[2] He attended Centre College in Danville, Kentucky and the University of Virginia law school.
Humphrey was a chancellor of the Louisville, Kentucky chancery court (a court of equity), having been appointed at age 32 to fill the unexpired term of Judge Horatio Washington Bruce, who had resigned on March 10, 1880, to accept a position as attorney for the Louisville and Nashville Railroad.
[4][5] After retiring from the bench, he was a member of the law firm Brown, Humphrey & Davie.
Following the death of his law partner Colonel John Mason Brown, he continued to practice with George M. Davie.
[8] Humphrey was one of the organizers of the Filson Club, Louisville's privately operated history society, historical museum, and archive, in the Ferguson Mansion in Old Louisville,[9] now known as the Filson Historical Society.