MACKAY'S JP^PUJiARJOELUSIONS.
LINDSAY & BLAKISTON PUBLISH
MEMOIRS OF EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS,

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Deposited by the
Linonian and Brothers Library

1908

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rough vhicbiUerliat ie
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fit by
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Thi  = . .1 take
pleasure in considering the infirmities of our fellows ; and this detailed and
TOnnected history of tliem appeals fo one ofthe most prevalent and powerful
of human sympathies. The conception of the work is not inferior to lh»
execution. Its extensive circulation will not only entertain many, but, by tho
engrafting of its author's plain, common-sense views, it will open the eyes
of many to the delusions of the present enlightened age. — Evening Bulletin.
The Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions form a wide field for the
author His object has been to collect the most remarkable instances of those
moral epidemics which have been excited, and show how easily the mao.iM
are led astray in their infatuations and crimes. — Daily Sun.

;t tht
cited,lythe'even

WATSON'S
DICTIONARY OF POETICAL QUOTATIONS
CONSISTINQ OF
ELEGANT EXTRACTS ON EVERY SUBJECT,
COMPILED FROM VAEIOUS AUTHORS, AND ARRANQED UNDBR
APPROPRIATE HEADS,
BY JOHN T, WATSON, M. D.,
¦WITH
NINE SPLENDID ILLUSTRATIONS ON STEEL.
INCLTJDIN&

The Noontide Dream,
Contemplation, Modesty,The Thunder-storm.

The Village Tomb-Cutler,
The Parting Wreath,
Bereavement,
The Bashful Lover,
Love and Innocence.

OPINIONS OF THE PRESS,
Wo may safely recommend this book as a collection of some of the most beautiful conception
elegantly expressed, to be found in the range of English and American poetry.— Saturday Cotirier.

We regard this as the best book of a similar character yet published.— Gennan^oiwi Teleffraph.

In this Dictionanr of Qaotations every subject is touched upon ; and, while the selection has been
carefully made, it has the merit of containing the be^t thoughts of the Poets of uur own day, which
ao other coUection has.— tT". S. Gazette.

The selections in this/book are made with taste from all poets of note, and are classed under s
yreat variety of sutgects.— PresMermn.
The Quotations appear to have been selected with great judgment and taste, by one well ncqnaintei}
with whatever is most elegant and beautiful in the whole range of literature.— CAm^ion Observer.

A volutne exhibiting industry and taste on the part of the compiler, which will often facilitate re
learches in the mines of gold whence it was dug. — Maysville Eagle.

Inhis arrangement, the compiler has assigned the immortal Shakspeare bis deserved pre-eminence,
ind illumined his pages with tne choicest beauties of the British Poets. — Herald.

We do not hesitate to commend it to onr poetry-loving readers, as a book worth buying, and worth
reading.— Clz'n^on Republican,
¦rhe extracts display great care and taste on the part of the editor, are arranged in chronologiail
order, and embrace passages from all the poets, from the earliest period of our literature to the pre-
u>it. time. — Slate Gasette.

This book will be read with interest, as containing the best thoughts of the best poets, and is eon-
reniert for reference, becauw ftirnishing appropriate quotations to illustrate a vast variety of subjects.
—Old Ottlany Memorial.
We view it as a casket filled wjth the most precious gems of laoming and fancy^ and so arraiwi^d
as to fiscinate, at a giant e, the delicate eye of taste. By referring to the index, which is arrnnped in
alphabetical order, you can find, m a moment, the best ideas of the most inspired poets of this countiy
«s woU as Europe, ur im any desired subject — Otronicle

THE LIFE

JUDGE JEEFREYS,

CHIEF JUSTICE OF THE KING'S BENCH
UNDER CHARLES IL,
,:•'¦-¦;. ns-,:..^ r~~>^,
;f K AND '-aU/'^,
In lit 31 i g tf^^y^'ii r.ll'ir t -b"! d^nglimir

THE REIGN OF JAMES II.
BY
HUMPHREY W. WOOLRYCH.

PHILADELPHIA:
LINDSAY AND BLAKISTON.
1852.

WM. S. YOUNG, PKINTEE.

INTRODUCTION.

.The author happened, in the presence of a friend, to
hint his intention of writing this life, when the latter in
stantly took the alarm, and exclaimed, "Why, you
surely are not going to whitewash Judge Jeffreys?"
The author said, he certainly could not think of justify
ing that lawyer upon every occasion, whose character
was, upon the whole, none of the best; but that he saw
no reason why even such a man as Jeffreys might not
have had some good qualities, as well as others.
Now, most will agree that this is a fair principle, not
at all inapplicable to human nature; and, upon investi
gating the subject, some very redeeming traits soon
showed themselves, brightening up with admirable lustre
the conduct of a man who has been denounced by Pro
testant writers, people of his own creed, as the most
wicked of mortals. Were all the histories unimpeachable
which profess to speak of him, and the anathemas against
him as prompt in their fulfilment as in their descent from
the pens of ripe and ready writers, surely he might beg

iv INTRODUCTION.

from the Catholics a place in their purgatory, and count
it indeed a felicitous atonement for his misdeeds.
But really it would be as absurd to predicate of any
person that he is entirely vicious, as that we should de
sire to see Jeffreys at the head of the King's Bench now,
instead of the excellent and patient judge who presides
there. At the same time, we are far from advising pa
rents to recommend the example of Sir George Jeffreys
to their children. Heaven grant that our country may be
for ever free from such tyranny as his ; and that whoever
ventures to make him a pattern may be impeached, and
soon hanged, or beheaded, as may suit ! All we say is,
that whenever a cloud is spread over the political horizon,
some needy adventurer will appear, ready to serve every
turn; and that it is, nevertheless, the province of such
as are pleased to record his actions, to give him fair
measure, good as well as evil report. For were it other
wise, it need only be said of any one, as Burnet did of
Jeffreys, that he is " scandalously vicious;" and the terms
monster, tyrant, ruffian, a cohort of abuse, a condemna
tion full and universal, would be poured forth against
him, without the scantiest endeavour to point out the true
sources of his errors ; so that others would never be the
wiser, or better enabled to shun them. If an inquiry be
once set on foot, there are kindly qualities even in the
worst of men: the depraved and degenerate (as some are
called) will often, in their mood, achieve generous and

INTRODUCTION.

noble deeds which the excellent of the earth have seldom
contemplated, so sternly is the Divine Image, all over
beautiful and lovely, stamped upon us. But, had the
author even indulged in panegyric, the character of Jef
freys would not have been the first, no, nor yet the worst,
which a solitary writer might have dared to ennoble in
the face of all others who have agreed in a united theme
of execration.
What said the philosopher Seneca of Claudius Csesar ?
Consoling Polybius, the emperor's freedman, for the loss
of a brother, he writes: — "Since you are so anxious to
banish all things from your memory, think on Caesar :
see what faithfulness, what diligence you owe him, for his
partiality. It is his watchfulness which guards the dwell
ings of all; his labour the ease of all, his industry the
luxuries of all, his occupation the repose of all. Add
now, that as you ever hold O^sar to be more dear to you
than your own soul ; it is not right, whilst Csesar is safe,
to repine at fortune."'
This was the great philosopher who so far scorned the
world, as to declare, that there was great pleasure in the

' Cum voles omnium rerum oblivisci, cogita Caesarem : vide quantam
hujus in te indulgentiae fidem, quantam industriam debeas. Omnium
domos illius vigilia defendit, omnium otium illius labor, omnium deli
cias illius industria, omnium vacationem illius occupatio. — Adjice nunc,
quod cum semper prasdices cariorem tibi spiritu tuo Caesarem esse, fas
tibi non est, salvo Caesare, de fortuna queri.
1*

VI INTRODUCTION.

very article of death; and yet he wasted much such
lavish praise upon a drivelling idiot.
But not to harass the reader ; does not our own histo
rian, George Buck, speak feelingly for crook-back'd
Richard ? " There is no story that shows the planetary
affections and malice of the vulgar," "says the panegyrist,
"more truly than King Richard's, and what a tickle
game kings have to play with them ; though his successor,
Henry VIL, played his providently enough (with help of
the standers-by ;) yet even those times both groaned and
complained, but had not the sting and infection of King
Richard's adversaries, who did not only contend with his
immortal parts, but raked his dust, to find and aggravate
exceptions in his grave." — "Julius Csesar," continues
he, "was, and ever will be, reputed a wise an'd a great
captain, although his emulation cost an infinite quantity
of human blood. He thought crimen sacrum Ambitio."
If right for ought may e'er be violate,
It must be only for a sovereign state.
And again: "He wore the crown at Bosworth," says
Polidore, "thinking that day should either be the last of
his life, or the first of a better; but whatever was his
mystery, it rendered him a confident and valiant master
of his right."
Indeed, one might at this day be emboldened to ask —
What had become of Richmond's memory, if he had fallen
down slain in Bosworth-field, and, like Richard, had been

INTRODUCTION. Vll

Dragg'd by the hair to hostile swords a prey,
And slain with barbarous wounds ?
What had been told us of Augustus, if he had died less
than Emperor of Rome? What of our Jeffreys, on the
other hand, if the army at Salisbury had stood faithful
to King James ; or the Lord Dartmouth, blest with auspi
cious winds, had attacked the Dutch fleet, ere the Prince
of Orange had landed at Torbay ?
But it is for the public to judge : to their mercy we
leave the great Chief Justice, and go on at once, lest
some Christopher Sly should peep out, and say, "A good
matter, surely : come there any more of it ? Would it
were done? " When the answer must be, " My lord, 'tis
but begun."

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.
Birth and parentage of Jeffreys— His love of splendour— Anecdote —
Goes to school at Shrewsbury, St. Paul's free-school, and to West
minster—Recollection of Busby — Jeffreys a lawyer against his father's
consent — His remarkable dream— He is entered of the Inner Temple
— Sir Geoffry Palmer, attorney-general to Charles II. — Studies of Jef
freys — His loveof the bottle^He is the zealous supporter of the demo
cratic faction, who encourage him and assist him with money. Page 13
CHAPTER II.
Jeffreys pleads at Kingston at the age of eighteen, two years before he is
called to the bar — Paucity of lawyers — Boldness of his carriage — His
clear enunciation — Ingenious artifice to obtain briefs — Cross-examining
— Disinterested motive of Jeffreys' marriage with^ the kinswoman of
the heiress whom he first courted — Amiable temper of his wife, Lady
Sarah — He receives countenance from a namesake. Alderman Jeffreys
— He is appointed common-serjeant — His blustering concealment of a
bribe — Jeffreys betrays the democrats, and accedes to the court party
— Friendship with Chiffinch, the King's page — Jeffreys, recorder of
London, owes his advancement to political tergiversation. Page 24
CHAPTER III.
Jeffreys, now a widower, espouses the daughter of a former lord mayor —
" The Westminster Wedding ; " lampoon upon the Tow?i Mouth, or
Recorder Jeffreys — The King's Psalter, question of literary piracy —
Sir Edmondbury Godfrey — Trial of the Jesuit Coleman — The recor-

CONTENTS.

der's commiseration of the papists he condemns — Really inimical fo
the Catholics — The sermon-house at Canterbury — Jeffreys defends
Dangerfield— Cases of libel — Maxims of Jeffreys on this head — Jury
men ignore a bill against Smith; violence and subtlety ofthe recorder
foiled — Jeffreys is made Serjeant, Chief Justice of Chester, and a Ba
ronet — Duke of York's claims of profits of the new penny-post — Mr.
Dockra — Baron Weston's reproof of Jeffreys- in Court — Lord Dela-
mere's severe charge against Jeffreys, as a Welsh judge — His brothers.
Sir Thomas Jeffreys, Dr. Jeffreys, Dean Jeffreys— The question as to
petitions — Jeffreys is accused of obstructing the voice of the people —
Subsequent censure of Sir George Jeffreys on his knees at the bar of
the House of Commons — He is constrained to resign the office of re
corder of London — George Treby elected recorder — Case of Verdon;
his wit in his own defence.  Page 38
CHAPTER IV.
Situation and new prospects of Jeffreys — He refuses to admit dissenters
on the grand jury — Trial of Fitzharris— Colledge, the joiner, tried —
Witticisms of Jeffreys— Election of the city sheriffs— Dudley North
elected — Account of Sir Edmund Sanders — Judge Jones — -The quo
warranto judgment — Trial of Pilkington for a riot — Anecdote of Dare
the petitioner — Some account of Sir Thomas Bludworth, and the fire
of London — The Rye-house Plot — Sir Francis Pemberton — Conduct
of Jeffreys on the Trial of Lord William Russel. . . y -^age 74
CHAPTER V.
Sir George Jeffreys appointed lord chief justice of the King's Bench—
The trial of Algernon Sidney— Points of law overruled by the judge-
Intrepid and talented defence made by Sidney— Exasperation of the
chief justice— Bishop Burnet's invective against Jeffreys— Character
of him by North— Wit of a gray-beard directed against the judge-
Williams, the speaker ofthe Commons, fined— Bickering between the
chief justice and Mr. Ward— His severity in restraints upon counsel—
His treatment of unwilling witnesses— He is summoned to be a mem
ber of the cabinet— The Lord Keeper Guilford's uneasiness in having
him for a colleague— He addresses the King— Lord Guilford resists
the chief justice's intercession— Jeffreys decidedly a Protestant— Trial
of Mr. Rosewell-Generous application of Sir John Talbot to the Kin.'

CONTENTS. XI

for Rosewell's pardon — Contests of the Chief justice and Lord Guil
ford — Anecdotes— Death of Charles II. — Monmouth and the liberal
party — Jeffreys' elevation to the peerage — Titus Gates tried for per
jury — His sentence — Sir Bartholomew Shower — Legal acquirements
of Jeffreys discussed — East India monopoly — Lady Ivy's case — Ri
chard Baxter, the non-conformist — Occasional forbearance of Judge
Jeffreys. . . ._  Page 97
CHAPTER VI.
The Western Assizes — Duke of Monmouth's invasion— Special com
mission, and Jeffreys at the head of it — Countess of Pomfret — The
Bloody Assizes, so called — The number executed — Trial and execu
tion of Lady Alicia Lisle — Henry PoUexfen, afterward lord chief jus
tice — Conduct of Jeffreys — Cruel promise of James IL — Salisbury —
Church service at Dorchester — Intemperate speeches of the judge —
Many transported or sold as slaves — Weakness ofthe Monarch — Case
of Battiscomb— Sentence for the whipping of Tutchin— Trials at Exe
ter—State of the West during this assize— Cruelties at Taunton— Lord
StawelPs indignation — Warrant to the mayor of Bath — Boasts of Judge
Jeffreys — Further executions— Bishop Ken— The judge's charge to the
grand- jury at Bristol — Anecdote— Case of the brothers "Spekes" —
Tory Tom's shrewdness— Dr. Oliver— Edmund Prideaux- Enormous
bribe paid to save his life— Reception of Jeffreys at court— Anecdotes
of Colonel Kirk — The Dissenters— Observations on the- character of
James II. and Judge Jeffreys— Execution of the Duke of Monmouth—
Mrs. Gaunt burnt— The Xords Grey, Stamford, and Brandon Gerrard
are pardoned — Bigotry of the King— Lord Jeffreys is appointed lord
chancellor— Trial of Hampden before Sir Edward Herbert— Danger-
field killed in a private quarrel— Satire on Jeffreys. . . Page 149

CHAPTER VII.
The great seal— Conduct of the lord chancellor in parliament— Lord
Delamere arraigned before the Lords Triers at Westminster— Eccle
siastical high commission court— Dr. Sharp— Compton, bishop of Lon
don  The chancellor's cause-room— Anecdotes of the lord chancellor
-Account of Sir John Trevor— Doctrine of passive obedience— Trial
of the seven bishops— James throws off the mask with regard to his
religion— Dr. Peachell— University refractoriness— Determined con-

xii CONTENTS.

duct of the mayor of Arundel— Duke of Ormond— The royal dispen
sing power— Domestic life of the lord chancellor — Scandalous stories
of his second lady — Evelyn — Lord Clarendon — Mr. Jeffreys's father —
Sir John Trevor, speaker of the House of Commons — Anecdote of
Tillotson — Lord Castlemaine's mission to Rome — Father Petre — Earl
of Tyrconnel— Acquittal of the bishops — Birth of the Pretender —
Privy-counsellors present — Legal character of the lord chancellor dis
cussed-Sir Basil Firebrass — Gathering of the political storm — Reli
gious contest— The city charter — How far lord chancellor Jeffreys is
personally involved in the national and civic dissensions — Landing of
William III. — The court of James in confusion. . . Page 207
CHAPTER VIII.
Flight of James II. — The lord chancellor is ill spoken of by the fugitive
monarch — The great seal is consigned to the Thames, and is found by
a fisherman— Jeffreys conceals himself on board a collier — A scrivener,
whom the chancellor had browbeat at a former time, discovers the
fallen judge — He is seized and carried before Sir John Chapman, lord
mayor — He is sent to the Tower, on a charge of treason — Petition of
the widows and orphans in the west of England against him — Four
questions propounded by the peers to the ex-chancellor — Death of
Jeffreys — Causes of his demise — His place of sepulture — Anecdotes —
Curious writings in vituperation of the fallen chancellor at the time
of his imprisonment — His good and ill qualities — His splendid talents
— Attainder of Jeffreys and his heirs attempted — His landed posses
sions — His portrait by Sir Godfrey Kneller — Some account of his son,
John, Lord Jeffreys — Fahle supposed to have been written by him —
He espouses a daughter of the earl of Pembroke — Conclusion. Page 273

LIEE

JUDGE JEFFREYS.

CHAPTER I.
Birth and parentage of Jeffreys— His love of splendour— Anecdote-
Goes to school at Shrewsbury, St. Paul's free-school, and to West
minster—Recollection of Busby — Jeffreys a lawyer against his father's
consent — His remarkable dream — He is entered of the Inner Temple
—Sir Geoffry Palmer, attorney-general to Charles IL— Studies of Jef
freys — His loveof the bottle — He is the zealous supporter ofthe demo
cratic faction, who encourage him and assist him with money.
George Jeffreys was the sixth son of John Jefferys,
Esq. of Acton,^ near Wrexham, in the county of Denbigh,
by Margaret, daughter of Sir Thomas Ireland,^ Knight, .
of Bewsey, in the County Palatine of Lancaster, and was
born at his father's house about the year 1648.
His paternal grandfather was a judge of North Wales,
though some call him a justice of the peace, for that princi-
* Now the property of Sir Foster Cunliffe, Bart. Acton had been for<
a long time in the family : and Pennant is pleased to tell us of the obloquy
which must have fallen on the race of Jefferys, by the production of the
chancellor, after it had so long run uncontaminated from an ancient
stock. " Probably of Grey's Inn, and the same who abridged eleven books of
Lord Coke's Reports, and the reports of Chief Justice Dyer.
2

14 LIFE OF JEFFREYS.

pality,) and claimed on his father's side a descent from
Tudor Trevor, Earl of Hereford.
John Jeffreys,' the father, was held to be a gentleman
in his neighbourhood; and although his estate was not
large, he lived contentedly upon his fortune, improving
it by industry and frugality, till, having gained the good
will of his acquaintance, he obtained so good a recom
mendation to his intended wife, through a person of some
interest who knew him, aS to win her hand very success
fully. Whether, as some have said, he indulged a nig
gardly and covetous disposition, or was, according to
others, prudent and economical (for men differ somewhat
as to the bounds between thriftiness and parsimony,) it is
admitted that he was a cautious and careful housekeeper,
that he prospered on the fruits of his exertions, and lived
in peace and happiness with his partner at home. But
he was decidedly a foe to extravagance; and we will here
give an instance ofthe dislike which he bore to that fashion
able vice. When his son George had supplanted that good
old cavalier. Sir Job Charlton, in the chief-justiceship of
Chester, he thought to dazzle his old companions and the
unassuming natives of his birth-place with the splendour
of his new state. Accordingly, he purposed a visit to his
father, and went forth with a train so numerous, that
the cider-barrels ran very fast, and the larder was in a
state of perpetual exhaustion : on which the old gentleman
put himself into such a fret, that he charged his son with
a design to ruin him, by bringing a whole country at his
heels, and bade him never attempt the like prodigality

¦ The original name of the family was Jefferys, although the Chan
cellor wrote his name Jeffreys.

LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 15

with hopes of succese. The reverend old man lived to a
very considerable age, having witnessed his son's eminence
and downfall ; but he ever withheld his sanction from
those arbitrary measures which the chancellor pursued.
Pennant saw a likeness of him at Acton House, taken in
the year 1690, in the eighty-second year of his age.
George, who, were we writing romance, would be called
the hero of these pages, showed very early that prompt
address and activity which were the causes of his rising ;
he was always striving for the mastery over his young
companions ; and, although he inherited no ambition from
his parents, he was indebted to their diligence for the
improvement of his enterprising parts.
When yet very young, he was sent to the free-school
at Shrewsbury, where he remained some time, we are
told, not without credit ; and on his leaving that place,
it appears to have been the wish of his father that he
should have settled to some trade, for he had already
evinced proofs of a disposition far from tractable. This
sober career, however, would have been a sad check to
the untameable spirit of Jeffreys : no fatherly admonitions
would probably have hindered him from becoming the
idle apprentice; and he certainly possessed talents and
propensities, which, had he been kept in an inferior
station, might have procured him his quietus in those
turbulent times much sooner than the ambitious bearing
of his elevated fortunes. It seems as though his mind
was instinctively bent upon aggrandizement; and he was
so fortunate as to discover, youthful as he was, the im
portance of learning and information; he is therefore
described as being addicted to study ; so it was determined
to give him the benefit of a superior education at St.

16 LIFE OF JEFFREYS.

Paul's free-school. Here he acquired a fair proficiency
in the learned languages;' and he imbibed also in this
place that fondness for the profession of the law, which
led him to fix on it as his future destiny. He afterwards
went to Westminster school, then under the care of Dr.
Busby, whose rod bears as high a character as his learn
ing.^ Of his improvement here we have no account ; but
many years afterwards he showed that he had not for
gotten his old schoolmaster, nor the knowledge of gram
mar he had acquired. On the trial of Rosewell, the dis
senting minister, there was a little conversation about
the relative and the antecedent on an objection taken to
the indictment ; and Jeffreys, the chief justice, referring
to a treasonable sentence charged to have been delivered
by the prisoner from his pulpit, said — " I think it must
be taken to be an entire speech, and you lay it in the
indictment to be so, and then the relative must go to the
last antecedent, or else Dr. Busby (that so long ruled in
Westminster school) taught me quite wrong; and who
had tried most of the grammars extant, and used to lay

' Not as has been said under the care of Dr. Gill. There were two
Gills, father, and son, successively masters of St. Paul's school; but the
last was removed from his situation in 1635, and died in 1642, before the
birth of Jeffreys. John Langley was the next, and he died much beloved
by his scholars in 1657. He was succeeded by Samuel Cromleholme,
or Crumlum, who, from his acquaintance with languages, obtained the
name of noXvyXwrrog,* and under him, young Jeffreys probably received
his education. St. Paul's school was burnt in his time.
° There was another George Jeffreys, a lawyer, who was born at
Weldon, in Northamptonshire, and who went to that school. He died
in 1755, at the age of 77.

Many-tongued.

LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 17

down that as a positive rule, that the relative must refer to
the next antecedent."'
His desire for forensic debate was, however, very far
from being agreeable at home : often and earnestly was
he entreated by his father to desist from a pursuit which
savoured too much of ambition to please a retired country
gentleman ; and when all dissuasions were found to be un
available, the signal of yielding to his wishes was a gen
tle pat upon the back, accompanied by these words : "Ah,
George, George, I fear thou wilt die with thy shoes and
stockings on." Surely the prophecy would have been ac
complished but for the chancellor's sudden death in the
Tower. Some have said, that this legal impulse arose from
a dream which the ambitious boy had whilst at this school.
The substance of it was, that " he should be the chief
scholar there, and should afterwards enrich himself by
study and industry, and that he should come to be the
second man in the kingdom ; but in conclusion, should
fall into great disgrace and misery." This he told, when
he came to the chancellorship : never imagining that the
' The words were — " We have had two wicked kings together, who
have permitted popery to enter in under their noses, -whom we can re
semble to no other person than to the most wicked Jeroboam; and that
if they would stand to their principles, he did not fear but they would
overcome their enemies, as in former times, with rams' horns, broken
platters, and a stone in a sling."
And this is the observation of the lord chief justice:
" Suppose you were to speak it in English, Mr. Solicitor " (indictments
were then drawn in Latin) — Now we have had two wicked kings to
gether, who have suffered popery to come in under their noses (mean
ing the late king and this) — there perhaps the inuendo is sensible, and
no doubt of it: then he must mean them: but to say, if they will stand
to their principles, they shall overcome their enemies, pray to whom
does that '(A«j/' relate?" 9*

18 LIFE OF JEFFREYS.

last part of it could possibly befall him. But whatever
might have been his vapourings after his elevation, a
much more probable reason may be asssigned for his
decision. The profits of the law were greatly diminished during
the broils of the civil wars, and the steady, careful times
of the Commonwealth; but no sooner had the new system
of things been established, than the business of the coun
sellors revived : they began to set up their equipages,
and to make a splendid show of the improved fortune which
had befallen them; and this, doubtless, excited a youth
who was never backward to discover the bright side of
human life, and who, being without an estate himself,
was thus stimulated by the hopes of acquiring one.
With all his constancy, Jeffreys needed one essential
towards the prosecution of that pursuit which he had
marked out for himself, and that was the main-spring
and engine of all human action — money. His father,
encumbered with a large family, could scarcely have af
forded assistance to his younger son, had he conformed
himself to the manners of his home ; much less would he
create the means to promote an end so hostile to his feel
ings. And, perhaps, it had been happy for the state-
prisoners of after-times, if this aspiring youngster had
been without another relation; — but it happened, that he
was not only blessed with a fond grandmother, but had
either so far insinuated himself into her good graces, or
recommended himself to her pride, that she came forward
with an annuity of forty pounds for him ; and when his
father found this to be the case, he did not scruple ten
pounds a year more for decent clothing. Notwithstand
ing all these pushing efforts, he never had the benefit of
a University education.

LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 19
He was entered of the Inner Temple, May 19, 1663;
and, in an obscure apartment, commenced a study of the
municipal law very diligently: while, at the same time,
his pecuniary means were such as to call upon his best
wits for subsistence in a profession which bore a distin
guished character for gentility. Templars of the present
day can have a better idea of this dull lodging than of
most ancient buildings ; for, without the aid of Sir Wal
ter's lively colouring, they can behold the very original
of dulness in many corners of the learned spot which they
people so thickly. Roger North, therefore, finds easy
credit, when he applauds the good fortune of his relative*
in coming into Sir Geoffry Palmer's'' chambers, which
were very commodious ; having a gallery, and at the end a
closet, with a little garden. Here Sir Francis North
could turn about, and walk and talk with a friend : a

> The Lord Keeper.
'' Geoffry Palmer was of Carlton in Northamptonshire. He was a very
considerable lawyer, and the first attorney-general after the Restoration.
He was employed against the unfortunate Earl of Strafford ; and in No
vember, 1642, was sent to the Tower for opposing "the Grand Remon
strance," after which he retired into Oxfordshire. In May, 1655, he
was again imprisoned, on suspicion of being concerned in a plot against
the Protector; and, we are told by a facetious writer, that he never could
be persuaded to write Oliver any otherwise than with a little o. In 1660
he was knighted, made attorney to the King, and chief justice of Chester;
and on the 7th of June, in the same year, a baronet. His wife was
Margaret, daughter of Sir Francis Moore, serjeant-at-law, of Fawley,
Berks, by whom he had four sons and two daughters. He died, May 5,
1670, at Hampstead, aged 72, and was interred, having first lain in state
in the Middle Temple Hall, with great funeral honours. It was to a
cultivated friendship with Edward, the fourth son of Sir Geoffry, that
the Lord Keeper North owed an introduction to the family of that great
pleader, and much of his subsequent good fortune.

20 LIFE OP JEFFREYS.

situation so eligible, that a few more such would brighten
up the countenance of many a recluse of this day.
The saying of Juvenal —
Magnis virtutibus obstat
Res angusta domi — '
seems most applicable, where the^sufferer is of a modest
and retiring habit; but fails of its point, when poverty
drives forth the man of pleasantry and humour to seek
the pleasures of society, and makes him acquire by his
ingenuity an access to those festivities he would vainly
dream of in his domestic solitude. Jeffreys was not the
man to sit silently in his chamber, either mourning over
the depths of the law, or indulging in that paradise of
anticipation, the advent of clients : he was out and abroad
in season and out of season; grave with the grave, and
cheerful with the gay.
Most probably he was never a profound lawyer ; and
these holiday-makings were certainly obstacles to the at
tainment of a difiicult science. But there were other
reasons which diverted him from a course of perpetual
application — other temptations which fell in with his ar
dent disposition, and easily seduced him from his abode
of silence.
The tide of conviviality had now strongly set in ; to
refuse the social glass would have been to court the
martyrdom of Puritanism: every countenance was lighted
up by the new-born hilarities of the Restoration — every
heart felt relieved from the stern austerities of the repub-

' " Slow rises worth, by poverty deprest." Johnson.

LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 21

lican tyrant ; and this change agreed exactly with the
temper of our promising student. He was now in a con
dition to consider every free dinner as a boon of the first
order, and was very willing in return to enliven the en
tertainment with'his jests and sallies. Indeed, he was
not. the first student who has readily deserted his apart
ment to become an animated and welcome member of the
cheerful board; or who has forgotten to return thither
when summoned to the drawing-room, where his wit and
address have made him equally a favourite.
Yet these freedoms with Littleton and Coke, truly hos
tile as they must be to the character of a black-letter
scholar, are calculated to give the man who ventures on
them an enlarged acquaintancewith the world; and when
a man has determined to push his fortune unaided by
interest or influence, how much is done by effrontery,
and a certain easy indifference to the rules by which others
are governed, and abide ! These last qualities were emi
nently possessed by Mr. Jeffreys ; they accorded remarka
bly with his versatile genius, which seldom failed to take
advantage of a beneficial change, or make any sacrifice
consistent with personal advancement.
The following whimsical lines are to be found in an old
poem, called "Jeffreys' Elegy."
" I very well remember, on a night,
Or rather on the peep of morning light,
When sweet Aurora, with a smiling eye,
Call'd up the birds to wonted melody, —
Dull Morpheus with his weight upon me leant;
Half-waking, and yet sleeping, thus I dreamt.
Methought I saw a lawyer at his book,
Studying Pecunia, but never Cooke;
He scorned Littleton and Plowden too,
With mouldy authors he'd have naught to do,"

¦22 LIFE OF JEFFREYS.

It might have been supposed, that as this lawyer was
launched upon the world at the time when regal glories
were revived, he would have lost no opportunity of proving
himself a steady loyalist, and more especially as an in
dulgence in unrestrained pleasure was familiar with the
career which he proposed for himself. But although the
public voice was in favour of royalty, a host of discontented"
sufferers, angry republicans, and disaffected persons re
mained, to whom rest seemed a burden, and tranquillity
a crime. This is not the place for us to enter into the
reasons of this disgust : it is sufficient to say that their
labours were unceasing to procure converts to their cause ;
that their encouragement when they had found a partisan
was no less abundant ; and that, amongst the society which
they had thus zealously drawn together, the needy and
ambitious Jeffreys was numbered. He had now the means
of turning his insinuating address to an excellent accourtt ;
and he soon gained access to the chief of the party, with
whom he so fully ingratiated himself, as to leave a con
viction of his capacity and readiness to further their de
signs. Nor was he backward to perceive that a great
impression had been made by his blustering forwardness ;
and that their patronage would, at that moment, be of in
calculable benefit to a beginner at the bar, to whom the
united efforts of a faction, however obnoxious or incon
siderable, would be far preferable to the obscurity in whichj-
unconnected as he was, he might expect for some time to
be involved.
But this was not all: the difficulties of his pecuniary
^means' were ever present with him; and what scruples
' His must have been at this time a perpetual "pecuniary crisis."*
* The cant word during the great commercial panic of 1825 and 1823.

UFE OF JEFFREYS. 23

could be found sufficient to deter a licentious adventurer
from pursuing a course likely to extricate him from the
pressure of want, and give free play to his luxuries ?
Talents like his were not to be monopolized without a
speedy return for the services they rendered ; and thus
he soon became a caressed and cherished pensioner upon
his new friends: his allowance was no longer a source of
apprehension : if he felt any anxiety, it was to display
all possible zeal and energy in the cause of those who
were so bountifully feeding him.
Thus, he would talk, write, or fight for them if required ;
and it is further related of him, that, in the hour of revelry,
he would drink on his knees the most approved toasts
among the mal-contents, which, as may be conjectured,
were not a little treasonable ; so that there quickly sprang
from the rustic brood of a Welsh gentleman, a champion
armed at all points for the destruction of kingly power.

24 LIFE OF JEFFREYS.

CHAPTER II.
Jeffreys pleads at Kingston at the age of eighteen, two years before he is
called to the bar — Paucity of lawyers — Boldness of his carriage — His
clear enunciation — Ingenious artifice to obtain briefs — Cross-examining
— Disinterested motive of Jeffreys' marriage with the kinswoman of
the heiress whom he first courted — Amiable temper of his wife. Lady
Sarah — He receives countenance from a namesake. Alderman Jeffreys
— He is appointed common-serjeant— His blustering concealment of a
bribe — Jeffreys betrays the democrats, and accedes to the court party
— Friendship with Chifiinch, the King's page — Jeffreys, recorder of
London, owes his advancement to political tergiversation.
It has been asserted, that the young aspirant was
never called regularly to the bar ; whilst, according to
others, he performed the exercises allotted to students,
and, having complied with the customs of his Inn, was
published in the ordinary way, if we except his being pro
moted over the heads of elder graduates through the in
terest which he made with the benchers. Perhaps this
irregularity was alleged against him in after-times, when
every tale to his discredit met doubtless with a ready be
liever; but the origin of the report may be traced ber
yond question to his conduct at Kingston assizes, during
the plague. There, when the hearts of many, and amongst
others those of the counsellors, were failing them, by rea
son ofthe neighbouring calamity, this youth, although but
eighteen, put a gown upon his back and began to plead ;
and although he continued to act as an advocate con
tinually from that time, it is certain that he was not called
to the bar until two years afterwards ; and he was pro
bably admitted to speak upon that emergency, from the

LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 25

impracticability of inquiring into his qualification, which,
on his own part, so far from denying, he most probably
vehemently asserted. Indeed, the lawyers had been of
late so much thinned by the calamities of civil war and
pestilence, that the number of admittances at Gray's Inn
had decreased from the usual quantity of one hundred
and upwards, to a number nearly as low as fifty ; on which
account, a daring interloper might enter the field with a
success to which in ordinary times he would have been
utterly a stranger.
However gloomy the early days of Jeffreys's novitiate
might have been, he could not be said to have embarked
as an advocate without support ; for he was backed in the
first instance by the active confederacy, whose organ he
had been. The party had been delighted with his zeal
for them, had foretold his future success, and applauded
the choice of his profession ; and they now combined to
give him their united confidence and interest.
It was at Guildhall, Hickes's Hall, and before inferior
courts, that he first essayed his powers; and these he at
first preferred to Westminster, by reason of the frequency
of their sittings, and the comparative ease which attended
the despatch of business there; and there is good reason
to believe that he went the home circuit.
He was of a bold aspect, and cared not for the coun
tenance of any man: his tongue was voluble; his words
audible, and clearly understood ; ' and he never spared any
' The following testimony to his loud voice fook place at the trial of
Sir Patience Ward for perjury. It was necessary to call people as wit
nesses who had heard Sir Patience give evidence at a former trial, and
among these was Mr. Northey.
Mr. Serjeant Jeffreys to Northey — "You heard my question, when I
3

26 LIFE OF JEFFREYS.
which were at all likely to assist his client.^ These ad
vantages soon forced him into notice ; so that fees, the
forerunners of legal preferment, soon crowded upon him ;
and we are even told, that persons would put a brief into
his hand in the middle of a cause which they perceived
likely to turn against them. He was not above adopting
any artifice which might raise him in the estimation of
those with whom he associated : so that, when he was
sitting in a coffee-house, his servant would come to him
under his previous direction, and say, that company at
tended him in his chamber, which was the signal for him
to huff, and desire them to be told to stay a little, and
that he would come presently. This ingenious trick
helped forward his reputation for business ; and it is not
by any means an exaggeration to say, that he found him
self in considerable practice sooner than almost any one
of his contemporaries.
Nevertheless he sometimes received a check, in com
mon with many others of his brethren, when they ven
ture upon the occasional recreation of bantering wit
nesses, and in return meet now and then with a smart

said to him his invention was better than his memory; upon your oath,
upon what occasion was it .'' "
Mr. Northey — "I can't say. Sir G«orge, what; but your voice being
much louder than other men's, I heard you plainly."
' The description given of him by a poetaster of those days has some
thing in confirmation of this : —
" But yet he's chiefly devil about the mouth."
And again :" Oft with success this mighty blast did bawl.
Where loudest lungs and biggest words win all."

LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 27

stroke of humour, which coming from the intended butt
of the auditory, seldom fails to disconcert the astonished
assailant. A country-fellow was giving his evidence clad
in a leather doublet,' and Mr. Jeffreys, who was counsel
for the opposite party, found that his testimony was
"pressing home." When he came to cross-examine, he
bawled forth; "You fellow in the leather doublet, pray
what have you for swearing ? " The man looked steadily
at him, and, "Truly, sir," said he, "if you have no more
for lying than I have for swearing, you might wear a
leather doublet as well as I." Of course every body
laughed, and the neighbourhood rang with the bluntness
of the reply.
He had another rebuff when he was recorder. There
was a wedding somewhere, — and those to whom it apper
tained to pay for the music at the nuptials refused the
money, on which an action was brought; and as the
" musitioner's " were proving their case, the judge called
out, — " You fiddler ! " This made the witness wroth,
and he appeared to be disgusted ; but shortly afterwards
he called himself a "musitioner," on which Jeffreys
asked, what difference there was between a "musitioner "
and a fiddler. "As much, sir," said the man of melody,
"as there is between a pair of bagpipes and a recorder."
One more story: — Some gentleman in the course of
his evidence was making use of the law terms lessor and
lessee, assignor and assignee; which might have escaped
observation, had not his testimony been directly against

' " His doublet was of sturdy buff.
And tho' not sword, yet cudgel-proof." Stidihras.

