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See also:JEFFREYS, See also:GEORGE JEFFREYS, 1ST See also:BARON (1648-1689) , See also:lord See also:chancellor of See also:England, son of See also:John Jeffreys, a Welsh See also:country See also:gentleman, was See also:born at See also:Acton See also:Park, his See also:father's seat in See also:Denbigh-See also:shire, in 1648. His See also:family, though not wealthy, was of See also:good social See also:standing and repute in See also:Wales; his See also:mother, a daughter of See also:Sir See also:- THOMAS
- THOMAS (c. 1654-1720)
- THOMAS (d. 110o)
- THOMAS, ARTHUR GORING (1850-1892)
- THOMAS, CHARLES LOUIS AMBROISE (1811-1896)
- THOMAS, GEORGE (c. 1756-1802)
- THOMAS, GEORGE HENRY (1816-187o)
- THOMAS, ISAIAH (1749-1831)
- THOMAS, PIERRE (1634-1698)
- THOMAS, SIDNEY GILCHRIST (1850-1885)
- THOMAS, ST
- THOMAS, THEODORE (1835-1905)
- THOMAS, WILLIAM (d. 1554)
Thomas See also:Ireland of Bewsey, See also:Lancashire, was " a very pious good woman." He was educated at See also:Shrewsbury, St See also:Paul's and See also:Westminster See also:schools, at the last of which he was a See also:- PUPIL (Lat. pupillus, orphan, minor, dim. of pupus, boy, allied to puer, from root pm- or peu-, to beget, cf. "pupa," Lat. for " doll," the name given to the stage intervening between the larval and imaginal stages in certain insects)
pupil of See also:Busby, and at Trinity See also:College, See also:Cambridge; but he See also:left the university without taking a degree, and entered the Inner See also:Temple as a student in May 1663. From his childhood Jeffreys displayed exceptional See also:- TALENT (Lat. talentum, adaptation of Gr. TaXavrov, balance, ! Recollections of a First Visit to the Alps (1841); Vacation Rambles weight, from root raX-, to lift, as in rXi vac, to bear, 1-aXas, and Thoughts, comprising recollections of three Continental
talent, but on coming to See also:London he occupied himself more with the pleasures of conviviality than with serious study of the See also:law. Though he never appears to have fallen 'into the licentious immorality prevalent at that See also:period, he See also:early became addicted to hard drinking and boisterous See also:company. But as the records of his early years, and indeed of his whole See also:life, are derived almost exclusively from vehemently hostile See also:sources, the numerous anecdotes of his depravity cannot be accepted without a large measure of See also:scepticism. He was a handsome, witty and attractive boon-See also:companion, and in the taverns of the See also:city he made See also:friends among attorneys with practice in the criminal courts. Thus assisted he See also:rose so rapidly in his profession that within three years of his See also:call to the See also:bar in 1668, he was elected See also:common See also:serjeant of the city of London. Such See also:advancement, however, was not to be attained even in the reign of See also:Charles II. solely by the aid of disreputable friend-See also:ships. Jeffreys had remarkable aptitude for the profession of an See also:advocate—See also:quick intelligence, See also:caustic See also:humour, copious eloquence. His See also:powers of See also:cross-examination were masterly; and if he was insufficiently grounded in legal principles to become a profound lawyer, nothing but greater application was needed in the See also:opinion of so hostile a critic as Lord See also:- CAMPBELL, ALEXANDER (1788–1866)
