Humphrey Jervis

1609 – d. 1667) MP of the parish of Bentley and Hyde Walsall in Staffordshire who assisted his sister Jane Lane, Lady Fisher (c. 1626 - 9 September 1689) in the escape of Charles II after the Battle of Worcester in 1641.

Sir Humhrey's daughter Mary married the painter Nevill Pooley, son of the Dublin society portrait painter Thomas Pooley (1646 - 1723) whose portrait of Sir Humphrey Jervis is now held in the archive at Trinity College Dublin.

Humphrey Jervis is notable for having developed the area of Dublin to the north of the River Liffey.

It was the first large-scale residential scheme of its kind, born out of his own initiative and funded privately by him, after he and number of associates bought 20 acres of the lands of St. Mary's Abbey in 1674 from Richard Power, 1st Earl of Tyrone, for the sum about £3,000.

[16][17] In 1676 Sir Humphrey approached the Viceroy, who was then Arthur Capell, 1st Earl of Essex, with a view to developing the land and building a bridge across the River Liffey to connect the new development with the old city, which he intended to name in honour of the Viceroy.

Jervis's new bridge had a drawbridge, or lifting section at one end to allow large boats and ships with masts to sail upstream.

[21] In 1677 James Butler, 1st Duke of Ormonde, was appointed Lord Lieutenant of Ireland instead of Essex and he was also interested in Jervis's development scheme.

But the suggestions made by the Viceroy were of immense importance to the future development of Dublin, as it was this prototype that inspired the whole system of quays in their final beauty.