28 LIFE OF JEFFREYS.

Jeffreys's client: "You there, with your law-terms of
your lessor and lessee, and of your assignee and your
assignor, do you know what a lessee or lessor is? I
don't believe that you know that, for all your formal evi
dence." "Yes, Sir George," said the witness, in reply
to this gasconade, "but I do, and I'll give you this in
stance : if I nod to you, I am the nodder, and if you
nod to me, then I am the noddee."
A lucky advocate, such as we have just spoken of, could
scarcely hope for any better stroke of fortune at this
time than a successful marriage, and he had been by no
means unmindful of this chance. He had acquired a very
winning air amongst the fairer sex, and was therefore the
more qualified to gain the hearts of women, whose gene
rosity will often pass by unheeded the prejudices of birth
and wealth, where they meet with the plausible address
of an affable and earnest suitor.
An opportunity was not long wanting ; for Jeffreys
thought the daughter of a merchant who had thirty thou
sand pounds, a prize far too valuable to be left unattempted.
He accordingly prepared for the trial, and gained over a
kinswoman and companion of the lady, through whom he
silently addressed her. His cause was espoused so warmly
by the disinterested relation whom we have mentioned,
that it seems very likely that the heiress would have
yielded to her friend's recommendation ; but the suspicions
of her father were aroused by some accident which can
not now be known: the plot was unravelled, the daughter
effectually secured, and the unfortunate negotiator dis
missed and discarded.
Upon this sad denouement, the kinswoman came
hastily towards London, to acquaint the disappointed

LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 29

lover with the failure of his cause. He went to her on
this occasion to hear the relation of the whole circum
stance, when a result most unforeseen and unexpected
arose from the visit. He applauded her zeal for his wel
fare, the hazard which she had incurred for hipa, and com
passionated the calamity which had befallen her on his
account ; and which was still more grateful and generous,
and the more extraordinary for a man of his aspiring
character, he proposed, as some satisfaction for her mis
fortunes, that she should be a substitute for her rich re
lation ; in a word, that she should be his wife.
There are persons who, if an obnoxious character
should by chance perform a kind office, are nevertheless
quite ready to attribute his benevolence to some in
terested motive, or to neutralize the good bearing of it
by some subtle insinuation; in the minds of such, this
conduct on the part of the young advocate would natu
rally give rise to much conjecture, and, considering the
future conduct of the man, would provoke an unfavoura
ble interpretation if there were any room for it. But it
is worthy of consideration, that amongst all the faults
with which this judge has been charged, whatever may
haive been his anxiety to grasp large possessions, what
ever his eagerness to feed his own ambition at the ex
pense of others ; — a want of generosity, independently of
that ambition, has never been attributed to him, but
rather a habit of prodigality; and there is not any rea
son why censures of a new kind should be laid upon one
who has been already the object of so many. This was
certainly one of those bursts of good feeling which spring
occasionally from the darkest of men, — a bright gleam
of sunshine amidst a world of mist.
3*

30 LIFE OF JEFFREYS.

On the 23d of May, 1667, he married, at Allhallows
Church, Barking, Sarah, the daughter of Thomas Nee-
sham, A. M. And it was by no means a discreditable
alliance: he had espoused the daughter of a clergyman;
and although she could not be said to be mistress of
thousands, it seems that she brought her husband three
hundred pounds. And he had not erred in judgment, if
he foresaw that his partner had possessions of much
greater price than the pittance of money which he re
ceived with her, since she proved an excellent wife; — a
very great acquisition to one of his careless and dissolute
manners. By this lady he had several children, of whom
we shall have occasion to speak hereafter.
As the tide of Jeffrey's fortune set in first at Guild
hall, it is no wonder that we soon find him wedded to
the luxuries and jovialities of the great city. His chief
object was to make an interest for himself in London;
and by the carelessness of his disposition, and his love
for social hours, he succeeded in gaining the affections of
many opulent merchants. There were, indeed, two alder
men of the same name with himself about this time;' and
' John Jeffreys, elected sheriff of London, and alderman of Bread-street,
in 1661 ; but discharged from both offices on paying fines.
Robert Jeffreys, sheriff in 1674, and knighted. He was elected alder
man of Cordwainer's ward in 1676, and lord mayor in 1686, died in 1704.
An hospital was erected in Kingsland Road in 1712, pursuant to his will,
for as many of the founder's relations as should apply for the charity ;
and in default thereof, for fifty-six poor members of the company. He
was buried at St. Dionis Backchurch, where there is a stately monument
to his memory.
Jeffrey Jeffreys, knt. sheriff in 1700, alderman of Portsoken 170] , died
at Roehampton in 1709, and was buried at St. Andrew Undershaft.
One of these, probably Robert, was called, by way of distinction (nar'
e^oxnr,) " the great smoker.''

LIFE OP JEFFREYS. 31

although it does not seem to be agreed whether they
were in any way related to him, there being assertions
on both sides ; — one of them, a great smoker, took a vast
fancy to his namesake,. and very soon determined to push
his fortune with all the strength of his purse and con
nexion, which was far from being inconsiderable.
Accordingly, young as he was, scarcely indeed twenty-
three, on the resignation or surrender of Sir Richard
Browne, Bart., he was made common Serjeant.
This elevation took place March 17, 1670-71. But
he was. not yet a servile favourite; for either presuming
upon the good-will which he had secured by his address
among the citizens, or impelled by that confidence which
so often accompanies success, he was accustomed to set
the authority of the mayor and aldermen at defiance, and,
in fact, he never rested until he had placed the city en
tirely at his devotion. How he conducted himself with
respect to the orphanage dues, with wliich he was con
cerned by virtue of his office,' we are not informed: had
there, however, been any cause of complaint against him
on this ground, posterity would probably, through the
zeal of some enemy, have been made acquainted with it.
Yet, as far as interest would avail, the following story
will show that he could control the application of the
funds, even when recorder.
A country gentleman married a city orphan, and de
manded her fortune, about .£1100, but could not procure
it. At length, all friends failing, he betook himself to
Mr. Recorder with ten guineas in hand, which the learned
' See Bohun's Privilegia Londini, 1723, p. 399, where the business of
the common Serjeant with these orphans' portions is described.

32 LIFE OF JEFFREYS.

officer received, and informed his visiter that the court
of aldermen would sit on a certain day, naming it. The
gentleman attended it. "Sirrah! what's your busi
ness?" quoth Jeffreys. The application was made in
form. Had he asked the consent of the court of alder
men? To which the suitor replied in the negative.
Jeffreys complimented him forthwith with the terms
rogue and rascal, and told him he should have asked
leave of the court for such a marriage. The gentleman
asked pardon, and pleaded ignorance of the city customs,
but this did not save him from fresh abuse. Neverthe
less, there soon appeared a note from the great man,
authorizing the receipt of the money; and all the blus
tering was ascribed to an anxiety on the part of Mr. Re
corder that the court should not peer into the bribe.
We shall now have occasion to speak of an entire
revolution in the political prospects of our wary common
Serjeant; The reader has been apprized of the subtlety
and address with which he became acquainted with the
secrets of a faction, as well as of the outward regard
which he professed for his disaffected friends; and it has
been no secret, that of all the men who ever thirsted for
preferment, Jeffreys was the most eager. Some, who
have in view the prospect of considerable good which
they cannot reach without a sacrifice of their ancient
friendships, will withdraw themselves with a gradual and
quiet backsliding from their associates ; and while they
forswear the inconsistent intercourse, will hold the confi
dence inviolate which has been reposed in them. Others
again, advancing a little farther on the same ground
although they have gained sufficient boldness to betray
the counsels which have been intrusted to them, have

LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 33
yet abstained from grosser acts of hostility, and have
patiently anticipated the fruits of their apostacy. But
we have now a character before us, who would have held
this proficiency in changing sides as merely trifling ; he
had not only the nerve to desert his confederates, and
to expose their secrets, but to harass them with furious
persecution; and if he met with any in after life, to
treat them "not only as if they were his greatest enemies,
but as if they were the common enemies of mankind."
Well may a reason be demanded for this most singular
proceeding: we have none to give as it respects his
friends, for it seems that they had given him no provoca
tion; but as it respects his preferment, when we come to
detail the result, it would be weakness to say otherwise
than that reasoning on the subject must be superfluous.
The court party had become triumphant, and places
and honours, which flowed abundantly from them, were
the rewards of a pliant favourite and an easy conscience.
Comparatively obscure as the common serjeant might
be, nature had never denied him a yielding and careless
demeanour; so that in these respects he was a fitting
candidate for the favour of those in high office. He had,
moreover, the sense to know that employments were
never bestowed upon the factious, unless they gave strong
proof of their regeneration, and by some bold stroke con
firmed their apostate acts. He had held his present
situation for some years, was in a vast career of forensic
business, and, which weighed still more with him, the
recorder. Sir John Howel,' was spoken of as likely to
' Howel presided at the trial of the celebrated William Penn for a tu
multuous assembly, and treated his prisoners with a ferocity which
Jeffreys could not have excelled. In the State Trials he is called
Thomas Howel, Recorder.

34 LIFE OF JEFFREYS.

quit his place. Now, although the gradual ascent from
the one of these offices to the other was not, as at present,
by any means common, it could not fail to strike Jeffreys,
that, if he showed a bold disposition to serve the court,
he might be made recorder ; and that there could not be
a more favourable conjuncture for a turn in his politics
than one which promised a vacancy he could so faithfully
supply, for just then the city was on very fair terms
with the government.
He soon decided, changed at once, made no secret of
his treachery, and bade defiance to the revenge of those
whom he had thus abandoned.'
But reason suggests that we should seek a better cause
for the kind reception of this man by the court, than his
being a sudden renegade from a discontented and de
feated party ; since, wha,tever might have been his flexi
bility, whatever the nature of his disclosures, he could
scarcely have expected impunity, much less promotion,
by virtue of this tergiversation. One writer^ attributes
this result to a successful ambition on the part of Jef
freys for advancement ; another^ speaks of his accumu
lating profits and connexion ; but Mr. North, in his Life
of Lord Guilford, seems to throw much more light upon
the subject by giving a note of the Lord Keeper himself
' Well, quoth Sir G., the Whigs may think me rude,
Or brand me guilty of ingratitude ;
At my preferment they (poor fools !) may grudg.
And think me fit for hangman more than judg;
But though they fret, and bite their nails, and brawl.
He'll slight them, and go kiss dear Nelly ^all. (Nell Gwyn.)
MidsuT/imer Moon.
' The author of his Life and Character, 1725.
' The author of the Bloody Assizes.

LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 35

regarding this affair.^ After introducing the celebrated
royal page, Chiffinch,* as a complete court spy, and a
' We give the quotation at length, being in itself highly interesting :
" Then being acquainted with Will. Chiffinch (the trusty page of the back
stairs,) struck in, and was made recorder." This Mr. Chiffinch was a
true secretary as well as page ; for he had a lodging at the back stairs,
which might have been properly termed the spy oflice, where the King
spoke with particular persons about intrigues of all kinds ; and all little in
formers, projectors, &c., were carried to Chiffinch's lodging. He was a
most impetuous drinker, and, in that capacity, an admirable spy ; for he
let none part from him sober, if it were possible to get them drunk; and
his great artifice was pushing idolatrous healths of his good master, and
being always in haste, for the Jdng is coming, which was his word. Nor,
to make sure work, would he scruple to put his master's salutiferous
drops (which were called the King's, of the nature of Goddard's,) into
the glasses; and being a Hercules, well breathed at the sport himself,
he commonly had the better, and so fished out many secrets, and disco
vered men's characters, which the king could never have obtained the
knowledge of by any other means. It is likely that Jeffreys, being a
pretender to main-feats with the citizens, might forward himself, and be
entertained by Will. Chiffinch ; and that, which at first was mere spying,
turn to acquaintance, if not friendship, such as is apt to grow up between
immane drinkers ; and from thence might spring recommendations of
him to the king, as the most useful man that could be found to serve his
Majesty in London, where was need enough of good magistrates, and
such as would not be, as divers were, accounted no better than traitors.
—Svo. ed. vol. ii. pp. 98, 99.
° There were two Chiffinchs, both cloSet-keepers to King Charles, per
haps father and son, but the latter is the most notorious character. The
former is mentioned by Evelyn, and by Pepys in his Diary, who says
that he died in 1666. The latter, therefore, must have been the compa
nion of Jeffreys. This man was the royal pimp, and used to find con
stant employment in discovering new faces for his master. He lived
much with Nell Gwyn at Filberd's, which was a favourite seat of the
king in Berkshire; and it was his duty to see that every accommodation
was provided for the fair courtezan. It was Chiffinch who introduced
the priest Hudleston to the king's dying bed, when the bishops were re
quested to withdraw for a season, little dreaming that their sovereign
was on better terms with the Pope than with the followers of Luther.

36 LIFE OF JEFFREYS.

most incorrigible wine-bibber, he tells us that Jeffreys was
in the habit of keeping company with this trusty servant,
and that something like regard sprang up between them ;
whence it happened that a strong recommendation of
Chiffinch's guest went forth to his Majesty, as a person
likely to do good service.
It seems that the era of this entertainment and confi
dence was that in which the young lawyer was immersing
himself in faction, kneeling at one table to drink King
Charles as "the god of his idolatry," at another, to
pledge confusion to his reign.
A conclusion almost irresistible results from this in
quiry ; so that we are tempted to consider Jeffreys during
much of this interval as a spy of the court, pledged deep
by Chiffinch on one side, and paid by the foes to royalty
on the other ; that he was playing his game like a gene
ral, who is prepared to act on the offensive when occa
sion offers ; that he would have held to the mal-contents
if the crown had been vanquished, as he deserted them
when the city honours were blossoming within his grasp.
It is probable, also, that about this time, he became ac
quainted with the celebrated Duchess of Portsmouth
through this channel of favouritism ; Certain it is, that
allusion was made in the ballads of those times to Her
Grace as an enemy to Monmouth, and no mean friend to
our recorder. Monmouth's tamer, Jeffreys' advance.
Foe to England, spy to France,
False and foolish, proud and bold.
Ugly, as you see, and old.
Duchess of Portsmouth s Picture.
La fin couronne les autres. Sept. 14, 1677, he was

LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 37

knighted; and on the resignation of Sir William Dolben,'
who was made a judge of the King's Bench, was elected
Oct. 22, 1678, recorder of London ; or, as he himself
termed it, the "mouth-piece ofthe city;" thus attaining
to be capital judge of the Guildhall, in which he first be
gan his prosperous pleading. There were three other can
didates, Mr. Richardson, a judge ofthe Sheriff's Court;
Mr. Turner, of Gray's Inn ; and Mr. Roger Belwood,^ a
barrister of the Middle Temple ; and Nicholls, in his His
tory of Leicestershire, has furnished a note e:itracted from
the city records, from whence it appears that Sir George
was "freely and unanimously elected by scrutiny."

' William Dolben was recorder of London, after the cession of Sir
John Howel. He was made judge of the King's Bench in October, 1678 ;
but removed from that place in 1683 to make room for Wythens, who
scrupled less to fulfil the measures 'of the new court-party. However,
as soon as the Prince of Orange came in, he was restored to his seat
again, and died in 1693. There have been some great men of this name ;
John Dolben, Archbishop of York, and the late Sir William Dolben, Bart.
and LL.D., whose knowledge of church history was so much distinguished
during some recent debates on the Test Act.
' Roger Belwood was engaged in many of the state prosecutions during
the latter part of King Charles's reign. He was afterwards a serjeant,
and died about 1691. His library was extremely choice, and some rare
tracts and manuscripts were sold by auction after his decease. — See
Bibliotheca Belwoodiana,.

38 LIFE OF JEFFREYS.

CHAPTER III.
Jeffreys, now a widower, espouses the daughter of a former lord mayor —
"The Westminster Wedding;" lampoon upon the Town Mouth, ox
Recorder Jeffreys — The King's Psalter, question of literary piracy —
Sir Edmondbury Godfrey — Trial of the Jesuit Coleman — The recor
der's commiseration of the papists he condemns — Really inimical to
the Catholics — The sermon-house at Canterbury — Jeffreys defends
Dangerfield— Cases of libel — Maxims of Jeffreys on this head — Jury
men ignore a bill against Smith; violence and subtlety ofthe recorder
foiled — Jeffreys is made Serjeant, Chief Justice of Chester, and a Ba
ronet — Duke of York's claims of profits of the new penny-post — Mr.
Dockra — Baron Weston's reproof of Jeffreys in Court — Lord Dela-
mere's severe charge against Jeffreys, as a Welsh judge — His brothers,
Sir Thomas Jeffreys, Dr. Jeffreys, Dean Jeffreys — The question as to
petitions — Jeffreys is accused of obstructing the voice of the people —
Subsequent censure of Sir George Jeffreys on his knees at the bar of
the House of Commons — He is constrained to resign the office of re
corder of London — George Treby elected recorder — Case of Verdon ;
his wit in his own defence.
The new recorder became a widower shortly before his
elevation, for lady Jeffreys had died on the fourteenth of
the preceding February:' upon this, he lost no time in
repairing the domestic breach; and while he had proved
that his first marriage had been an effusion of generosity,
he showed by his second choice that he was not unwillino-
to unite attachment with interest. He, accordingly, made
his advances to the widow of a Montgomeryshire gentle
man,^ a daughter of Sir Thomas Bludworth,^ who had

' She was buried on the eighteenth, in the vault of Aldermanbury
church. ' Mr. Jones.
' An account of this knight is given in a subsequent page.

LIFE OP JEFFREY ri. 39

been lord mayor, and for many years one of the city re
presentatives, and he very soon succeeded in his wishes,
for the citizens of London were always ready at that time
to match their children with favoured courtiers.'
He married this lady about May, 1678, not more than
three months from the death of the former ; and by her
also had several children, whom we shall mention at a
future time. The assertion of several writers, that his
first wife lived to see him chief justice of England, — is
therefore clearly ill-founded, though the mistake might
have arisen from the register of burials in St. Mary, Al
dermanbury, where the lady Sarah Jeffreys is stated to
have died in 1703; whereas his second wife. Lady Ann,
certainly died in that year.
It was indeed time that Mrs. Jones should again enter
into the legitimate state of marriage, for she certainly
was brought to bed of a son much too early for a common
calculator to say otherwise than that there had been a
mistake some where. And Jeffreys was once very un
comfortably reminded of this precipitancy by a lady who
was giving her evidence prettj sharply in a cause which
he was advocating. "Madam, you are very quick in
your answers!" cries the counsel. "As quick as I am,
Sir George, I was not so quick as your lady."^
We cannot forbear to insert here that very curious
copy of verses, called —

' A proof of this is the earnestness with which Sir John Lawrence, the
city broker, desired the union of one of his daughters with Mr. Solicitor-
general North. — See Life of Lord Guilford, 4to. p. 79.
" There were reasons, therefore, for Jeffreys's second marriage so soon
after the death of his wife.

40 LIFE OF JEFFREYS.

A WESTMINSTER WEDDING, OK THE TOWN MOUTH ;' ALIAS, THE RECORDER
OF LONDON AND HIS LADY: FEB. 17, 1679.
*Tis said when George did dragon slay,
He saved a maid from cruel fray :
But this Sir George, whom knaves do brag on,
Mist ofthe maid, and caught the dragon;
Since which, the furious beast so fell.
Stares, roars, and yawns like mouth of hell :
He raves and tears, his bad condition
Distracts his mind, as late petition.
Peace man, or beast (or both) to please ye,
A parliament will surely ease ye.
Marriage and hanging both do go
By destiny ; Sir George, if so,
You stand as fairly both to have,
As" ever yet did fool or knave:
The first your wife hath help'd ye to ;
The other as a rogue 's your due ;
No other way is left to tame ye;
And if you have it not, then blame me.
But ere it comes, and things are fitting,
Judge of his merit by his getting :
He's got a ven'mous heart, and tongue
With vipers, snakes, and adders hung,
By which in court he plays the fury,
Hectors complainant, law, and jury ;
His impudence hath all laws broken,
(To the judge's honour be it spoken,)
For which he got a name that stinks
Worse than the common jakes or sinks :
But to allay the scent so hot,
George from the court has knighthood got,
Bestow'd upon him for his bawling, — ¦-
A royal mark for caterwauling :
But certain, George must never boast on't,
'Cause traitors, cheats, and pimps have most on't.
Now rogue enough he got in favour,
To bind good men to worse behaviour,

' " Mouth-piece of the city." — Jeffreys.