- CAMPBELL, BEATRICE STELLA (Mrs PATRICK CAMPBELL) (1865– )
- CAMPBELL, GEORGE (1719–1796)
- CAMPBELL, JOHN
- CAMPBELL, JOHN (1708-1775)
- CAMPBELL, JOHN CAMPBELL, BARON (1779-1861)
- CAMPBELL, JOHN FRANCIS
- CAMPBELL, LEWIS (1830-1908)
- CAMPBELL, REGINALD JOHN (1867— )
- CAMPBELL, THOMAS (1777—1844)
Campbell, to have made him the See also:rival of See also:Nottingham and See also:Hale. Jeffreys could See also:count on the See also:influence of respectable men of position in the city, such as Sir See also:Robert See also:Clayton and his own namesake See also:Alderman Jeffreys; and he also enjoyed the See also:personal friendship of the virtuous Sir See also:Matthew Hale. In 1667 Jeffreys had married in circumstances which, if improvident, were creditable to his generosity and sense of See also:honour; and his domestic life, so far as is known, was See also:free from the See also:scandal common among his contemporaries. While holding the judicial See also:- OFFICE (from Lat. officium, " duty," " service," a shortened form of opifacium, from facere, " to do," and either the stem of opes, " wealth," " aid," or opus, " work ")
office of common serjeant, he pursued his practice at the bar. With a view to further preferment he now sought to ingratiate himself with the See also:court party, to which he obtained an introduction possibly through See also:- WILLIAM
- WILLIAM (1143-1214)
- WILLIAM (1227-1256)
- WILLIAM (1J33-1584)
- WILLIAM (A.S. Wilhelm, O. Norse Vilhidlmr; O. H. Ger. Willahelm, Willahalm, M. H. Ger. Willehelm, Willehalm, Mod.Ger. Wilhelm; Du. Willem; O. Fr. Villalme, Mod. Fr. Guillaume; from " will," Goth. vilja, and " helm," Goth. hilms, Old Norse hidlmr, meaning
- WILLIAM (c. 1130-C. 1190)
- WILLIAM, 13TH
William Chiffinch, the notorious keeper of the See also:- KING
- KING (O. Eng. cyning, abbreviated into cyng, cing; cf. O. H. G. chun- kuning, chun- kunig, M.H.G. kiinic, kiinec, kiinc, Mod. Ger. Konig, O. Norse konungr, kongr, Swed. konung, kung)
- KING [OF OCKHAM], PETER KING, 1ST BARON (1669-1734)
- KING, CHARLES WILLIAM (1818-1888)
- KING, CLARENCE (1842–1901)
- KING, EDWARD (1612–1637)
- KING, EDWARD (1829–1910)
- KING, HENRY (1591-1669)
- KING, RUFUS (1755–1827)
- KING, THOMAS (1730–1805)
- KING, WILLIAM (1650-1729)
- KING, WILLIAM (1663–1712)
king's closet. He at once attached himself to the king's See also:mistress, the duchess of Ports-mouth; and as early as 1672 he was employed in confidential business by the court. His influence in the city of London, where opposition to the See also:government of Charles II. was now be-coming pronounced, enabled Jeffreys to make himself useful to See also:Danby. In See also:September 1677 he received a See also:knighthood, and his growing favour with the court was further marked by his See also:appointment as See also:solicitor-See also:general to See also:- JAMES
- JAMES (Gr. 'IlrKw,l3or, the Heb. Ya`akob or Jacob)
- JAMES (JAMES FRANCIS EDWARD STUART) (1688-1766)
- JAMES, 2ND EARL OF DOUGLAS AND MAR(c. 1358–1388)
- JAMES, DAVID (1839-1893)
- JAMES, EPISTLE OF
- JAMES, GEORGE PAYNE RAINSFOP
- JAMES, HENRY (1843— )
- JAMES, JOHN ANGELL (1785-1859)
- JAMES, THOMAS (c. 1573–1629)
- JAMES, WILLIAM (1842–1910)
- JAMES, WILLIAM (d. 1827)
James, See also:duke of See also:York; while the city showed its continued confidence in him by electing him to the See also:post of See also:recorder in See also:October 1678.
