Humphry, a very learned clergyman of the Church of England, was born at Padstow, in Cornwall, in 1648. He studied three years at Westminster under Dr. Busby, and was then removed to Christ Church, Oxford. Here, in 1676, he published his Marmora Oxonensis ex Arundelitanis, Seldenianis, aliisque confecta, cum perpetuo Commentario. This introduced him to the Lord Chancellor Finch, afterwards Earl of Nottingham, who, in 1679, presented him to the Rectorcy of St. Clement's, near Oxford, and, in 1681, bestowed on him a prebend of Norwich. Some years afterwards he was engaged in a controversy with the Catholics at Norwich, concerning the validity of the orders of the Church of England, which produced his book upon that subject. In 1688, he was installed in the archdeaconry of Suffolk, to which he was collated by Dr. Lloyd, then Bishop of Norwich. In 1691, upon the death of Dr. Edward Pococke, the Hebrew professorship at Oxford being vacant, was offered to Dr. Prideaux; but he refused it. In 1697, he published his Life of Mahomet; and, in 1702, he was installed dean of Norwich. In 1710, he was cut for the stone, which interrupted his studies during more than a year. Some time after his return to London, he proceeded with his Connection of the History of the Old and New Testament, which he had commenced when he laid aside the design of writing the History of Appropriations. He died in 1724.