LIFE OF JEFFREYS; 41

And bark aloud they will deceive ye,
In that he matches tribe of Levi ;
Who now with Pope bear all before 'em,
Priests made just-asses ofthe quorum.
Faith make 'em judges too, most fine-o.
And then they'll preach it all Divino.
There's somewhat more that George has got,
(For Trevor' left him, who knows what)
A teeming lady wife * •

But one thing more I can't let pass.
When George with Clodpate' feasted last,
(I must say Clodpate was a sinner.
To jeer his brother so at dinner,)
He by his almanack did discover.
His wife scarce thirty weeks went over,
Ere she (poor thing !) in pieces fell.
Which made Mouth stare and bawl like hell.
What then, you fool ! some wives miscarry,
And reckon June for January.
This Clodpate did assert as true.
Which he by old experience knew.
But all his canting would not do.
George put him to 't upon denial.
Which set him hard as Wakeman's trial :
Theyrail'd and bawl'd, and kept a pother.
And like two curs did bite each other.
Which brought some sport, but no repentance j
So off they went to Harris' sentence.
Which soon they pass'd against all laws,
To glut their rage and popish cause :
For which injustice, knaves ! we hope
You'll end together in the rope :
' Sir John Trevor, said to be his lady's gallant in the time of her
widowhood, &c. — Note to the poem. Of this Trevor we shall speak
hereafter. " Scroggs, lord chief justice ofthe King's -Bench.
' Benjamin Harris, the book-seller.— iVoie to the poem.
4*

42 LIFE OF JEFFREYS.

And when the gallows shall you swallow.
We'll throw up caps, and once more holloa.
If this we wish from private grudge,
Or as their merit, England's j udge :
Who seek the nation to enthrall
Are treacherous slaves and villains all.
And when confusion such does follow.
We'll throw, up caps, and once more holloa.
That's their exit,
Tho' they rex-it.
We shall grex-it.
Some persons about this time had printed a Psalter,
which they called "The King's Psalter," expecting to
shelter themselves under the authority of so high a name
from being called to account for their piracy, for they
had invaded the rights of the Stationers' Company ; but
this subterfuge did not avail them, since the Company
immediately brought the matter before the Privy Council,
and being desirous of retaining a resolute advocate, they
took the new recorder with them in that capacity. Sir
George thought this an admirable opportunity for him to
attract the notice of royalty; and he, therefore, in open
ing the stationers' title to the property which had been
invaded, ventured upon a very bold speech which had al
most ruined any other man. "They," meaning the lite
rary pirates, "have teemed," said he, "with a spurious
brat, which being clandestinely midwived into the world,
the better to cover the imposture, they lay it at Your
Majesty's door." Perhaps the King might have been
flattered (for much depended upon his humour at parti
cular times) with this public proclamation of his gallant
ries ; doubtless, he thought it a most impudent address
on the part of his loyal recorder ; but so far from resenting
it, he turned to one of the lords who sat next to him and

LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 43

said, "This is a bold fellow, I'll warrant him!" and he,
probably, was so much tickled with it, as to recollect very
shortly afterwards, that no one could better befriend the
crest-fallen government than he who had hazarded so
free a reflection upon the royal person. The stationers
had a decree in their favour.
The new magistrate was not destined to be long , in
active. Every one knows that the furious fanaticism
against the Catholics burst forth about this time, and that
the Duke of York's imprudent valour, in demanding an
investigation of matters which very few at that time knew
or cared any thing for, kindled the embers, which were
just expiring, into a flame. That which neither Dr.
Tongue's hypocrisy, nor Oates's quackery could effect,
was most fully accomplished by the royal Head of those
who were so soon to undergo the most wicked and un
merited persecution.
And as though no incitement should be wanting to
embroil the nation in civil tumult. Sir Edmundbury God
frey, who had taken informations against some of the ac
cused papists, a man naturally given to vapours and
melancholy, was found with the marks of strangulation
upon him in a ditch, and with a sword in his body. His
spleen is by some considered as sufficient to brand him
with the^crime of suicide; but there is equal reason to
believe, that by some dark contrivance of those who after
wards reaped such immense harvests, he was made a vic
tim to the clamour ofthe day; the announcement of his
fate being a tocsin against the miserable followers of po
pery. At first the people were comparatively passive,
and seemed contented with a few sacrifices ; and during
these early scenes of blood, the recorder made his appear-

44 LIFE OP JEFFREYS.

ance, sometimes as counsel for the crown, sometimes as
judge to pass sentence of death upon the malefactors.
We shall see presently how the times changed on a ru
mour that the plot was to be stifled, and how Jeffreys was
affected by the alteration.
He has been charged with violence throughout the
whole of his professional and judicial career, and no doubt
he was an overbearing advocate and an intemperate
judge; but he lived in a day when all men of any spirit
were vehement, and when nearly all judges' were given
to rude language: the marvel would have been, if he had
shown kindness, when fashion and prejudice ran so
strongly to the contrary: there could be none to find
him striking in with the confirmed madness of the age.^
' There must be an exception in favour of Sir Francis North, and per
haps one or two others ; but North had encouraged a very wary and fox
like demeanour during the whole of his life.
" We do not by any means intend to justify the judge's conduct upon this
occasion ; the chief object of the biographer being to reveal every feeling of
human nature in its clearest light. But that which is held to be a crime in
our age, might have been esteemed a virtue in another ; and it certainly was
not for a successful recorder, under the crooked policy of Charles, to fore
see these most liberal days, when every judicial movement is criticized
with the utmost rigour. Had the present improvements of the home
secretary been suggested, it might be said, even twenty years since,
they certainly had been treated as chimerical, or at least marvellous in
the extreme ; we regard them, beyond a doubt, as proofs of an enlightened
legislation. We condemn those who have loaded our statute-book with
capital punishments; but we do not give them credit for that degree of
information which has sprung up since their day. Whatever might have
been the asperity of Jeffreys, it certainly was not exceeded by that of
Rainsford, Scroggs, Pemberton, or Sanders ; and we must therefore be
content (laying aside all mention of his subsequent conduct) to class him
with those whose examples he was imitating ; neither exaggerating his
roughness nor palliating it, by applauding the excesses of which he was
guilty.

LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 45

If it be once admitted that he was not worse than his
contemporaries,' posterity will the more readily do him
justice in respect of any good qualities which he might
have possessed; and these again will be displayed in a
more favourable light, if virulent and unlicensed invective
can be silenced, though it be but for a moment.
The first state prosecution against the supposed popish
conspirators, was the case of Coleman ; and if the account
of those proceedings, as detailed in the state-trials, be
carefully examined, it will be made evident, that however
busy the recorder might have been as counsel for the
crown, his conduct was mildness itself when compared
with the harshness of the judges and Serjeants towards
the accused. And it is worthy of remark, that his anxiety
for a regular system of evidence, which he was always
ready to promote when on the bench, appeared upon this
trial. Counsel were constantly in the habit of interrupt
ing the witnesses, and that license was frequently allowed
to the prisoner; but Jeffreys begged that the court would
suffer Gates to go on without any interposition to the end
of his story, which the chief justice promised, but soon in
terfered himself as briskly as any one. Ireland, Pickering,
and Grove, were tried next; and notwithstanding the
shrewd suspicions which we may entertain at this day of
the recorder's sincerity, when he affected pity for these

' He certainly could not have shown more jocoseness at a capital trial
than Sir William Dolben, who was a judge after the Revolution. Thwing
and another were indicted for high treason at York; and in the course of
his challenges, Thwing said, — " My lord, I shall willingly stand to the
other jury." — Justice Dolben. " What jury ?" — Thwing. " My Lady
Tempest's jury." — Justice Dolben. " Oh, your servant ! you are either
very.foolish, or take me to be so."

46 LIFE OF JEFFREYS.

poor people, he went not one step farther in his denun
ciation of their religion and customs than other judges,
who were occasionally called upon to give judgment of
death upon the papists. The following sp,ecimen of his
seeming commiseration, mixed with reflections on the
superstitious ceremonies of the Catholics, is curious.
" Thus I speak to you, gentlemen, not vauntingly ; 'tis
against my nature to insult upon persons in your sad con
dition : God forgive you for what you have done ; and I
do heartily beg it, though you don't desire I should: for,
poor men ! you may believe that your interest in the world
to come is secured to you by your masses, but do not well
consider that vast eternity you must ere long enter into,'
and that great tribunal you must appear before, where
his masses (speaking to Pickering) will not signify so
many groats to him; no, not one farthing. And I must
say it, for the sake of these silly people whom you have
imposed upon with such fallacies, that the masses can no
more save thee from a future damnation, than they do
from a present condemnation." He was next counsel on
the trial of Green, Berry, and Hill, for the murder of
Sir Edmondbury Godfrey; and seems again to have exer
cised great caution in abstaining from leading the witnesses
with questions, and eliciting their testimony in a general
manner, which varies but little from the practice now fol
lowed. Here he exhibited a strong sense of humanity
and justice. A tipstaff had deprived the prisoners of
their clothes as soon as they had been committed, pre
tending that they were his fee ; on which the recorder,
previously to his praying judgment, complained openly to
the court, and obtained an order that the property should
be restored; a barbarous custom having been set up in
favour of this plunder, but disallowed by the judges.

LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 47

Shortly afterwards, Langhorn and the Jesuits were con
demned, and it fell again to the recorder's lot to pronounce
the judgment of death, which he did with much apparent
humanity, regretting that one of his own brethren of the
bar had brought himself to a fate so untimely, and giving
express orders that the unfortunate persons should re
ceive every comfort, and enjoy the company of their
friends at all convenient seasons. More tenderness could
not now be shown to prisoners in that unhappy situation,
saving, perhaps, the absence of abuse which was then be
stowed upon the unfashionable creed.
The recorder, however, was certainly an object of terror
to the Romish party, and they used every effort to mollify
him when they came before him for judgment, but rarely
with good success ; for he never was at a loss for some
sarcasm upon their religious opinions.
Yet it is curious to observe how pliant he seemed when
the names of the great and powerful were mentioned,
especially if any high person had expressed himself favour
ably towards the accused. As where Starkey, a con
demned priest, having been overruled on all the legal ob
jections which he had started, happened to plead the very
gracious reception which he had received some years be
fore from the King, the Duke of York, the Chancellor
Hyde, and the Bishop of London, to whom he had un
ravelled some conspiracy; — Jeffreys softened directly,
spoke of the King as a fountain of mercy, promised to re
late every extenuating circumstance to His Majesty, and
intimated in conclusion the excellent opportunity which
the prisoner then had of enlightening the government on
the subject of the plot. It is evident that he had been
treated hitherto more as the tool than the confidant of

48 LIFE OF JEFFREYS.

the ministry ; for they were then lying in wait for a con
venient handle to brand the whole narration with impos
ture, though they dared not as yet brave the infatuation
of the parliament and the populace. However, he in re
ality was never friendly to the Catholics, even when King
James filled the throne, and it became his interest to
patronize them. This is confirmed by an anecdote related
by Sir John Reresby, which he received from the Rev.
Mr. Gosling of Canterbury, and which he gives entire as
it was communicated to him.
" One day, while he was chancellor, he invited my father
home with him from the King's Chapel, and inquired
whether there were not a building at Canterbury called
the Sermon-house, and what use was made of it. My
father said it was the old Chapter-house, where the dean,
or his representatives, might convene the choir once a
fortnight, and hear the chanter's account how well the
duty had been attended in that time. 'This,' said he,
'will not do;' and explained himself by saying, that the
presbyterians had then a petition before the king and
council, asking it, as a thing of no use, for their meeting
house. On this, my father told him, that if it were made
a chapel for the early prayers, and the choir reserved
purely for cathedral service, this would be a great con
venience, and the Sermon-house would be in daily use.
' This will do,' said the chancellor : 'pray let the dean and
chapter know as soon as possible, that I advise them to
put it to this use without delay;' adding, 'if the presby
terians do not get a grant of it, others perhaps will, whom
you may like still worse.' His advice was taken ; and it
has been the morning-prayer chapel ever since."
It is not our province to weary the reader with a dc-

LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 49
scription of all the state prosecutions which arose out of
the pretended popish or presbyterian conspiracies; the
recorder was engaged in all, save one or two ; and as the
convictions multiplied, he grew bolder in his assumptions,
and more elated with his victories. He was singularly
resolute in propping up the character of Dangerfield, a
man who had been disgraced in every possible way, and
who came branded and pilloried into court for the purpose
of convicting Lord Castlemaine and the persecuted Mrs.
Collier. When the record of this man's conviction for
uttering counterfeit guineas, and of his subsequent punish
ment in the pillory was read, Jeffreys directly replied,
that he was not the same person, which, however, turned
out a bad defence. He then combated the objection to
the witness's competency, which was, that an attainted
felon could not be restored to his capacity of witness by
a pardon. And this he did successfully, though, after
all, the true reason for admitting the testimony came from
the Court of Common Pleas, whither Mr. Justice Ray
mond' went to learn the opinions of the judges there. It
probably came from that great lawyer. Lord Chief Justice

' Sir Thomas Raymond was the author of some reports in the common
law courts. He was made serjeant, Oct. 26, 1677, and a baron of the Ex
chequer, May 5, 1679, though much against his will; for he tells us, that
he laboured, not without great reason, to prevent it. Feb. 7, 1680, he
became judge of the Common Pleas; and on the 29th of the following
April, judge of the King's Bench, in which situation he died soon after
wards. He was the father of Robert Lord Raymond, Baron Raymond
of Abbott's Langley, in the county of Herts, some time solicitor and
attorney-general, a judge of the King's Bench, and chief justice of that
court. Lord Raymond, also an author of reports, died in 1733, and was
interred at Abbott's Langley, where a magnificent monument was erected
to his memory. The title became extinct in 1753.
5

50 LIFE OF JEFFREYS.

North; and it was because the offender, having been burnt
in the hand, had expiated his crime by the punishment,
which is conformable to the doctrine entertained at this
day. In the prosecutions for libel, also, which were frequent
about this time, the city advocate was very sanguine,
sometimes threatening, sometimes coaxing the defendants
to confess ; though in the case of Sir William Scroggs's'
' William Scroggs was born at Dedington, Oxon, and became a com
moner of Oriel in 1639, at the age of sixteen, although some have held
him to be the son of a one-eyed butcher near Smithfield-bars, and a big
fat woman with a red nose like an alewife.* He afterwards went to
Pembroke College, and proceeded M. A. in 1643. His father had in
tended him for the church, and had procured him the reversion of a good
living, but he took arms for the king, and was captain of a foot company,
which entirely changed his fortune. He then entered at Gray's Inn, and
in 1669 was made serjeant, and knighted, and soon after became king's
serjeant. May 31, 1678, being at the time a judge of the Common Pleas,
he was promoted to the chief seat in the King's Bench through the Earl
of Danby, and there ensured many convictions of the supposed popish
conspirators. However, in the full belief that the sway of parliament
was all-powerful, and that Shaftesbury was guiding the destinies of the
state, he one day asked a lord of the privy council, if the lord president
(Shaftesbury) really had that influence with the king which he seemed to
have? The reply was, "No; no more than your footman hath with
you." Scroggs was converted, and threw cold water on the plot, for
which he was impeached ; but he escaped on the dissolution of parliament,
and retired to Weald-hall, near Burntwood, in Essex, with the loss, how
ever, of his place. He died of a polypus in the heart in 1683," having
survived his wife, a daughter of Matthew Blucke, Esq., some time. This
judge was a grea:t lover of good living; and Sir Matthew Hale, whose
taste was quite different, refused Scroggs the privilege of a serjeant when
he was arrested, which made a great talk at the time. His son and heir.
Sir William Scroggs, sold his estate to Alderman Erasmus Smith. No

* This was said by Sir William Dugdale, Garter, because Scroggs refused his kniglit-
hood-fees, and must theiefore be talten cumgrano.
t Some say he died iu Esse.v-street, but sureJy tliis muat be a blunder for Essex.

LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 51
libellers their submission availed them little, since, al
though they had been assured by the insinuating counsel

man was more smartly lampooned bythe wits ofthe day than this turn
coat chief justice. Beneath are extracts from some ofthe squibs which
were let off against him: —
Justice in Masquerade, or Scroggs upon Scroggs.
A butcher's son's judg capital.
Poor Protestants for to enthral.
And England to enslave, sirs :
Lose both our laws and lives we must.
When to do justice we entrust
So known an errant knave, sirs.
Some hungry priests he once did fell
With mighty strokes, and them to hell
Sent presently away, sirs:
Would you know why? the reason's plain ;
They had no English nor French coin
To make a longer stay, sirs.
His father once exempted was
Out of all juries : why ? because
He was a man of blood, sirs :
And why the butcherly son (forsooth !)
Shou'd now be judg and jury both.
Cannot be understood, sirs.
The good old man, with knife and knocks.
Made harmless sheep and stubborn ox
Stoop to him in his fury :
But the brib'd son, like greasy oaph.
Kneels down and worships golden calf,
And so do's all the jury.
On the same.
Since Justice Scroggs Pepys and Dean did bail.
Upon the good cause did turn his tail.
For two thousand pounds to buy tent and ale.
Which nobody can deny.

52 LIFE OF JEFFREYS.
that they would find mercy at his hands, he nearly, if not
quite, ruined some of them by his strict exaction of justice.
It must have been with great complacency that Sir George
echoed the chief justice's expressions in Carr's affair, who
was indicted for publishing "The Weekly Packet of Ad
vice from Rome ;" a trial in which the bias of the govern
ment against the plot was pretty strongly manifested :
when the verdict was given, after the interruptions of a
tumultuous crowd of people, which considerably annoyed
Scroggs, he said, "You have done like honest men." To
which the recorder very joyfully added, " They have done
like honest men."
Scroggs was at first a man of the blade.
And with his father followed the butcherly trade.
But 'twas the Peter-pence made him a jade.
Which nobody, &c.
He'd stand by the protestant cause, he said,
And lift up his eyes, and cry'd. We're betray'd;
But then the pettifogger was in a masquerade.
Which nobody, &c.
When Danby mentioned to the king his name.
He said he had neither honesty nor shame.
And would play any sort of roguish game.
Which nobody, &c.
He swears he'd confound Beddlow and Oates,
And prove the papists sheep, and the protestants goats.
And that he's a tool that on property dotes.
Which nobody, &c.
The Wolf Justice.
VERSES FIXT UPON HIS CHAMBER-BOOK.
Here lives the Wolf Justice, a butcherly knave,
Likes protestants' goods, but the papists' do's save, &e.
Pee also the " Westminster wedding," which we have inserted and
in which he is called " Clodpate."

LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 53

The recorder, indeed, was always very severe upon
libellers ; but, even on this subject, he sometimes spoke
very good sense; and his opinion, with regard to the
proof of malice, which he expressed in Sir Samuel Bar-
nardiston's case, has been mentioned with much approba
tion. "Certainly," said he, (at this time he was chief
justice) "the law supplies the proof, if the thing itself
speaks malice and sedition. As it is in murder ; we say
always in the indictment, he did it by the instigation of
the devil : can the jury, if they find the fact, find he did
it not by such instigation? no, that does necessarily
attend the very nature of such an action or thing. So,
in informations for offences of this nature, we say, he
did it falsely, maliciously, and seditiously, which are the
formal words ; but if the nature of the thing be such as
necessarily imports malice, reproach, and scandal to the
government, there needs no proof but of the fact done ;
the law supplies the rest."
And had he lived in these days, the vengeance of the
public press would have fallen on him as a subject for
condign punishment; for when recorder, he was guilty
of promulging this singular heresy :
Sir Cr. Jeffreys, Recorder.
"All the judges of England having met together to
know whether any person whatsoever may expose to the
public knowledge any matter of intelligence, or any mat
ter whatsoever that concerns the public, they give it as
their resolution, ' that no person whatsoever could expose
to the public knowledge any thing that concerned the
affairs of the public, without license from the king, or from
such persons as he thought fit to entrust with that power.' "
5*

54 LIFE OF JEFFREYS.
Observing upon this, says Lord Camden, "Can the
twelve judges extra-judicially make a thing law to bind
the kingdom by a declaration, that such is their opinion ?
I say no ; it is a matter of impeachment for any judge to
affirm it."
Mr. Recorder Jeffreys was, conformably with his creed,
very severe upon a poor bookseller named Francis Smith.
This person had been so indiscreet as to publish a book
against the expenses of mayors and sheriffs, in which
there were declamations against feasting and wine, worthy
of a Spartan. "Debauchery is come to that height,"
said the writer, "that the fifth part of the charge of a
shrievalty is in wine, the growth of another country."
However, the grand jury, who (although they might have
liked wine exceedingly well) could not persuade them
selves that these general censures of expense were libel
lous, thought fit to endorse that obnoxious word to court
ears, "ignoramus," upon the bill of indictment ; and this
was a unanimous ejectment of the charge. However^
somebody scraped out the ignoramus, and next sessions the
bill came forth again, upon which it was resolved with one
voice to renew the ignoramus, and thus the bill was re
turned. Jeffreys flew into immense choler, and sent back
the bill a third time. But the jury stuck to their fa
vourite ignoramus, and again tendered the disgraced
writing to the incensed recorder, who might well have
thought that all his interest with mayor and sheriffs
would fleet away, if this heretical proscription were
suffered. "God bless me from such jurymen!" vocife
rated the city advocate ; " I will see the face of every one
of them, and let others see them also." And so he or
dered the bar to be cleared, that the citizens who had

LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 55
thus acted might be laid open to the public gaze. But
in vain: — Non vultus instantis tyranni
Mente quatit solids-
One by one, seriatim, as lawyers say, did the jury,
seventeen in number, utter ignoramus ; and in a moment,
blasphemy and perjury were thundered out in their ears :
they had committed a sin which God would never pardon.
It was the apotheosis, the anathema maranatha of Mr.
Recorder. Still the jury say nothing. Utterly inefficient,
when a flrm body of men, sheltered by the imperishable
constitution of their ancestors, had decided on a matter
which belonged solely to their jurisdiction. Sir George
was driven from his high position, and instantly betook
himself to a land of gins and snares. He doffed the
lion's hide, and hid himself in the soft sleek coat of the
fox. "Come, Mr. Smith!" and he beckoned the crest
fallen bookseller, who knew that he was on very slippery
ground ; " there are two other persons besides you whom
this jury have brought in ignoramus ; but they have been
ingenuous enough to confess, and I cannot think to flne
them little enough ; they shall be fined but two-pence a-
piece for their ingenuity in confessing. Well, come, Mr.
Smith, we know who hath owned both printing and pub
lishing this book formerly." Most probably Smith had
been in the trap before, and had probably escaped with
sorae severe injury, as a mouse does who loses the greater
part of his tail ; and so, says he, " Sir, my ingenuity hath
sufficiently experienced the reward of your severity al
ready formerly; and besides, I know no law commands
me to accuse myself, neither shall I; and the jury have
done like true Englishmen and worthy citizens; and

56 LIFE OF JEFFREYS.
blessed be God for such a just jury!" Then Jeffreys
foamed again; and the bookseller found his way into
Newgate, and was compelled to give bail. We shall just
give the sequel. He asked for a copy of his indictment,
which even Scroggs said he was entitled to ; but Jeffreys
put it off from time to time, under pretence that his
private house was not a court, and that he could not
meddle with ordering any thing there. At last Smith
got a nice compact charge of seventeen sheets against
him ; but it gives us pleasure to say, that he ultimately
got clear of that charge, and indeed of another, at the
expense of a small fine. This is his winding-up of the
matter: — "From such a judge, and such a recorder of
London, and such judgment, good Lord deliver me! and
may every true citizen and right Englishman say. Amen."
It was now time that this persevering zealot should
receive some token of favour from those whose dictates
he had so faithfully obeyed. And, indeed, when he had
once planted himself in the track of preferment, he
moved on with a speed which has seldom been equalled,
for the court would have been puzzled to have found
another so exactly fitted to their service — one who scru
pled so little, and did so much.
He was called serjeant, February 17, 1680: on which
occasion he gave rings with the motto — A Deo rex: a
rege lex:^ and became a Welsh judge about that time,
when his brother preached an assize-sermon before him.
On the 80th of the following April, he had succeeded in
despoiling Sir Job Charlton of the chief justiceship of
Chester, which he secured for himself. He was made

' The king from God; the law from the king.

LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 57

king's serjeant on the 12th of May, in the same year;
and November 17, 1681, was created a baronet. This
chief justiceship was given him in consideration of his
loyalty and good services ; and the dignity of one of his
majesty's counsel at Ludlow, with a permission to retain
the office of recorder, was joined with it.
Sir Job was an old man, and was most unwilling to
give up his office, for he had a considerable estate in
Wales ; but finding the matter determined against him,
he took it to heart, and going to Whitehall, placed him
self so that the king could not avoid seeing him on his
return from St. James's Park, and "set him down like
hermit poor."' But King Charles espied him at a dis
tance, and knowing too well the burden of his speech,
could not bear to pass him ; but turned short off, and
went another way. Sir Job was sorry for his master,
but never sought another interview. He was constituted
judge of the Common Pleas, where he brought with him
much dignity and learning. However, it is pleasing to
reflect, that in the reign of James IL, the old judge had
his quietus in Westminster-hall, and was restored to his
much-loved station in the principality.^
Some time before this. Sir George had gained a firmer
' North's Lives.
° Sir Job Charlton was not the only chief justice of Chester who loved
his place. We are told that Sir Eardley Wilmot very anxiously longed
for that situation by way of retirement, and was only prevented from
filling it by Mr. Morton, who could not be prevailed on to give it up.
This was previous to the elevation of Sir Eardley to the chief justiceship
of the Common Pleas. — Life of Wilmot, hy his son. The real reason of
the removing of Sir Job was his refusal to concede the king's dispensing
power; but he was doubtless glad to occupy his old seat again, which,
on petition, was granted him.

58 LIFE OF JEFFREYS.

footing at court by his introduction as solicitor-general
to the Duke of York.
On the ripening of the popish persecutions, history ac
quaints us, that the Duke retired to Brussels, in confor
mity with his brother's advice and request, but not with
out having obtained an explicit declaration of Monmouth's
illegitimacy. His solicitor was very active during this
season of trouble ; for although no one was more violent
than he, when the accused came to the bar, he promoted
in secret every design which could be imagined for shel
tering his master, removing the stigma of the plot from
him, and foiling the obnoxious Exclusion bill. And
hence it was, that he held so long and powerful a domi
nion over the mind of that prince, though he had possibly
sunk at last, if the religion of the country had changed,
since it admits of little doubt, that bigotry will forswear
the warmest friendships.
It may not be amiss to relate an affair in this place
connected with the post-office, because, though it will
carry us forward to the year 1682, it entirely arose from
Jeffreys' management of the Duke's property. By a
statute passed in the early part of King Charles's reign,'
the post-office was settled upon the Duke of York and his
heirs male. William Dockra, a merchant, in a subse
quent part of the reign, invented a penny-post, which he
completely arranged, and directed for a considerable
time, with the approbation of the inhabitants of London.
But the Duke, being the general grantee of revenues ac
quired in this manner, it occurred to his solicitor, that
he was entitled to those also which Mr. Dockra was en-

' 15 Car. 2, chap. 14.

LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 69

joying ; and finding the project capable of high improve
ment, he filed an information on the post act against
that person, and obtained a conviction against him in
the King's Bench.
Had Dockra been a wise man, it seems, that he might
have received for his life the place of commissioner for
the management of this post, yet he would not submit
himself, but continued his fruitless complaints, while the
crown at length became possessed of the benefit, which
has remained in the same hands ever since.' However,
the disappointed merchant made another attempt at the
Revolution to gain some reparation for his loss by me
morializing the House of Commons, and printing an ap
peal to the public in the shape of an advertisement.^
Here, he complains of the injustice done him by the then
late king, who had, under colour of law, deprived him of
his rights, without any manner of recompense, and states
the progress of his petition to Parliament, which was ad
journed before his case was heard. He tells us also,
that there had been an "Answer to Mr. Dockra's case
concerning the Penny-post;" to which he wrote a reply.

' About 1776, a penny-post was set up in Edinburgh, by Mr. William
son, unconnected with the general post-office. It met with but indiffe
rent encouragement for some years, doubts being entertained as to its
punctuality in delivering the letters; by degrees, however, it seemed to
be advancing in estimation, and was more frequently employed. Twenty
years after, the general post-oflice, by virtue of the act of parliament,
prohibiting the conveyance of letters by any but those employed under
the postmaster-general, took the penny-post entirely into its own hands;
and Mr. William.son was allowed an annuity during life, equal lo what
his private establishment yielded.
° An advertisement on the behalf of William Dockra, merchant, con
cerning the penny-post.

60 LIFE OF JEFFREYS.

but did not print it. If we may believe his account, he
had a wife and eight children, and had spent many thou
sand pounds upon the concern.'
And now, the new Welsh chief justice increased in
haughtiness every day, and his vanity advanced in an
equal ratio with his preferments and favour. But some
of the judges would not brook this torrent of conceit, and
he received a very severe lesson from Mr. Baron Weston^
at the Kingston Midsummer assizes for 1679. Being
counsel there in some cause at Nisi Prius, he took on
himself to ask all the questions, and tried to browbeat
the other side in their examination of witnesses, when
the judge bade him hold his tongue. Some words passed,
in the course of which he told the baron that he was not
treated like a counsellor, being curbed in the manage
ment of his brief. "Ha!" fiercely returned the judge:
"since the King has thrust his favours upon you, in
making you chief justice of Chester, you think to run

' He had a small pension at last. He is praised for the ingenuity of
his discovery, in the State Poems, vol. iii. p. 246.
= There have been four Westons judges of our courts : Richard Weston,
of the Common Pleas, in the reign of Elizabeth ; Richard Weston a ba
ron of the Exchequer, in the time of Charles I. ; James Weston, a baron,
in the same reign; and Richard Weston, to whom allusion has been
made in the text. The two barons of Charles the First's reign were
celebrated for their courage ; and this Sir Richard in no wise came be
hind them in resolution : for, being impeached for some words he had let
drop in a charge on the circuit, he, unlike to Scroggs and Jones, who had
incurred the same displeasure, and were much troubled at it, was "gay
and debonair as at a wedding." Indeed, he desired nothing so much as
a great balk with the Commons; in the course of which he intended to
set up Magna Charta, ihe judicium parium, and his lawful challenges 
in fact, to dispute every inch of ground. But the prosecution was
dropped. He died March 23, 1681.

LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 61
down every body : if you find yourself aggrieved, make
your complaint; here's nobody cares for it." The coun
sel said, he had not been used to make complaints, but
rather to stop those that were made ; but the judge again
enjoined him silence. Jeffreys sat down, and wept with
anger. Lord Delamere, afterwards Earl of Warrington, in a
speech which he delivered on the corruption of judges,
was very severe upon the new chief justice of the County
Palatine. He spoke thus upon that point : — " The county
for which I serve is Cheshire, which is a County Pala
tine, and we have two judges peculiarly assigned us by
his Majesty : our puisne judge I have nothing to say
against him, for he is a very honest man for aught I
know; but I cannot be silent as to our chief justice, and
I will name him, because what I have to say will appear
more probable : his name is Sir George Jeffreys, who I
must say behaved himself more like a jack-pudding,
than with that gravity which beseems a judge : he was
mighty witty upon the prisoners at the bar ; he was very
full of his jokes upon people that came to give evidence,
not suffering them to declare what they had to say in
their own way and method, but would interrupt-them, be
cause they behaved themselves with more gravity than he ;
and in truth, the people were strangely perplexed when
they were to give in their evidence ; but I do not insist
upon, this, nor upon the late hours he kept up and down
our city : it's said he was every night drinking till two
o'clock, or beyond that time, and that he went to his
chamber drunk ; but this I have only by common fame,
for I was not in his company : I bless God I am not a man
6

62 LIFE OF JEFFREYS.

of his principle or behaviour : ' but in the mornings he ap
peared with the symptoms of a man that over night had
taken a large cup. But that which I have to say is the
complaint of every man, especially of them who had any
law-suits. Our chief justice has a very arbitrary power,
in appointing the assize when he pleases ; and this man
has strained it to the highest point : for whereas we were
accustomed to have two assizes ; the first about April or
May, the latter about September ; it was this year the
middle (as I remember) of August before we had any
assize ; and then he despatched business so well, that he
left half the causes untried ; and to help the matter, has
resolved that we shall have no more assizes this year."
While George was thus climbing the slippery summits
of ambition, his brethren were prospering at home, partly
by their own merits, partly by the assistance of their
eminent kinsman. His eldest brother, John, was high-
sheriff of Denbighshire, in 1680 ; and James, another
brother, preached the assize-sermon in the same year,
when Sir George rode his first circuit as chief judge.
Dr. James Jeffreys was of Jesus College, Oxford, and
took his degrees thus; M.A. 1672, B.D. 1679, D.D.
1683. Through the same influence he was installed a
prebendary of Canterbury, Nov. 9, 1682 : he was canon
of the ninth stall. Pennant tells us, that one brother
was Dean of Rochester, (and his account must clearly
be referred to James,) and that he died on the road to
visit his brother, when under confinement in the Tower.
But there has not been any dean of that name in Ro-

¦ This savours very much of "I thank God I am not as other men
are," &c.

LIFE OF JEFFREYS: „ 68

Chester cathedral;' and Dr. Jeffreys died on the 4th of
September, 1689, some months after the chancellor's
decease, which disproves the latter statement. His epi
taph is in Canterbury cathedral, as follows : —
Sub hoc marmore depositae sunt reliquiae Jacob: Jefferies S. T. P.
hujus ecclesiae canonici, qui obiit 4 Septembris, Anno Domini 1689.
.^tatis sus 40.
Thomas, another brother, was knighted at Windsor
Castle, July 11, 1680. He was a knight of Alcantara,^
and resided much among the Spaniards, who greatly ad
mired his ancestry,' as consul at Alicant and Madrid.
He had so far conciliated the esteem of the Spanish mi
nistry, as to be recommended for Lord Lansdown's suc
cessor, as British envoy in Spain ; but this good fortune
was arrested by the Revolution. When Pennant wrote,
there was a full-length picture of him by Kneller in Ac
ton-house, with a long white cloak over his coat, and the
cross of the order upon it.
A storm, which had been gathering for some time, was
now ready to burst on the heads of the; court favourites ;
and it fell not only upon the underlings of the ministry,
but even on the ministers themselves : it was not likely,
therefore, that upon any serious change in the posture of
affairs, so noted a stickler for government as Sir George
Jeffreys should escape. Ostensibly, the country party
* John Castilion, canon of Canterbury, was dean from 1676 till Oc
tober 21, 1688; and Simon Lowth from December, 1688, till the Revo
lution. ^ A religious order, instituted in 1170 by Fernan Gomss under the
pontificate of Alexander III.
' From Tudor Trevor, earl of Hereford, who was himself descended
from Kynric ap Rhiwellon.

64 LIFE OF JEFFREYS.
had taken great umbrage at a supposed attempt by the
administration to stifle the plot ; and in pursuance of this,
they instituted prosecutions against some persons, who,
however honestly, had expressed themselves indiscreetly
on the subject of that bugbear ; and the King, with equal
dissimulation, professed himself friendly to these pro
ceedings. But the plot was a mere pretence: the old
arm of faction was not yet withered : the sprightly and
gallant Duke of Monmouth had gained much upon the
affections of the people ; and the Catholic religion, with
the heir-presumptive as its patron, was unpopular, both
within and without the walls of parliament. The exclu-
sionists, by pressing their obnoxious bill,' were at length
visited by the black rod ; and the parliament was pro
rogued from time to time, in spite of the earnest desire
of the opposition to persecute the abhorrers, and to ques
tion the King's proclamation against tumultuous petition
ing. In order to compel King Charles to summon his
parliament, the most violent addresses were got up ; and
to counteract them, the court contrived that anti-peti
tions, expressing an abhorrence of this clamorous pro
ceeding, should be prepared and presented; whence it
was, that the term, abhorrer, was derived. Money, how
ever, was wanting for the exigencies of the state, and
thus the country faction at length prevailed : the session
began, and a furious punishment was menaced against all
those who had dared to violate the subject's liberty, by
suppressing the voice of petition. After expelling two

' Although the bill was thrown out in the House of Peers by a con
siderable majority, the violence of the Commons continued; and their
desire to renew it, with their threat against such as had advised its re
jection, produced a prorogation.

LIFE OF JEFFREYS.

of their members, and sending one to the Tower, they
let loose their wrath against the recorder. He had fallen
under their displeasure on more accounts than one; for
not only had he opposed their petitioning to the utmost,
but he had of late become quite lukewarm in the prose
cution of their beloved popish plot. When this " Genesis
of abhorrences," as a certain writer styles it, began, the
King sent for the mayor and aldermen in council, hoping
that through their high authority an early check might
be imposed on the hostile petitions which were coming
forth. Jeffreys attended as their spokesman. The lord
mayor was one of the factious ; and when it was required
of him to punish the undue practices that were complained
of, he answered, " that he knew of no course to suppress
the inconvenience, for that the people took it as a right
in them to petition upon any grievance they were sensi-.
ble of." Then Jeffreys, hoping to shift from the city to
the council the responsibility of this check, moved, That
his Majesty would issue a proclamation, prohibiting the
framing and presenting any such petitions, and com
manding all magistrates to punish such as should act to
the contrary. But few approved of this, as being too
positive; and North, the chief justice, like a true states
man, took exception to the recorder's motion ; and though
he admitted that a proclamation on the subject matter
might be beneficial, yet objected to one according to the
proposed tenor as rather prejudicial, and capable of a
captious construction. And then his lordship recom
mended the proclamation to be directed against seditious
and tumultuous petitioning only ; and that it should not
by any means be supposed to condemn the undoubted
privilege of the people. The King highly approved of
6*

LIFE OF JEFFREYS.

this, and the recorder pleased neither party. Soon after
wards, he, nevertheless, got up an anti-petition in the
name of the loyal citizens of London, in which they de
clared this method of petitioning to be the method of
forty-one,' and likely to bring His Majesty to the block,
as his father was brought; — all which doings they ab
horred. These were the offences which the House of Commons
remembered against Sir George when they recovered
their temporary power, and lifted up their voice of cen
sure; accordingly they proceeded to several votes against
him, which are recorded in the journals, and are here
copied. Salhati, 13° die Novemhris, 1680.
Mr. Trenchard reports from the committee, to whom
the petition of divers citizens of London against Sir
George Jeffreys, recorder of the said city, was referred ;
— that the said committee had taken the same into con
sideration, and had heard the evidence of the petitioners,
and of the said Sir George Jeffreys, &c.
"Resolved, That Sir George Jeffreys, recorder of the
city of London, by traducing and obstructing petitioning
for the sitting of this Parliament, hath destroyed the
right of the subject.
" Ordered, That an humble address be made to His
Majesty, to remove Sir George Jeffreys out of all public
offices.

• Serjeant Maynard, who was a popular man, was whispering some
thing, not very pleasing, to Gadbury, a witness on Elizabeth Cellier's
trial, when the man said, "Mr. Serjeant, I was none of the tribe of
forty-one."

LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 67

" Ordered, That the members of this House, that serve
for the City of London, do communicate the vote of this
House relating to Sir George Jeffreys, together with their
resolutions thereupon, to the court of aldermen for the
said city."
To this address the King replied, " that he would con
sider of it."
Had this gentleman stood upon his right, and refused
to give up the office of recorder, (for the principal object
of the country party was to substitute Sir George Treby
for him in the city of London) he had probably continued
the "mouth-piece ofthe city," as long as he desired. The
course which must have been pursued for the purpose of
compelling him to deliver up the corporation writings,
would have been by mandamus ; and the cause which the
parties asking for it must have alleged, might probably
have been held insufficient by the judges then in office ; but
he, who had so long acted the terrorist towards others, was
himself considerably alarmed upon this occasion, and, in
the end, was imposed upon by a trick adopted by the ad
verse faction. He had a reprimand upon his knees at
the bar of the House; and on condition that he should
remain unmolested for his crime of abhorring, surren
dered his situation quietly to that eminent lawyer. Sir
George Treby, afterwards chief justice of the Common
Pleas. Some discourse that was held out to him about
taking heads off, probably hastened this pusillanimous de
cision. He certainly played a very weak part at this
crisis, for he begged and importuned the King to allow
the vacating of his place, which the monarch was not
by any means willing to concede, on account of the in
fluence which the former had with the citizens, added to

G8 LIFE OF JEFFREYS.
his fierce and intractable carriage towards his Majesty's
enemies. He gained his point, however, at last, but lost
his credit, for King Charles facetiously observed, "that
he was not parliament-proof; "' and some pretend, that he
was never afterwards held in esteem by that sovereign,
for his timid behaviour ; and, indeed, Mr. North tells us,
that Jefii-eys was "none of the intrepids." However,
Burnet says, that they [the House of Commons,] " fell
on Sir George Jeffreys, a furious declaimer at the bar;
but that he was raised by that, as well as by this prose
cution : " and this is certainly true ; for although he
might have been under a cloud for a season, the sequel
Avill show, that he soon regained his ground, and tri
umphed more surely than before.
Some have said, that he lost his recordership by vote,
but this is clearly a mistake ; and there is yet another
account of this matter, which is as follows : — The King,
Laving recovered from a very dangerous indisposition,
was greeted on his going abroad by an address of con-
' King Charles seems to have been parliament-proof. He sold Dun
kirk to the French when he thought his Commons parsimonious; he de
raanded a repeal of the triennial act; shut up the exchequer against the
bankers without fear of being questioned for it ; and when the House
became clamorous and turbulent, he would very quietly send his black
rod to tap at their door, and warn them all home. His natural sense
was very strong and good; and it is probable that the little cultivation
he allowed his mind was greatly assisted by the advice of such great
men as Sir William Temple, of whom too much cannot be said in pa
negyric, and the calm, calculating, sure, lord-keeper. North. However,
this monarch knew that he could not affront his parliament beyond a
certain pitch, and therefore once facetiously observed to his brother
James, who wanted him to do some extraordinary act, not warranted by
the constitution, "Brother, I have no mind to go upon my travels again;
you may, if you please."

LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 69
gratulation from the mayor and aldermen, upon which
the recorder proposed that they should wait upon the
Duke of York, who had not long returned from Flanders,
with a like courtesy. This motion not being relished, he
stayed behind with his father-in-law to 'gain access to the
Duke ; at which the city took offence, imagining (and in
deed not without some colour,) that he was espousing a
cause not exactly coinciding with their interests ; and
thence it was determined in the council-chamber, that he
should be requested to deliver back the papers and wri
tings with which he had been intrusted as their officer,
and so give up his place. This he did without delay.
Both these relations may be correct ; for the latter
only describes the feelings of the parliament expressed
through the court at Guildhall; and there is nothing un
reasonable in the supposition that both parties, the city
and the parliament, had been displeased with his manoeu
vring. However, he was not turned out in absolute dis
grace, as will appear from the proceedings on the subject,
which we subjoin. Court of Aldermen, Nov. 23, 1680.
"This day the members that serve for this city in par
liament came to the court, and brought down the votes
and resolves of the honourable House of Commons, in re
ference to Sir George Jeffreys, that he will forthwith
surrender to this court his said place of recorder. Or
dered, That Sir Henry Tulse, and Sir James Smyth,
knights and aldermen, with the town clerk, do speedily
acquaint Mr. Recorder herewith, and desire him to be
present at the next court.
" Ordered, That the town clerk deliver a copy of the

70 LIFE OF JEFFREYS.
court's proceedings in reference to Sir George Jeffreys to
Sir Robert Clayton, knt. and alderman, one of the city
members, to be by him communicated to the House of
Commons, if the same should be required."
" On the second of December, Sir George Jeffreys, knt.
serjeant-at-law, recorder of the city, here present, did
freely surrender up unto the court his place of recorder,
and all his right and interest therein ; of which surrender
the court did accept and allow. George Treby,' of the
iliddle Temple, London, Esq., was elected the same day,
and sworn in December 3d. At the same time, it having
been noticed that the sum of ^200 remained unpaid, —
which had been voted to Sir George Jeffreys on the 22d
of October, for his good services performed to the city,
it was ordered that Mr. Chamberlain do pay the same.
And a committee was also appointed to take into consi
deration the great sums of money disbursed by the late
recorder, in fitting up his dwelling-house in Alderman
bury, which he held ofthe city."^
' Of Plympton, Devon. He entered himself a commoner of Exeter
College in June, 1660, and afterwards became a fellow-commoner. He
was of the Middle Temple, and sat for his native town in 1678 and 1679.
In the beginning of October, 1683, he lost his recordership, on the burst
ing of the fanatical plot, but was restored to it oa the approach of the
Prince of Orange, and again sat for Plympton. In the following March
he became solicitor-general, and when Pollexfen was made chief of the
Common Pleas, rose to be attorney. In 1692 Pollexfen died, and Sir
George Treby was named for his successor. He died December 13, 1700.
He was the author of several pamphlets which made a great noise at that
time of day, and is supposed to have written the annotations in the mar
gin of Lord Chief Justice Dyer's Reports.
' Elkanah Settle, who composed a panegyric in verse upon Jeffreys,
ascribes his removal from the recordership to the influence of Shaftes
bury.

LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 71

The mob generally take part against a falling favour
ite, and this misfortune of Jeffreys afforded them great
amusement ; for when the pope was burnt in effigy at
Temple Bar, on Queen Elizabeth's birth-day, the wags of
the day had a figure of a man set on horseback with his
face to the tail, and a paper on his back, " I am an Ab
horrer." Indeed, he was no favourite with the populace
either in this or the following reign, and he went shares
with poor Sir Roger L'Estrange in the general odium.
L'Estrange was burnt in effigy with the pope,' and Jef
freys with the devil.
A curious circumstance happened about this time re
specting one Verdon, a Norfolk attorney, which is not
unworthy of a place here by way of digression. A peti
tion had been presented to the House of Commons against
this man by the inhabitants of his county, for undue prac
tices in returning knights of the shire, and other misde
meanors f and an order was made that he should be sent
' L'Estrange had given great offence by his ridicule of the popish plot
in a narrative which he published in derision of Titus Oates's "Narra
tive." " There was a consult," says Sir Roger, " of three or four book
sellers over a bottle of wine, what subject a man might venture upon at
that time, for a selling copy. One of the company was of opinion that
a book of the fires would make a smart touch, and so they all agreed
upon't, and propounded to get some of the King's witnesses' hands to it :
naming first one, and then another, they came at length to a resolution,
and pitcht upon Trap ad crucem, and the History of the Fires," &c. It
was "A Narrative and Impartial Discovery of the Horrid Popish Plot,
carry'd on for the Burning and Destroying of the Cities of London and
Westminster, with their Suburbs, &c. And dedicated to the Surviving
Citizens of London ruin'd by Fire," &c.
' He once helped off a fellow attorney on a charge of murder by re
turning a favourable jury: and the consequence was, that his acquitted
friend committed an assault on the persons who were sent to arrest him
by order of the parliament upon this occasion — See the Journals of the
House of Commons for 1680. p. 678.

72 LIFE OF JEFFREYS.

for in custody of the serjeant-at-arms. But Verdon was
not so easily taken ; he shifted about from place to place,
and so eluded the search after him for some time, although
he offered a composition in money for his fees, and agreed
to s'urrender upon those terms ; to which the sergeant
replied, that he could not sell the justice of the House.
However, after a fruitless attempt to reach him in Lon
don, the messengers went down to Norwich, and there he
struggled and battled with them considerably ; he would
neither mount nor dismount from his horse, but made the
officers put him on and lift him off, while his clerks were
taking notes all the time, and marking the various as
saults, for each of which the attorney proposed to bring
a distinct -action of battery. But as soon as they had
come on about midway between London and Norwich,
the parliament was prorogued, and Verdon said, that the
subsequent custody was a false imprisonment, upon which
he sued the parties in the Exchequer. William Williams,
the speaker, who had signed the warrant, led for the de
fendants, and Jeffreys was employed for Verdon. Wil
liams alleged, that the men could not have known of the
prorogation, and said much to excuse them upon that
ground. Verdon then stepped forth, and said, "My lord,
if Sir William Williams will here own his hand to the
warrant, I will straight discharge these men." Roger
North, who tells this story, then adds, that "Jeffreys was
so highly pleased with this gasconade of his client, that
he loved him ever after, of which Verdon felt the good
effects, when his learned counsel came that circuit as chief
justice; for although many complaints were intended
against him, and such as were thought well enough
grounded, yet he came off scot-free." Jeffreys hated

LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 73
Williams, because he had received a censure on his knees
at the bar of the House from that gentleman, when speak
er, and as North says, "they were both Welshmen;"' so
that when the former got uppermost, he prosecuted his
quondam lecturer.
' Sir George seemed not to be ashamed of his country, or its peculia
rities. He was indulging himself one day with a very common amuse
ment, that of bullying a witness, and thus addressed him : " Look thee,
if thou canst not comprehend what I mean, I will repeat it again, for
thou shalt see what countryman I am, by my telling my story over
twice : therefore I ask thee once again."

74 XIFE OF JEFFREYS.

CHAPTER IV.
Situation and new prospects of Jeffreys — He refuses to admit dissenters
on the grand jury — Trial of Fitzharris— Colledge, the joiner, tried —
Witticisms of Jeffreys — Election of the city sheriffs — Dudley North
elected — Account of Sir Edmund Sanders — Judge Jones — The quo
warranto ]nigmexA — Trial of Pilkington for a riot — Anecdote of Dare
the petitioner — Some account of Sir Thomas Bludworth, and the fire
of London— The Rye-house Plot—Sir Francis Pemberton— Conduct
of Jeffreys on the Trial of Lord William Russel.
For this sudden veering of the compass Jeffreys was
but ill prepared; he had submitted to the disgrace of
apostacy with" the" full expectation of a reward so secure
and permanent as to make him ample amends. Now, on
a sudden, he was driven forth an outcast from the city
magistracy, publicly denounced by the Commons, and
jeered at by his royal master for a want of common re
solution. To secure his own fortunes, let the means or
consequences be as they might, was the utmost he had
any care for, but the difficulty lay in discerning the best
political game for accomplishing those ends. He was,
indeed, possessed of a valuable judgeship, and was in
vested with very high honour amongst his coifed brother
hood ; but the court interest had sunk to an ebb so low,
as to give a probable earnest of some instant and fatal
revolution in the state. Then it was that he bethought
him of his old companions, many of whom were career
ing with the triumphant party; a seat in parliament, and
a clamorous disapprobation of all government measures,
seemed to him the best things in prospect; nothing re-

LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 75

mained but to seek a reconciliation; and to obtain this,
he would probably have stooped to any sacriflce. But
his conduct had been so despicable, that audacious as he
was, there were many whom he could not approach with
any degree of assurance ; and from those to whom he ven
tured the hint, (for it seems he actually made some en
deavours,) he met with a reception so unfavourable, as to
determine him at once to live and die under the royal
banner. And it happened, that notwithstanding all these rebuffs,
he maintained a considerable influence both at court and
in the city; so that when the Southwark petition was
carried up in the next year to Hampton Court, he was
invited to dinner by the King with his wife's father. Sir
Thomas Bludworth, and was particularly noticed; whilst
the lord mayor, aldermen, and commons were sent away
with a reprimand. He continued also an active member
of the lieutenancy, and appeared among them girded with
his sword ; and, on the whole, we may say of him, as Wal
ler did of the Protestant faith in the reign of James the
Second, " This falling church has got a trick of rising
again." Having had a little time for consideration, Jeffreys be
thought himself how to avenge his disgrace upon those
who had been instrumental in annoying him, and he, at
last, fixed upon the dissenters as the party who had in
fluenced the court of aldermen to turn him out ; and, ever
after, he directed his especial malice against these per
sons. It was no slight pleasure to him, for the gratifica
tion of this hostility, to find himself appointed chairman
of Hickes's-hall, though he lost some portion of his prac
tice through it ; and here he soon embroiled himself with

76 LIFE OF JEFFREYS.

his new enemies. He would allow no dissenters to serve
on the grand, jury, and ordered the imder-sheriff to re
turn a new panel, purged of the sectarians ; but this was
refused, on which he ordered the sheriffs to attend on him
the next day. However, instead of them, came the re
corder, fraught with the opinion of the court of aldermen,
that the privilege of the city exempted the sheriffs from
coming to Hickes's-hall, and that the service of the un
der-sheriff was sufficient. On this the court fined the
sheriff £100, and declared, that the judges should be
made acquainted with the matter. Accordingly, the dis
cussion was renewed before ten judges of the Old Bailey,
where the sheriffs attended; and after considerable de
mur, they consented to reform the panel.
Lucky, indeed, was it for our King's serjeant, that he
had not succeeded in appeasing the offended brotherhood
of his early days: the sense of shame or conquering
dread, which assailed him when he thought of them, most
indisputably averted the wreck of his fortunes. The
King, actuated by wise advice, had the firmness to re
trench his expenses, and dispense with his unruly parlia
ment ; and the government rallied irresistibly against its
opposers, and was soon in a condition to crush them ut
terly. Fitzharris, an Irish gentleman, who had thrown
himself in an odd way at the mercy of some eaves-drop
pers, was the first on whom the ministers retaliated the
insults which had been offered them ; he was ostensibly
sacrificed to the old popish plot mania, but, in truth, fell
a victim to the furious jealousy which raged between the
crown and the parliament. Jeffreys roared prodigiously
against this unfortunate and indiscreet spy; he insisted
that the prisoner had condemned himself by disparaging

LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 77
his own witnesses ; and he further told the jury, that if
they acquitted Fitzharris, they could neither have respect
to their credit, nor to their consciences. He delivered,
moreover, a speech of extraordinary ability ; and one who
wrote shortly after those days, has not scrupled to affirm
that this rhetoric weighed mainly with the jury, who were
in some doubt as to their verdict. However, the court
before whom he was tried, the chief of whom' was a mo
derate man, highly approved of the decision ; and the go
vernment no less exulted in ridding themselves of one
who had been a rallying post for faction : yet, notwith
standing all this, Fitzharris died a martyr to violence
and prejudice, for he was clearly in the Duchess of Ports
mouth's confidence, although it pleased her Grace to for
get every thing of the kind in a moment of political con.
venience; and those were days in which a culprit's wit
nesses could not be subjected to the test of an oath. The
serjeant, elated by success, rather increased in his rough
ness at the trial of the titular archbishop, Plunket ; so
that Sawyer, attorney-general, was obliged to interfere,
and to beg that the prisoner might have fair play to ask
his questions. He gave the court another speech ; at the
end of which, as usual, he held that all the treasons were
punctually and precisely proved. But it was in the fol
lowing August, at the trial of Colledge, the London join
er, that he suffered his temper to break fully forth ; not
only essaying to overrule the opinion of the court, but
scattering abroad his untimely jests even against the ac
cused, and thus giving somewhat of a foretaste of the
chief justice who was to come. In fact, this was the first
' Sir Francis Pemberton.
7*

78 LIFE OF JEFFREYS.

trial of the court party, to signalize their triumph over
those of the country ; and Jeffreys could hardly contain
himself for joy to think that his ship had righted again,
and that he should sail on now with all his colours flying.
He fell first on North, who was the presiding judge, and
who felt disposed to let the prisoner have some papers
which had been taken from him, to which the advocate
objected, till the King's counsel had seen them: — "Look
you, brother!" says the chief, "we will have nothing of
heat till the trial be over : when that is over, if there be
any thing that requires our examination, it will be pro
per for us to enter into the consideration of it; but in
the mean time, what hurt is there, if the papers be put
into some trusty hands, that the prisoner may make the
best use of them he can, and yet they remain ready to
be produced on occasion?" — Serj. Jeffreys. "With sub
mission, my lord, that is assigning him counsel with a
witness." And, at length, the papers were retained by
the court on the ground of their being scandalous. Sir
George could hardly allow the attorney-general and the
other leading counsel to examine the crown witnesses, so
anxious was he to gain a conviction ; but the prisoner's
trade of a carpenter afforded him excellent opportunities
of showing his wit. A libel, called Rary-Show, was pro
duced with cuts: "I suppose 'tis his own cutting," said
Jeffreys. — Again Jeffreys, "Do you know that he had
any pistols in his holsters at Oxford ?"— Dugdale, "Yes,
he had."— Jeffreys, "I think a chisel might have been
more proper for a joiner."
Sometimes he would affect great coolness. — Colledge,
"Is it probable I should talk to an Irishman who does
not understand sense ?"—Haynes, "It is better to be an

LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 79

honest Irishman than an English rogue." — Jeffreys (to
Haynes, the witness,) "He does it but to put you in a
heat; don't he passionate with him." Colledge's mother-
in-law came forward to say, that he always carried him
self like a gentleman, and scorned any thing unhandsome.
"Pray, how came you by this witness?" said Jeffreys;
"have you any more of them?" However, some ofthe
witnesses indulged themselves with a sharp hit upon the
counsel, and upon his sorest part, and he would yet give
them their answer in turn.' One John Lun was called
to throw a discredit upon a crown witness, and he, of
course, encountered Jeffreys, to whom the attorney and
solicitor-general seemed to have left all the rough work.
— Lun, "I will take the sacrament upon it, what I say
is true." — Mr. S. Jeff. "We know you, Mr. Lun; we
only ask questions about you, that the jury may know
you too as well as we. We remember what you once swore
about an army." Colledge was frightened at this, for he
said, "I don't know him," meaning the witness. — Mr.
Lun, "I don't come here to give evidence of any thing
but the truth ; I was never upon my knees before the par
liament for any thing." — Jeffreys, '¦''Nor I neither for
much; but yet — once you were, when you cried, Scatter
them, good Lord !" Now this Lun had been a drawer at
the Devil Tavern, and was "gifted like an army saint."
lie was once heard praying against the cavaliers, and
was crying out. Scatter 'em, scatter 'em; which gained
' This is not unlike Johnson's description of Foote :
Boswell — "Sir, the ostler would have answered him; would have
given him as good as he brought, as the saying is."
Johnson — "Yes, sir, and Foote would have answered the ostler.''
BoswelVs Johnson, 4to. vol. ii. p. 491.

80 LIFE OF JEFFREYS.

him- the nickname of Scatter 'em. The next rub came
from Titus Oates, who appeared for Colledge, to show
subornation against the Protestants. The doctor was ap
pealing to Sir George as to his knowledge of Alderman
Wilcox. The very name of an alderman could not have
failed to have tickled the lawyer rather unpleasantly;
and so he said, " Sir George Jeffreys does not intend to
be an evidence, I assure you." — Dr. Oates, "I do not
desire Sir George Jeffreys to be an evidence for me ; I
had credit in parliaments, and Sir George had disgrace
in one of them." — Mr. Serjeant, "Your servant, doctor ;
you are a witty man and a philosopher."' A day of re
tribution was at hand for Oates, and Jeffreys was his
judge. It is not a little anauslng to read the account of Jef
freys setting the evidence of such men as Oates and Dug
dale against each other ; though we regard with very dif
ferent feelings the perpetual comparison. which he was
making before the jury between the testimony of Dugdale,
as being on oath, and so highly credible, and that of
Oates, unprotected by such sanction, and so worth no
thing. Nevertheless, he showed even on this trial a
strong partiality for the strict rules of evidence ; for when
the witness Everard was discoursing of what one Justice
' The wit of this word "philosopher " here may be explained by look
ing to a subsequent cross-examination of Oates's brother. Wilcox gave
Dr. Oates a dinner, where were several persons; and Colledge had exa
mined the brother, who was one of the company,- to show that no trea
sonable words had been uttered there. Serj. Jeffreys, " Hark you, sir,
were there no disputations in divinity ?" — Ans. " Not at all." — Jeff.
"Nor of Philosophy ?"— Ans. "No."— Jeff. "Why, pray, sir, did not
Dr. Oates and Mr. Savage talk very pleasantly of two great questions
in divinity — the being of God and the immortality of the soul ?'

LIFE OP JEFFREYS. 81

Warcup wanted him to swear, Jeffreys interrupted him,
saying, " We have nothing to do with what you and Jus
tice Warcup talked of: for example's sake, my lord, let
us have no discourses that concern third persons brought
in here." He kept up his animosity against the prisoner
throughout a very long trial; and though Colledge was
noted for his zeal against popery, the serjeant, in summing
up part of the evidence, (which he did with many canting
expressions,) told the jury, that they would trip up the
heels of all the evidence and discovery of the plot, unless
they believed Dugdale, Smith, and Turbervile, the prin
cipal witnesses. The prisoner was convicted and exe
cuted, and died firmly in the Protestant faith.
In the following November, Serjeant Jeffreys appeared
against Lord Grey of Work, who had deflowered the Lady
Henrietta Berkeley; and, although he occasionally in
dulged in a slight stroke of satire, he behaved very much
like a man of the world in this affair. . However, when
that lady came to deliver her testimony in favour of the
noble defendant, the serjeant could not help his accus
tomed slight upon witnesses against his own case ; and
so, when he found that the court had overruled the at
torney-general's objection to her being sworn, he drily
added, " Truly, my lord, we would prevent perjury if we
could." And now we come to speak of the troubles which befell
the city of London in 1682 and 1683, in consequence of
the unconquerable predilection of the members of the
common-hall for choosing their own sheriffs. In forward
ing their punishment, Jeffreys was a great political en
gine : he had been fortunate enough to bring two discom
fited adversaries within his grasp — the city and the dis-

82 LIFE OF JEFFREYS.

senters; and whatever were his good qualities (for such
he certainly had,) forbearance and forgetfulness of af
fronts were never numbered amongst them.
It had been a custom for the lord mayor to choose one
sheriff, and for the commonalty to elect the other. At
the Bridge-house feast, which was a few days before the
24th of June, the day for electing sheriffs, the mayor
used to drink out of a large gilt cup to some person,
naming him, by the title of sheriff of London and Middle
sex for the year ensuing. If the favoured citizen were
not there, the cup, being placed in the great coach, was
carried in state to his house by the sword-bearer and
other officers, and presented to him there : upon which
he was saluted my lord mayor's sheriff, and shortly after
summoned before the mayor and aldermen, when he either
gave bond or fined. This drinking and fining was very
often a well-concerted finesse for the benefit of the cor
poration; for if the party declined, the gilt cup went
travelling again, and so continued, till some one would
pledge, and hold; and this was called "going a birding
for sheriffs." In 1641, the factious party having got the
ascendency, my lord mayor's choice was set aside, and
the livery selected both. Now the court being much
vexed at this time with the ignoramus by which Shaftes
bury was let loose, and chagrined indeed by the want of
pliability which the city had shown respecting the popish
plot, by the petitioning assemblies, and the treatment of
the Duke of York, — was determined to revive the old
usage ; and having got a mayor. Sir John Moor,' who
¦ « Nor was it without cause that the news of his being chosen mayor
was entertainecj with so much joy and triumph at Holyrood house; for

LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 83
would drink, they cast their eyes around for a fitting
sheriff to be drunk unto. After some delay, Jeffreys,
who was at the bottom of all the transactions, hinted,
that Dudley North, the chief justice's brother, a, rich
Turkey merchant, would be a creditable man for the
ministers to pitch upon for a recommendation to the city.
This was a good device on the part of Jeffreys ; for if the
chief justice had objected to this nomination, he had pos
sibly embroiled himself with the King, and so made room
for another; and if he made no scruple, as it happened,
then the crown was served equally well by this insinua
tion. Sir John drank to Mr. North, and sent him the
gilt cup in full parade, which the merchant boldly ac
cepted, amidst all the fury and menaces of the opposite
faction, who held out the penalties of hanging, parlia
ment, beating brains out, and even of something worse
after death, against any one who should dare stand against
their will. And for a time they so far gained the day,
that North was the victim of pamphleteers and tongues
from every quarter : "the whole country rang with his
name; and wherever he went, people started out of the
way, and cried out, 'That's he!'" However, after a
conversation or two with his brother, the judge, who
promised to advance him 1000?. towards making up his
account, he cared very little for the clamours which flew

some behind the curtain had undoubtedly laid the project of serving them
selves in this, if not other considerable matters, by him."— Modest In
quiry concerning the election of Sheriffs of London, 1682. However,
when Moor came to be examined in parliament after the Revolution, he
denied that any one had instructed him; and Dudley North said the
same thing, though Secretary Jenkins was a likely man to have done
something of that kind.