In the previous See also:month See also:Titus See also:Oates had made his first revelations of the alleged popish See also:plot, and from this See also:- TIME (0. Eng. Lima, cf. Icel. timi, Swed. timme, hour, Dan. time; from the root also seen in " tide," properly the time of between the flow and ebb of the sea, cf. O. Eng. getidan, to happen, " even-tide," &c.; it is not directly related to Lat. tempus)
- TIME, MEASUREMENT OF
- TIME, STANDARD
time forward Jeffreys was prominently identified, either as advocate or See also:judge, with the memorable See also:state trials by which the See also:political conflict between the See also:Crown and the See also:people was waged during the See also:remainder of the 17th See also:century. The popish plot, followed by the growing agitation for the exclusion of the duke of York from the See also:succession, widened the See also:breach between the city and the court. Jeffreys threw in his See also:lot with the latter, displaying his zeal by initiating the See also:movement of the " See also:abhorrers " (q.v.) against the " petitioners " who were giving See also:voice to the popular demand for the summoning of See also:parliament. He was rewarded with the coveted office of See also:chief See also:justice of See also:Chester on the 30th
of See also:April r68o; but when parliament met in October the See also:House of See also:Commons passed a hostile See also:resolution which induced him to resign his recordership, a piece of pusillanimity that See also:drew from the king the remark that Jeffreys was " not parliament-See also:- PROOF (in M. Eng. preove, proeve, preve, &°c., from O. Fr . prueve, proeve, &c., mod. preuve, Late. Lat. proba, probate, to prove, to test the goodness of anything, probus, good)
proof." Jeffreys nevertheless received from the city aldermen a substantial token of appreciation for his past services. In r681 he was created a See also:baronet. In See also:June 1683 the first of the See also:Rye House conspirators were brought to trial. Jeffreys was briefed for the crown in the See also:prosecution of Lord William See also:Howard; and, having been raised to the See also:bench as lord chief justice of the king's bench in September, he presided at the trials of Algernon See also:Sidney in See also:November 1683 and of Sir Thomas See also:Armstrong in the following June. In the autumn of 1684 Jeffreys, who had been active in procuring the surrender of municipal charters to the crown, was called to the See also:cabinet, having previously been sworn of the privy See also:council. In May 1685 he had the See also:satisfaction of passing See also:sentence on Titus Oates for See also:perjury in the plot trials; and about the same time James II. rewarded his zeal with a See also:peerage as Baron Jeffreys of See also:Wem, an honour never before conferred on a chief justice during his See also:tenure of office. Jeffreys had for some time been suffering from See also:- STONE
- STONE (0. Eng. shin; the word is common to Teutonic languages, cf. Ger. Stein, Du. steen, Dan. and Swed. sten; the root is also seen in Gr. aria, pebble)
- STONE, CHARLES POMEROY (1824-1887)
- STONE, EDWARD JAMES (1831-1897)
- STONE, FRANK (1800-1859)
- STONE, GEORGE (1708—1764)
- STONE, LUCY [BLACKWELL] (1818-1893)
- STONE, MARCUS (184o— )
- STONE, NICHOLAS (1586-1647)
stone, which aggravated the irritability of his naturally violent See also:temper; and the malady probably was in some degree the cause of the unmeasured fury he displayed at the trial of See also:Richard See also:Baxter (q.v.) for seditious See also:libel—if the unofficial ex parse See also:report of the trial, which alone exists, is to be accepted as trustworthy.
In See also:August 1685 Jeffreys opened at See also:Winchester the See also:commission known in See also:history as the " bloody assizes," his conduct of which has branded his name with indelible See also:infamy. The number of persons sentenced to See also:death at these assizes for complicity in the duke of See also:Monmouth's insurrection is uncertain. The See also:official return of those actually executed was 320; many hundreds more were transported and sold into See also:slavery in the See also:West Indies. In all See also:probability the See also:great See also:majority of those condemned were in fact concerned in the rising, but the trials were in many cases a mockery of the See also:administration of justice. See also:Numbers were cajoled into See also:pleading guilty; the See also:case for the prisoners seldom obtained a See also:hearing. The merciless severity of the chief justice did not however exceed the wishes of James II.; for on his return to London Jeffreys received from the king the great See also:seal with the See also:title of lord chancellor. For the next two years he was a strenuous upholder of See also:prerogative, though he was less abjectly pliant than has sometimes been represented. There is no See also:reason to doubt the sincerity of his See also:attachment to the See also:- CHURCH
- CHURCH (according to most authorities derived from the Gr. Kvpcaxov [&wµa], " the Lord's [house]," and common to many Teutonic, Slavonic and other languages under various forms—Scottish kirk, Ger. Kirche, Swed. kirka, Dan. kirke, Russ. tserkov, Buig. cerk
- CHURCH, FREDERICK EDWIN (1826-1900)
- CHURCH, GEORGE EARL (1835–1910)
- CHURCH, RICHARD WILLIAM (1815–189o)
- CHURCH, SIR RICHARD (1784–1873)
Church of England; for although the king's favour was capricious; Jeffreys never took the easy and certain path to secure it that See also:lay through See also:apostasy; and he even withstood James on occasion, when the latter pushed his See also:Catholic zeal to extremes. Though it is true that he accepted the See also:presidency of the ecclesiastical commission, See also:Burnet's statement that it was Jeffreys who suggested that institution to James is probably incorrect; and he was so far from having instigated the prosecution of the seven bishops in 1688, as has been frequently alleged, that he disapproved of the proceedings and rejoiced secretly at the acquittal.
