merchant, in Liverpool, England. For one who had occupied so prominent a position in mercantile and social life, Mr. Humphreys was singularly modest and retiring, and it was only with old familiar friends that he would occasionally revert to some of the enormous mercantile transactions in which one man can sell again, or have the control of such a mass of that material. Mr Humphreys has died in a good old age, respected and loved by all who knew him."

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Father: Reuben Humphrey(s) b: 2 Sep 1757 in West Simsbury, Hartford, Connecticut
Mother: Anna Humphrey(s) b: 1758 in Simsbury, Hartford, Connecticut

Married: Mary Anne Hoppin b: 1809 in Providence, Providence, Rhode Island
Married: 5 Nov 1829 in Providence, Providence, Rhode Island

Note: Of the firm of Bevan and Humphreys, Philadelphia, by Rev. Mr. Wilson

Children

Mary Humphreys b: 10 Sep 1830 in Philadelphia

George Hopkins/Hoppin Humphreys b: 18 Dec 1834