84 LIFE OP JEFFREYS.
about his ears, for he was a jolly, red-faced, good-humoured
man; and, as Roger North says, "he thought no more
of the adventure or consequence, than he did in shifting
a bale of cloth." At last came "the tug of war;" the
24th of June arrived, and brought with it, as far as the
factions were concerned, "A Midsummer Day's Dream."
The chief justice North went to Sir George Jeffreys,
(who, though not a chief actor, was present at the hust
ings,) and stayed at his house during the election ; for Sir
George was working all his interest to promote the new
sheriff; and the presence of these great men might, be
sides, assist the spirits of the chief magistrate, lest they
should droop in the tumult. On the other side went forth
the Lord Grey of Werk, and the green ribbon council,'
and the floor of the Guildhall was soon crowded. After
an immensity of wrangling, the livery refused to confirm
North's appointment;^ on which a warm discussion arose,
which ended in a long argument by counsel, whether the
hall could be dissolved. The attorney-general was flat
' Many clubs and associations were formed at this time in different
quarters of the city. The most celebrated was the green ribbon club,
which consisted of two hundred persons devoted to opposition and the
bill of exclusion. Sir Robert Payton, who incurred the censure of the
House of Commons for having made his peace with the duke of York,
being questioned by the House, informed them that the Dukfe of York
said to him, "You have been against me. Sir Robert; you was a member
of the green ribbon club." — Somerville's Political Transactions, p. 101,
and Ib. p. 10.
" "The dissenters, who were much the greater number, instead of
holding up hands, screwed their faces into numberless variety of No's,
in such a sour way, and with so much noise, that any one would have
thought all of them had, in the same instant of time, been possessed with
some malign spirit that convulsed their visages in that manner." — North's
Examen, p. 605.

LIFE OP JEFFREYS. 85

to the point, that the mayor was head of the corporation,
and so, that nothing could be done without him : on which
he plucked up a remarkable spirit, rose unexpectedly, and
bade the officer take up the sword, saying, as he went
off, "If I die, I die." He then took his seat upon the
hustings, and directed Orispe, the common serjeant, to
adjourn the hall. Sir John Moor intended that the case
should have been argued by counsel, and he fixed on Mr.
Sanders (afterwards the chief justice,) together with Sir
George Jeffreys, for that purpose; but "upon receiving a
letter from a certain minister, his lordship came down,
and dismissed the court."'
In the end, the court prevailed; and North, with one
Sir Peter Rich, a citizen-courtier, were sworn for the en
suing year. But Jeffreys, although not permitted to in
terfere with these proceedings on account of his depriva
tion, was not without full employment in this affair soon
afterwards. For, doubting perhaps the firmness of the
crown, the old sheriffs, Pilkington and Shute, were so
indiscreet as to set up a poll in the common-hall after
the adjournment; for which, on information and oath
made, they were forthwith arrested, and obliged to put in
bail, and in the following May took their trial with seve
ral others for a riot.
Upon this occasion the serjeant a,ppeared in all his
glory. There was some objection in the outset as to
swearing the jury; in the legal phrase, it was attempted
to challenge the array. "Pray, gentlemen," said the
good-natured chief justice Sanders, "don't put these

' See " The Rights of the City further unfolded, and the manifold Mis
carriages of my Lord Mayor, &c. displaye'd and laid open," 1682.
8

86 ¦ LIFE OF JEFFREYS.

things upon me : you would not have done this before
another judge ; you would not have done it if Sir Mat
thew Hale had been here. This is only to tickle the
people." And Jeffreys exclaimed, when the challenge
was read, "Here's a tale of a tub, indeed!"
This Sir Edmund Sanders was a most remarkable cha
racter : he was derived from the meanest origin, a mere
beggar-boy, and "courted the attorneys' clerks for
scraps." But he contrived to make himself in due time
a very expert special pleader ; and being conversant with
all the traps and snares of the law, very often baffled his
superiors, (Maynard' among the rest,) and had certain
' This very considerable man was the eldest son of Alexander Maynard,
Esq. of Tavistock, Devon, and was born about 1 602. At the age of six
teen he was entered of Exeter College, Oxford ; and, previous to his taking
the degree of A. B.,was admitted a student ofthe Middle Temple. He
was a friend of Mr. Attorney Noy, and was contemporary with Selden,
Rolle, and other great lawyers of the day, whose custom was to converse
very unreservedly together, and thus cement their various stocks of
knowledge. Maynard soon had great practice, which he managed to re
tain to the end of his forensic career : for whether there was a monarchy
or a commonwealth, he equally prospered ; and was concerned in the
state persecutions which distinguish the reign of the second Charles. His
knowledge of law was exquisite, and Jeffreys was often >glad to avail
himself of a hint from the old serjeant, which he would greedily swallow,
and crow over the other counsel with the new information he had gained.
One day, however, he unguardedly broke loose upon his instructor, and
told Maynard, who was then quite mellow with age, that he had grown
so old as to forget the law. " 'Tis true. Sir George, I have forgotten
raore law than ever you knew," was the punishing retort. In 1640, this
lawyer sat for Totness, and soon after was employed against the Earl of
Strafford and Archbishop Laud. In 1 647, he was so eminent as to get
700/. in one circuit: " more," says Whitelock, " than was ever got be
fore in that way:" and in 1653, the Protector -made him his serjeant.
There were some points, however, which this stout advocate would not
submit to yield ; and he so con'ducted himself in the famous case of Cony,

LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 87

business which none but himself could do. Hale had no
great fancy for him, for he was quite besotted with ale
and brandy ; so much so, that in summer his brethren of
the bar suffered a kind of martyrdom in being obliged to
stand near him, for intemperance had given him rather
an unwholesome carcass. However, he passed off all
their grumbling with a jest, and used to be so merry and
facetious, and withal so loyal, that he had no enemies ;
and having had the settlement of the pleadings in the
great quo warranto case against the city, (for he was the
government devil' of those times,) came quietly upon the
cushion of the King's Bench, where his science soon re
conciled the lawyers to him.
We return to Pilkington's affair, where Sir George was
exercising his grossiiretis in perfect freedom. The counsel
(who was imprisoned by Cromwell without process of law, for refusing
to pay taxes,) as to be sent to the Tower, from whence, however, he
soon got out by submission. At the Restoration he was fox enough to
be made serjeant; and very soon after. King's serjeant, with the honour
of knighthood, at which time he was appointed a judge,* but made his
excuses, probably because that post was held only during the King's
pleasure. In 1661, he was returned for Beeralston, Devon, and sat
throughout the two reigns in the House of Commons. He was a mem
ber of the Convention, and was very vigorous and able in managing the
conference between the Lords and Commons. At the age of 87, he was
promoted to be first commissioner of the great seal, and the year after
was chosen member for Plymouth, but resigned his seat in Chancery
soon afterwards. He died at Gunnersbury, near Ealing, on the 9th of
October, 1690, and was buried in the church there. Every one knows
his celebrated reply to King William, who told him that he had outlived
all the men of the law in his time. "He had like to have outlived the
law itself," he answered, " if his highness had not come over."
' An eminent counsel who settles pleadings for government.

* Tliis refutes what is somewhere eneeringly said, that Maynard contrived lo be made
King's serjeant at the Restoration, but could get no further.

88 LIFE OF JEFFREYS.

for the defendants were pressing their challenge: "Pray
tell me, Robin Hood upon Greendale stood," quoth tho
serjeant, "therefore you must not demur.": And in the
course of the trial he rose into, a towering passion, re
buked the advocates on the other side with considerable
violence, and, in fact, carried the verdict by storm. He
was the more annoyed, because of the frequent allusions
which were made to his having held office in the city, and
he himself was obliged incidentally to mention circum
stances which had happened in his time there. Never
theless he evinced great acumen in fixing the guilt of this
riot on the respective prisoners whom he found he could
convict; and there was, indeed, some need of his bluster
ing amidst the din and clamour which disturbed the court
during the trial.
And now he was able to requite some of his enemies;
for in estimating the amount of fines, and the abilities of
the defendants to pay them, recourse was had to his ad
vice, which he so gave as to bring down a heavy penalty
upon their heads. This judgment was reversed in par
liament on the coming in of King William. Soon after
wards, it fell to the lot of Sir Patience Ward to be tried
for perjury; in which inquiry Jeffreys was concerned, but
exhibited nothing remarkable, if we except the precision
with which he detected the inaccuracy of some short
hand notes.
Yet his most signal victory over the city partisans was
certainly the quo warranto judgment. Secretly he had
urged this measure as a punishment for the perpetual re
bellion which the citizens had been waging against the
ministry; and he succeeded not only in overturning their
privileges, but in reducing them to beg for favour at his

LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 89
hands. The same man had complimented the King and
the Duke of York ou the removal of a similar proceeding
in 1680 ; but he was not at that time an ex-recorder.
This pulling down of so great a charter as that of the
Londoners was a bright example for one so fond of power
and terror as Sir George Jeffreys : so that as soon as he
became chief justice, he went the northern circuit in the
plenitude of authority to save or annul the corporate
privileges of those parts at his pleasure :
Diruit, sedificat, mutat.
There was in truth a northern, as well as a western
campaign. Having plotted, that the King should give
him some token of acceptance in respect of these services,
on the morning of his expedition he had a ring fresh from
the royal finger. And so he went forth, a mighty legate,
while all the charters, "like the Avails of Jericho,"^ fell
down at his feet; and he returned "laden with surren
ders, the spoils of towns." This ring was called the
blood-stone ; and when the King gave it, he is reported
to have said, that now the judge was going his circuit,
"as the weather was hot, he had better not drink too
much." It is well known, that Judge Jones gave the opinion
of the court upon the quo warranto ; and it is probable,
that he was rewarded with the chief seat in the Common
Pleas for this eminent service. Jones was of Welsh ex
traction, and was brought up at Shrewsbury free-school.
Like his countrymen, he was given to occasional heats ;
and these were shown, says the author of the Examen,

North's Examen, 4to. p. 606.
8*

90 LIFE OF JEFFREYS.

"in a rubor of countenance set off by his gray hairs." lie
was the judge who punished the famous Mr. Dare for
seditious words. It is a well-known story, that this Dare
presented one of the violent petitions to the King, and
that when his Majesty asked him, how he dared present
it, "Sir," said the man, "my name is Dare." However,
Jones would have been supplanted if Sir George might
have had his will, for it seems that he pressed very hard
for the place, and it might have been only a promise that
he should be the next King's Bench premier that quieted
him, particularly as Sanders was ill,_ and the place was
one of greater power, though indeed, at that time, of less
emolument. This was a second effort to outstrip another,
though not so successful as the ejectment of poor Sir Job
Charlton. Sir John Reresby tells us,' that, when the chief justice
Jones^ was dispensed with by James II. Mr. Jones, his
son, said, that his father had observed to the King, that
he was by no means sorry he was laid aside, old and worn
out as he was in his service, but concerned that His Ma
jesty should expect such a construction of the law from
him, as he could not honestly give; and that none but
indigent, ignorant, or ambitious men would give their
judgment as he expected; and that to this His Majesty
made answer, " It was necessary his judges should be all
of one mind." Jones replied, " Twelve judges you may
possibly find, sir, but hardly twelve lawyers."

¦ Memoirs, p. 233.
= He was choleric, but, on the whole, a very tolerable judge for those
times. The greatest slain upon his character seems to be the violence
which he used towards the unhappy Mrs. Gaunt. He was made judge
of the King's Bench, April 13, 1676, and chief justice of the Common
Pleas, September 29, 1683.

LIFE OF JEFFREYS.

91

" Sir Thomas Bludworth, the father of Lady Jeffi'cys,
died about this time. He was sheriff in 1663, and lord
mayor of London in 1666, and he represented the city
from the restoration until the thirtieth year of Charles
IL's reign, the year of his daughter's marriage. Pepys
falls very foul upon him in his Diary, repeatedly charac
terizing him as a weak and inefficient man ; for which
some proof is certainly adduced. He suffered the im
pressment of some respectable persons who had not been
accustomed to a sea-faring life, and neglected to give
them the bounty money, which Mr. Pepys says, he was
obliged to furnish from his own pocket.' The account
which that journalist gives of Sir Thomas's pusillanimity
during the great fire, is as follows: "At last, met my
lord mayor in Canning street, like a man spent, with a
handkercher about his neck. To the King's message,^
he cried, like a fainting woman, 'Lord! what can I do?
I am spent: people will not obey me. I have been pull
ing down houses, but the fire overtakes us faster than
we can do it.' That he needed no more soldiers ; and
that, for himself, he must go and refresh himself, having
been up all night. So he left me, and I him," &c.^

' Diary, vol. i. p. 425.
' That houses should be pulled down.
° Vol. i. p. 446. Pepys seems afterwards to have been on good terms
with Jeffreys, as appears from a letter printed among the correspondence
subjoined to the Diary : —
Lord Chancellor Jeffreys to Mr. Pepys.
Bulstrode, July ye 7th, 1687.
My most honrd. Friend,
The bearer, Capt. Wren, came to mee this evening, with a strong
fancy thai a recommendation of myne might at least entitle him to your

'.I2 LIFE OF JEFFREYS.
Something that came out on Rosewell's trial, which we
shall mention by and by, se'ems to confirm this supineness
of the lord mayor. A witness, named Smith, stated that
the prisoner had preached to this effect: — "There was a
certain great man that lived at the upper end of Grace-
church-street, about this time eighteen years agone; I
name nobody, you all know him whom I mean. And
there came a certain poor man to him ; he was not a poor
man neither, but a carpenter by trade ; — one that wrought
for his living, a labouring man ; and told that great man,
if he would take his advice, he would tell him how to quench
the fire ; but he pish'd at it, and made light of it, and
would not take his advice. Which if it had not been for
that great man, and the lord mayors and sheriffs that
have been since, — nor the fire at Wapping, nor the fire at
Southwark, had gone so far, or come to what they did."
Then said the chief justice, " There was a great man that
lived at the end of Gracechurch-street ? who did him mean
by that?" As if Jeffreys did not know that his own
father-in-law lived there ! — Mr. Recorder. " He meant,
we suppose, Sir Thomas Bludworth, that was lord mayor
at the fire time."
However, Dr. Freeman, the rector of St. Ann's, Aiders-
gate, who had the task of performing his funeral sermon,
indulged in most lavish praise of the knight. "He had
favourable reception: his civilities to my brother, and his relation to
honest Will. Wren, (and you know who else,) emboldens me to offer my
request on his behalfe. I hope he has served our Mr. well, and is capable
of being an object of the King's favour in his request : however, I am
sure I shall be excused for this impertinency, because I will gladly in
my way embrace all opportunities wherein I may manifest rayself to be
what I here assure you I am. Sir, your most entirely
Affectionate friend and servant,
Jeffreys, C.

&

LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 93

the unhappiness to live in an age that's full of uncharita
ble censures. He was an excellent father and husband,
feared God and loved his church, and died without an ex
pression of discontent." The reverend doctor could not
have said more if the mitre had been descending upon his
head. There was another Sir Thomas, probably the son of the
lord mayor, who, among others, strenuously opposed a
bill for charging the chancellor's estates in Leicestershire,
after his decease, with 14600Z., and interest, for the pay
ment of his debts. By calling in the assistance of coun
sel, the property was saved to the heir, the bill being lost.
The Rye-house Plot, a real substantial conspiracy, was
now discovered, in which many persons of high blood were
deeply implicated ; and we should not do justice to the
character of Jeffreys were we to pass over the details of
it in silence. The king's counsel were on the alert, and
Sir George had precedence next to the attorney-general,
(Sawyer,) and the solicitor, Mr. Finch.^ The judge was
' Mr. Finch was the second son of Heneage, Earl of Nottingham, Lord
High Chancellor of England. He was sent to Christ Church at the age
of fifteen, in 1664, and went thence without a degree to the Inner Tem
ple. At the age of twenty-nine, being then solicitor-general, he was
chosen member for Oxford University, which honourable trust he held
for many years. Sir Francis Winnington having displeased the ministry.
Finch took the place of solicitor-general in the room of that lawyer in
1678, but was obliged, in his turn, to give way in 1686 to Powis. In
1685 he was returned for Guildford.' He was one of the counsel for the
seven bishops in 1688, and in the reign of Queen Anne was created a
peer, with the title of Baron Guernsey. George the First made him
Earl of Aylesford, and in 1714 he was constituted chancellor of the duchy
of Lancaster, which oflice beheld only two years, and died in 1719, three
years after he had resigned. He is supposed to have written some pam
phlets on the Rye-house Plot, and the quo warranto against the city of
London.

94 LIFE OF JEFFREYS.
Pemberton, who had been removed to the Common Pleas,
a very self-sufficient, but acute lawyer, whose bias was not
how he should please the one party or the other, but how
he might best administer to his own fancy and opinion.
He used to boast that in making law he had outdone kings,
lords, and commons. He had not been of Sir Matthew
Hale's school as to morals, for he began to practise in
jail, after he had spent all his money, and there made
himself so busy, that he came out sleek and sharp with
his gains. This is a specimen of his judicial opinion, after
summing up the evidence in a case of treason : " Look you,
gentlemen of the jury, you hear a plain case of a barbar
ous murder designed upon the King, one of the horridest
treasons that hath been heard of in the world; — to have
shot the King and the Duke of York in their coaches as
they were coming upon the road. You have had full evi
dence of this man's being one of them, and, therefore, I
am of opinion, that you must find him guilty." And so
the jury found him guilty. It^is said that this judge was
removed for" taking bribes, but Burnet attributes his
quietus to the leniency which he showed Lord Russel.
After Walcot and Hone had been convicted. Lord Wil
liam Russel came before the court; and however careful
Jeffreys might have been to avoid irregular evidence on
former trials, it seemed, upon this, as though he were
endeavouring to establish the fullest doctrine of hearsay.
Thus, when he asked Sheppard whether he remembered
any writings or papers read; the witness said, "None
that I saw." — "Or that you heard of?" continued the
serjeant. And, indeed, tJic chief justice was compelled
to interfere, with a declaration, that a great part of the
evidence was such as the chief witness. Lord Howard,

LIFE OP JEFFREYS.

95

had heard from others ; observing, at the same time, that
the prisoner should not be affected by it, while Jeffreys
was assuming the whole of this fallacious testimony for
sworn facts.
The most pointed question put during the whole business
was by the shrewd serjeant, who had sense enough to
perceive that the case was mainly deficient, for want of
clear proof that Lord Russel had assented to the plans of
the conspirators : wherefore it was, that he asked very
earnestly of the Lord Howard this : "But he did con
sent?"— Lord Howard. " We did not put it to the vote,
but it went without contradiction ; and I took it, that all
those gave their consent." The prisoner had been in the
habit of associating with the persons who were said to
have formed a treasonable council on this occasion, and
so far the evidence was against him ; but it was indispen
sable to a just conviction that he should have participated
in some overt act ; and had not Pemberton, in the con
clusion of this summing up, fallen upon the design to
seize the King's guards, which he interpreted as a design
to seize the person of the King, the matter had gone
lame indeed to the jury. Nevertheless, Jeffreys mani
fested a bravado which must have been perfectly astonish
ing; he told the jury that the King's counsel had raked
no jails for their witnesses; that it was not likely that
two men should damn their own souls to take away the
prisoner's life ; that the religion of the country ought to
be preserved; that they should not forget the horrid
murder of that pious prince. King Charles the First ; and
that they should not be corrupted by the greatness of any
man. An anonymous writer' tells us, that this speech had
' The Bloody Assizes, p. 10.