But while he watched with misgiving the king's preferment of See also:Roman Catholics, he made himself the masterful See also:instrument of unconstitutional prerogative in coercing the authorities of See also:Cam-See also:bridge University, who in 1687 refused to confer degrees on a See also:Benedictine See also:- MONK (O.Eng. munuc; this with the Teutonic forms, e.g. Du. monnik, Ger. Witch, and the Romanic, e.g. Fr. moine, Ital. monacho and Span. monje, are from the Lat. monachus, adaptedfrom Gr. µovaXos, one living alone, a solitary; Own, alone)
- MONK (or MONCK), GEORGE
- MONK, JAMES HENRY (1784-1856)
- MONK, MARIA (c. 1817—1850)
monk, and the See also:fellows of Magdalen College, See also:- OXFORD
- OXFORD, EARLS OF
- OXFORD, EDWARD DE VERE, 17TH EARL
- OXFORD, JOHN DE VERE, 13TH EARL OF (1443-1513)
- OXFORD, PROVISIONS OF
- OXFORD, ROBERT DE VERE, 9TH EARL OF (1362-1392)
- OXFORD, ROBERT HARLEY, 1ST
Oxford, who declined to elect as their See also:president a disreputable nominee of the king.
Being thus conspicuously identified with the most tyrannical See also:measures of James II., Jeffreys found himself in a desperate See also:plight when on the filth of See also:December 1688 the king fled from the country on the approach to London of William of See also:Orange. The lord chancellor attempted to See also:- ESCAPE (in mid. Eng. eschape or escape, from the O. Fr. eschapper, modern echapper, and escaper, low Lat. escapium, from ex, out of, and cappa, cape, cloak; cf. for the sense development the Gr. iichueoOat, literally to put off one's clothes, hence to sli
escape like his See also:master; but in spite of his disguise as a common See also:seaman he was recognized in a See also:tavern at Wapping—possibly, as See also:Roger See also:North relates, by an See also:attorney whom Jeffreys had terrified on some occasion in the court of See also:chancery—and was arrested and conveyed to the See also:Tower. The malady from which he had See also:long suffered had recently made fatal progress, and he died in the Tower onthe 18th of April 1689. He was succeeded in the peerage by his son, John (2nd Baron Jeffreys of Wem), who died without male issue in 1702, when the title became See also:extinct.
It is impossible to determine precisely with what justice tradition has made the name of " Judge Jeffreys " a byword of infamy. The Revolution, which brought about his fall, handed over his reputation at the same time to the See also:mercy of his bitterest enemies. They alone have recorded his actions and appraised his motives and See also:character. Even the adherents of the deposed See also:dynasty had no See also:interest in finding excuse for one who served as a convenient scapegoat for the offences of his master. For at least See also:half a century after his death no See also:apology for Lord Jeffreys would have obtained a hearing; and none was attempted. With the exception therefore of what is to be gathered from the reports of the state trials, all knowledge of his conduct rests on testimony tainted by undisguised hostility. Innumerable scurrilous lampoons vilifying the hated instrument of James's tyranny, but without a pretence of historic value, flooded the country at the Revolution; and these, while they fanned the undiscriminating hatred of contemporaries who remembered the judge's severities, and perpetuated that hatred in tradition, have not been sufficiently discounted even by See also:modern historians like See also:Macaulay and Lord Campbell. The name of Jeffreys has therefore been handed down as that of a coarse, ignorant, dissolute, foul-mouthed, inhuman See also:bully, who prostituted the seat of justice. That there was sufficient ground for the execration in which his memory was long held is not to be gainsaid. But the portrait has nevertheless been blackened overmuch. An occasional significant See also:admission in his favour may be gleaned even from the writings of his enemies. Thus Roger North declares that "in matters indifferent," i.e. where politics were not concerned, Jeffreys became the seat of justice better than any other that author had seen in his See also:place. Sir J. Jekyll, master of the rolls, told See also:Speaker See also:Onslow that Jeffreys " had great parts and made