Sir Humphrey Edwin

Sir Humphrey Edwin (1642–1707) was an English merchant and Lord Mayor of London.

Edwin was born at Hereford, the only son of William Edwin, twice mayor of Hereford, by his wife, Anne, of the family of Mansfield. He came to London, and in or before 1670 married Elizabeth, the daughter of Samuel Sambrooke, a wealthy London merchant of the ward of Bassishaw, and sister of Sir Jeremy Sambrooke. He began business as a merchant in Great St. Helen's. He later moved to the neighbouring parish of St. Peter-le-Poor, where his son Samuel was living at the time of his marriage in September 1697. Marriage and success in trade (probably as a wool merchant) brought him wealth.

In 1678 he was admitted a freeman of the Barber-Surgeons' Company by redemption, becoming afterwards an assistant of the company, and master in 1688. In 1694, however, he was dismissed from the office of assistant for his continued non-attendance at the court meetings. He afterwards became a member of the company of Skinners. Edwin was a nonconformist; James II was anxious to conciliate the dissenters, and on 11 October 1687 he was sworn in as alderman of Tower ward, on the direct appointment of the king, in the place of Sir John Chapman, discharged by the royal mandate. On 18 November the king knighted him at Whitehall, and a few weeks later appointed him High Sheriff of Glamorgan for the ensuing year. It was probably before this that he had purchased the estate and mansion of Llanmihangel Plas in Glamorganshire, from Sir Robert Thomas, bart., the last of a line of manorial lords of that name.

In August 1688 Edwin was chosen Sheriff of London and Middlesex, entering upon his duties on 11 October following. The year was an eventful one. In December Edwin, with his colleague and the aldermen of London, attended the Prince of Orange on his entry into London, and took part in February in the proclamation of the king and queen in Cheapside and at the Royal Exchange. On 25 October Edwin was elected alderman of the ward of Cheap, in succession to William Kiffen, the Baptist minister, who suffered under James II, but he again moved, 22 October 1689, to Tower ward, which he continued to represent until his death.

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