a great chancellor in the business of his court. In See also:mere private matters he was thought an able and upright judge wherever he sat." His keen sense of humour, allied with a spirit of inveterate mockery and an exuberant command of pungent eloquence, led him to See also:rail and See also:storm at prisoners and witnesses in grossly unseemly See also:fashion. But in this he did not greatly surpass most of his contemporaries on the judicial bench, and it was a failing from which even the dignified and virtuous Hale was not altogether exempt. The intemperance of Jeffreys which shocked North, certainly did not exceed that of Saunders; in violence he was rivalled by See also:Scroggs; though accused of political apostasy, he was not a shameless renegade like See also:Williams; and there is no See also:evidence that in pecuniary matters he was personally venal, or that in licentiousness he followed the example set by Charles II. and most of his courtiers. Some of his actions that have incurred the sternest reprobation of posterity were otherwise estimated by the best of his contemporaries. His trial of Algernon Sidney, described by Macaulay and Lord Campbell as one of the most heinous of his iniquities, was warmly commended by Dr William See also:Lloyd, who was soon afterwards to become a popular idol as one of the illustrious seven bishops (see See also:letter from the See also:bishop of St See also:Asaph in H. B. See also:Irving's Life of Judge Jeffreys, p. 184). Nor was the habitual illegality of his See also:procedure on the bench so unquestionable as many writers have assumed. Sir James See also:Stephen inclined to the opinion that no actual abuse of law tainted the trials of the Rye House conspirators, or that of Alice See also:Lisle, the most prominent victim of the " bloody assizes." The conduct of the See also:judges in See also:- RUSSELL (FAMILY)
- RUSSELL, ISRAEL COOK (1852- )
- RUSSELL, JOHN (1745-1806)
- RUSSELL, JOHN (d. 1494)
- RUSSELL, JOHN RUSSELL, 1ST EARL (1792-1878)
- RUSSELL, JOHN SCOTT (1808–1882)
- RUSSELL, LORD WILLIAM (1639–1683)
- RUSSELL, SIR WILLIAM HOWARD
- RUSSELL, THOMAS (1762-1788)
- RUSSELL, WILLIAM CLARK (1844– )
Russell's trial was, he thinks, "moderate and See also:fair in general"; and the trial of Sidney " much resembled that of Russell." The same high authority pronounces that the trial of Lord See also:Delamere in the House of Lords was conducted by Jeffreys " with propriety and dignity." And if Jeffreys judged political offenders with cruel severity, he also crushed some glaring abuses; conspicuous examples of which were the frauds of attorneys who infested Westminster See also:- HALL
- HALL (generally known as SCHWABISCH-HALL, tc distinguish it from the small town of Hall in Tirol and Bad-Hall, a health resort in Upper Austria)
- HALL (O.E. heall, a common Teutonic word, cf. Ger. Halle)
- HALL, BASIL (1788-1844)
- HALL, CARL CHRISTIAN (1812–1888)
- HALL, CHARLES FRANCIS (1821-1871)
- HALL, CHRISTOPHER NEWMAN (1816—19oz)
- HALL, EDWARD (c. 1498-1547)
- HALL, FITZEDWARD (1825-1901)
- HALL, ISAAC HOLLISTER (1837-1896)
- HALL, JAMES (1793–1868)
- HALL, JAMES (1811–1898)
- HALL, JOSEPH (1574-1656)
- HALL, MARSHALL (1790-1857)
- HALL, ROBERT (1764-1831)
- HALL, SAMUEL CARTER (5800-5889)
- HALL, SIR JAMES (1761-1832)
- HALL, WILLIAM EDWARD (1835-1894)
Hall, and the systematic See also:kidnapping practised by the municipal authorities of See also:Bristol. Moreover, if any value is to be attached to the evidence of See also:physiognomy, the
traditional estimate of the character of Jeffreys obtains no See also:confirmation from the refinement of his features and expression as depicted in See also:Kneller's portrait in the See also:National Portrait See also:Gallery of London. But even though the popular notion requires to be thus modified in certain respects, it remains incontestable that Jeffreys was probably on the whole the worst example of a period when the administration of justice in England had sunk to the lowest degradation, and the judicial bench had become the too willing See also:tool of an unconstitutional and unscrupulous executive.
(R. J.
End of Article: JEFFREYS, GEORGE JEFFREYS, 1ST BARON (1648-1689)
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