96 LIFE OF JEFFREYS.

great influence on the jury, and that it was delivered from
a pique against the nobleman accused, because he had
been in parliament when the orator was brought down
upon his knees there : and there may be some colour for
this, since the address of the judge must be considered as
containing an intimation that the jury might acquit, if
they dared.
Sanders, the chief justice, was now dead by apoplexy;
an admirable lawyer, and one who has left behind him a
very bible for special pleaders; but a man of careless
morals, and a bigot to the ale-cask. In his room came
Sir George Jeffreys, who was made on the 29th of Sep
tember, 1683, and soon afterwards sworn of the privy
council.'

' Somerville says, that he was first a puisne judge ; but this is incor
rect: Pemberton had been a puisne before his elevation.

LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 97

CHAPTER V.
Sir George Jeffreys appointed lord chief justice of the King's Bench —
The trial of Algernon Sidney — Points of law overruled by the judge —
Intrepid and talented defence made by Sidney— Exasperation of the
chief justice— Bishop Burnet's invective against Jeffreys— Character
of him by North— Wit of a gray-beard directed against the judge-
Williams, the speaker of the Commons, fined— Bickering between the
chief justice and Mr. Ward— His severity in restraints upon counsel—
His treatment of unwilling witnesses— He is summoned to be a mem
ber of the cabinet— The Lord Keeper Guilford's uneasiness in having
him for a colleague— He addresses the King— Lord Guilford resists
the chief justice's intercession— Jeffreys decidedly a Protestant— Trial
of Mr. Rosewell-Generous application of Sir John Talbot to the King
for Rosewell's pardon— Contests of the Chief justice and Lord Guil
ford— Anecdotes-Death of Charles II.— Monmouth and the liberal
party— Jeffreys' elevation to the peerage— Titus Oates tried for per
jury—His sentence— Sir Bartholomew Shower— Legal acquirements
of Jeffreys discussed— East India monopoly— Lady Ivy's case— Ri
chard Baxter, the non-conformist— Occasional forbearance of Judge
Jeffreys. This promotion, it maybe well imagined, could hardly
be denied to Jeffreys; always busy in the intrigues and
politics of the court, from a mere adventurer in state
manoeuvres, he at length became a chief engine in work
ing them, and in the course of a few months he was ad
mitted into the cabinet. There hardly needs any specu
lation as to the immediate cause of this elevation, when
we consider the immensity of service which he had ren
dered the crown; the abundance of convictions he had
procured; the unhesitating and devoted servility which
he had displayed: yet it has been said, that his promise

98 LIFE OF JEFFREYS.

to bail the popish lords helped materially to lift him up,
that he showed much irresolution -and-deceitfulness -about
the matter, and, in the<writer's own words,-'' failed at the
touch." Certain it is, that Danby and the three others
(for Stafford had suffered death) applied by petition to be
bailed ; but their request was refused on the first applica
tion, although means were found afterwards to renew it
with better success.
There was now another victim to be sacrificed, and the
ministers knew their new judge too well not to prefer him
to Pemberton. It was one of Jeffreys' first judicial em
ployments to preside at the trial of that considerable man,
Algernon Sidney. He began very fairly, for he openly
reprobated the practice of whispering to the jury. " Let
us have no remarks," said he, "but a fair trial, in God's
name !" Sir John Dalrymple has observed in his Memoirs,'
that when the court would have persuaded Sidney to make
a step in law, which he suspected was meant to hurt him,
he said, "I desire you would not try me, and make me to
run on dark and slippery places, I don't see my way;" as
though the judges wished to lead him into a trap. In
justice to the chief of the court, who has been so much cen
sured for his deportment here, let us hear the caution
which he distinctly gave the prisoner : —
Lord Chief Justice. "Put in what plea you shall be
advised; but if you put in a special plea, and Mr. Attor
ney demurs, you may have judgment of death, and by that
you waive the fact." And again, "I am sure there is no
gentleman of the long robe would put any such thing into
your head. There was never any such thing done in capital

'Vol. i. p. 35.

LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 99

matters." The deep bleAish upon this triaj was, that the
unfortunate colonel was fojund guilty upon inadmissible
evidence, andg, misrepresentation of the law by Jeffreys.
A witness was suffered to give evidence that he knew
Sidney's hand-writing, because he had seen him write
once, and had met with endorsements upon bills in the same
hand-writing ; and another was allowed to speak from his
experience of those endorsements only: and the judge
would have mere writing to be an overt act of treason.
Whereas, the men ought to have testified to Sidney's hand
of their own knowledge, without consulting any other
papers ; and the doctrine, scribere est agere, ought never
to have been entertained in a court of justice, unless a
publication were proved.
But there is no colour for saying, as some ha.ve done,
that the court refused to hear the prisoner, and give him
the benefit of his defence. The report of the proceedings
bears ample proof that great patience was shown, even
by Jeffreys, and that he pointed out the advantage which
would be gained by throwing a discredit on Lord How
ard's statement, who was a principal witness against the
prisoner. It was not until questions were demanded by
Sidney at their hands, that he was interrupted by the
judges, anfl with regard to some suggestions by the chief,
that irrelevant discourses should not be indulged ; — in
this, our own enlightened day, if an accused person
strays far from the point, it is rarely indeed that he will
not be minded by the judge of the true course material
to his defence. Sir John Dalrymple brings a further
charge against the chief justice for endeavouring to in-
snare the colonel into an avowal of the seditious writing
attributed to him. We will give the passage from the

100 LIFE OF JEFFREYS.

State Trials at length, always premising that Jeffreys
had such an overbearing tendency in his composition, as
to reveal any artifice he might have been desirous of em
ploying by the very violence of his method.
Mr. Att. Gen. — So much we shall make use of; if the
colonel please to have any other part read to explain it,
he may. — [Then the sheets were shown to Colonel Sid
ney.] Col. Sidney. — I do not know what to make of it; I
can read it.
Lord Ch. Just. — Ay, no doubt of it ! better than any
man here. Fix on any part you have a mind to have
read. Col. Sidney. — I do not know what to say to it, to
read it in pieces thus.
Lord Ch. Just. — I perceive you have disposed them
under certain heads: to what heads would you have
read? Col. Sidney. — My lord, let Mm give an account of it
that did it.
And then the King's counsel went on with their evi
dence. Can it be denied, that, at this day, if the publication
of a libel be proved, it may be proposed to the defendant,
without offence, to read any detached parts of it ? a pro
posal which may come from the court, if they see fit, for
his benefit. The papers produced had been found in
Sidney's study; and there could hardly be a question but
that he had been the author. If Jeffreys intended the
address he made for artifice, he was most deplorably off
his guard; for the most natural reply which a prisoner
would make, when told that he knew all about a matter

LIFE OP JEFFREYS;

101

with which he might be charged, would be, "My lord, I
know nothing at all about it."
Nor would an assumption by the judge that he had
done any particular act, in any wise alter his course ; for
having determined to deny the thing itself, he would be
brought to the very point of denial by being challenged
so publicly as the author. If it be intended to applaud
the skill of the conspirator, Sidney, it may be agreed,
without difficulty, that he opposed craft infinitely superior
to that exercised against him, admitting a design to en
trap him. This last reply is justly celebrated: he would
give no ground to his prosecutors ; and, at the last, would
have had his writ of error, but for the dissent of the at
torney-general. Just before judgment, he exclaimed,
"I must appeal to God and the world, I am not heard;"
and after sentence pronounced, he firmly uttered his ap
peal to God, that inquisition for his blood might be made
only against those who maliciously persecuted him for
righteousness' sake. Jeffreys, as well he might, on hear
ing this, started from his seat, and lost his temper. " I
pray God," cried he, "work in you a temper fit to go
unto the other world, for I see you are not fit for this."
— Col. Sidney. " My lord, feel my pulse (holding out his
hand,) and see if I am disordered; I bless God, I never
was in better temper than I am now." Sidney's solici
tor entertained a very different feeling: far from partici
pating in the prisoner's philosophical calmness, he could
not help declaring, that the jury were a loggerheaded
jury, for which he was immediately committed. It is
said also, that the chief justice was seen to speak with
the jury ; but the maxim, de mortuis 7iil nisi bonum, has
never been of the least advantage to poor Jeffreys, whose
9*

102 LIFE OF JEFFREYS.
character is destined to bear every curse which the fierce
imagination of men can devise.
The attainder was reversed, because the law had been
improperly expounded; and the friends of Russel and
Sidney would, of course, combine to blacken the judge
who had deprived them of their associates, when they
themselves rose in power at the Revolution. Jeffreys
had grossly erred ; but must be held acquitted upon this
occasion of that vast brutality and artifice with which
writers have loaded him : for, excepting Hale and Pem
berton, all his predecessors in that reign were accustomed
to language and manners quite as arbitrary, and occasion
ally even more unpolished.
However, this conduct plainly showed that he would
go all lengths for the attainment of rank; or, as one
writer says, "so as he rode on horseback, he cared not
whom he rode over." And the truth was, that people in
general were seriously frightened when they found this
man seated on so high a throne :' they were prejudiced
against him ; and, no doubt, regarded every thing which
fell from him with much less allowance than the words of
other contemporary judges, although no less violent when
it suited their purposes. Burnet is outrageous upon the
subject: "Jeffreys was scandalously vicious," says he,
"and was drunk every day, besides a drunkenness of
fury in his temper that looked like enthusiasm." He
then launches out against the partiality and declamation
Avhich Sir George displayed on the bench, the indecency
which he yielded to on his post; and abuses his eloquence

' Evelyn says, " Sir George Jefferies was advanced, reputed the most
ignorant, but most daring."

LIFE OF JEFFREYS.

103

as "viciously copious, and neither correct nor agreeable."
It was very proper that a clergyman should feel scan
dalized at a character, who was frequently not only ebrius,
but ebriolus; but it does not follow from all this tirade,
that Jeffreys was drunk every day ; and the future bishop
could not be complimented on his choice of companions,
if he had any actual proof of such indulgences : the fact
was, that men of that day had adopted a system of mutual
abuse and recrimination. Treby, who never left the
bottle while there was a man to stand by it, comes out of
the furnace a most respectable judge ; and Jeffreys, as
though he were a perpetual firebrand.'
His private life at this time is described much in the
same manner by North, who had no great love for him,
because he was for ever thwarting his brother, the lord
keeper. He used to drink and talk with "good fellows
and humourists:" and so he would unbend himself in
" drinking, laughing, singing, kissing, and every extrava
gance of the bottle." But the writer is driven to con-
fess, that when this judge was in temper, and had an in
different matter before him, he became a seat of justice
better than any other. And then he had a set of ban-
terers, as North calls them, but who were most probably
parasites suffered to live upon his hospitalities ; and when
they all sat down together, there was a general flow of
abuse and scandal, which regaled the chief justice ama-

' Bevil Higgons, in his Review of Burnet's History, has observations
upon this subject nearly similar : " If my Lord Jefferies," said he, " ex
ceeded the bounds of temperance now and then in an evening, it does not
follow that he was drunk on the bench and in council." There are seve
ral other remarks which may be found in Higgons's Historical Works.
Vol. ii. p. 263.

104 LIFE OF JEFFREYS.
zingly. Some of these hangers-on were at the bar ; and
although our author acquaints us that there was no
friendship which he would not use ill, we cannot help
chuckling at the idea, that he would fall upon these
minions without mercy when he was pleased to do so,
even in public; and this he called giving "a lick with
the rough side of his tongue." Who can condemn the
host for lashing such guests as these on occasion ? He
kept up the dignity of the bar by it ; for he said as much
as that, although such men might be his boon compa
nions, he did not consider them as deserving of the least
favour. And truly he was equally impartial, as far as
relates to any preference of his friends when he got into
the chancery, for there he lectured all the counsel round.
From this we gather at once the secret of his violating
friendship when he arrived at promotion; for none ex
cept abandoned characters would stoop to be his co-mates,
and he had ample sense enough to know that they were
never worth consideration. He met, however, occasion
ally, with more respectable men, amongst others with
Evelyn. Very soon after Sidney's trial, at most a day
or two, he went to a grand wedding of one Mrs. Castle,
where the lord mayor and several of the city quality
were present — Judge Wilkins and Evelyn were there.
Jeffreys and his brother judge danced with the bride, and
were very merry. The party spent the afternoon, till
eleven at night, in drinking healths, taking tobacco, and
"talking," says the author of Sylva, " much beneath the
gravity of judges that had but a day or two before con
demned Mr. Algernon Sidney." Yet every one knows
that judges must unbend as well as other people ; and the
customs of times much later than those have warranted

LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 105
the pledging healths and cracking bottles even unto the
peep of the day succeeding the bridal night.
Some violences of his temper at this period may be
accounted for, from the severe fits ofthe stone which in
temperance had bestowed on him. It must have been
one of these which prompted his severity to Armstrong.
Sir Thomas demanded the benefit of the law. Lord
Chief Justice. " That you shall have, by the grace of
God! see that execution be done on Friday next, ac
cording to law : you shall have the full benefit of the law."
This looks like brutality ; but Sir Thomas had almost
infuriated the judge, by telling him that he had been
robbed and stripped of his clothes; and therefore, as
lawyers would not plead without money, that he could
not fee them ; and he half hinted, that the court knew of
his being plundered.
When Armstrong found that nothing he could say
would prevail, he exclaimed aloud against the chief,
saying, "My blood be upon your head!" — "Let it, let
it; I am clamour-proof," returned Jeffreys. After the
great change of 1689, an attempt was made to procure
5000Z. for the Lady Armstrong and her children, from
the estates of Sir Thomas's judges and prosecutors ; but,
like many others of the same kind, the bill failed, and
the attainder remained in force for some years, when it
was reversed, but without the compensation clause.
Fierce as he was, our chief justice did not always
escape the sting of a repartee. He went a country as
size once, where an old man with a great beard came to
give evidence, but had not the good fortune to please the
judge: so he quarrelled with the beard, and said, "If
your conscience is as large as your beard, you'll swear

106 LIFE OF JEFFREYS.
any thing." The old blade was nettled, and briskly re
turned, " My lord, if you go about to measure consciences
by beards, your lordship has none." He had a strange
remembrance of slights. There was a certain jury at
Guildhall, with one Best among them, who acquitted a
man for publishing a pamphlet much against the re
corder's will (who was Jeffreys,) and he did not scruple
to upbraid the twelve with perjury. The jury was so
much irritated, that they moved the Old Bailey court for
leave to indict him, and Mr. Best was very active in the
business. Scroggs, the judge, said, that they had better
defer their charge, for the sessions were nearly ended,
and it could not be tried until the next; and that he did
not like to leave so high a man as the recorder under an
imputation so long. The matter dropped, because Treby
came in recorder before the next sessions ; but there was
one who recollected Mr. Best very keenly for it. This
man afterwards drank a health to the pious memory of
Stephen Colledge, for which he was convicted, but ab
sconded to avoid the fine. However, he met the chief
justice on horseback, some time afterwards, going the
circuit; and on being told who he was, cheated perhaps
by some romantic idea that great men forget the injuries
done them in their inferior stations, was so silly as to tell
his name, and desire his service to his lordship. He little
{treamt that he should be immediately fetched back, sent
off to York jail, and thence brought to the King's Bench
a prisoner, for a fine of £500. And Williams, the speak
er, shared the same fate : he had undergone the task of
lecturing the present 'head of his court at the bar of the
House of Commons, and was now sued to the utmost for
publishing Dangerfield's Narrative of the Popish Plot, al-

LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 107

though in his capacity as speaker ; for which he paid no
less a sum than £8000, as a fine for his ministerial conduct.
To notice all the state prosecutions in which this judge
figured, would be a long task, and inconsistent with the
duty which we owe a kind and patient reader. He was,
of course, the presiding magistrate on the principal of
these occasions ; and though sometimes most unjustifiably
rough, would generally keep the counsel in good order,
confining them to the point in issue, and was a tolerably
good guardian of such rules of evidence as were then un
derstood. Some remarkable passages, while he sat on
the common law bench, cannot be passed over : one of
which is a stormy conversation which he had with Mr.
Ward, afterwards lord chief baron,' in an action against
an ex-sheriff for arresting the lord mayor. The counsel
was alluding to the trial of Pilkington and others for a
riot, which he coloured over by calling it a matter of
right and election: "No, Mr. Ward, that was not the
question determined there," interrupted my lord chief
justice.— Mr. Ward. "My lord, I humbly conceive the
issue of that cause did determine the question." — "No
no, I tell you it was not the question." — "I must submit
it to your lordship."—" I perceive you do not understand
the question that was then, nor the question that is now.
You have made a long speech here, and nothing at all to
the purpose; you do not understand what you are about :
I tell you it was no such question:— no," continued the
chief justice, "it was not the question ; but the defendants
there were tried for a notorious offence, and disorderly
tumultuous assembly. Do not make such excursions, ad

' Edward Ward was attorney-general to King William in 1693; made
chief baron in 1695; and died July 16, 1714, in office.

108 LIFE OF JEFFREYS.

captandum populum, with your flourishes. I will none
of your enamel, nor your garniture." And then, after
a few more words pro and con, — "Indeed, Mr. Ward,
you do not understand the question at all, but launch
out into an ocean of discourse, that is wholly wide from
the mark." — "Will your lordship please to hear me?" —
"If you would speak to the purpose; come to the ques
tion, man ! I see you do not understand what you are
about." — "My lord — " — "Nay, be as angry as you will,
Mr. Ward," &c. — [Then there was a little hiss begun.]
Lord chief justice. "Who is that? What, in the name
of God ! I hope we are now past that time of day, that
humming and hissing shall be used in courts of justice ;
but I would fain know that fellow that dare to hum and
hiss while I sit here ;" I'll assure him, be he who he will,
I'll lay him by the heels, and make an example of him.
Indeed, I knew the time when causes were to be carried
according as the mobile hiss'd or humm'd; and I do not
question but they have as good a will to it now. Come,
Mr. Ward, pray let us have none of your fragrancies,
and fine rhetorical fiowers, to take the pe'ople with."
There was a little more blustering, but great civility on
the part of Ward, when serjeant Maynard got up, and
stated the law, which the chief justice adopted in a mo
ment, and all went on quietly. He had also a habit of
scolding the popular advocates of those noisy times, if
they happened to displease him; and this he would do
with great severity. Williams, the speaker, his old ene
my, who was afterwards solicitor-general, ' and Mr. Wal
lop, came in for a full share of this punishment.

1 William Williams, some tirae recorder of Chester and speaker of the
House of Commons, was solicitor-general with Powis, attorney, during

LIFE OP JEFFREYS.

109

In the trial of Braddon and Speke, for publishing a
statement that the Earl of Essex had been murdered in
the Tower, the latter counsel was especially visited with
an effusion of this kind. He had asked some question
which the chief by no means approved of, and on his
persisting,— "Nay, Mr. Wallop," exclaimed his lordship,
"you shan't hector the court out of their understand-
ingg/'—Mr. Wallop. "I refer myself to all that hear
me, if I attempted any such thing as to hector the court."
 Lord chief justice. " Refer yourself to all that hear
you ! refer yourself to the court : 'tis a reflection upon
the government, I tell you, your question is, and you
shan't do any such thing while I sit here, by the grace of
God, if I can help it."— Mr. Wallop. "I am sorry for
that; I never intended any such thing, my lord." — Lord
chief justice. "Pray behave yourself as you ought, Mr.
Wallop; you must not think to huff or swagger here."
And afterwards he said, amongst other things, "We have
got such strange kind of notions, now-a-days, that for
sooth men think they may say any thing, because they
are counsel." With a little more coarseness of the same
kind, he contrived at last to lay the spirit of Mr. Wallop.
He fell very foul upon Mr. Stanhope on the trial of
Sacheverell for a riot. There was a quarrel about the
mayor's mace, and the counsel thought there was no
great sauciness in demanding the ensign of office. He

the latter part of James the Second's reign, and was made a baronet in
July, 1688. He was, nevertheless, one of King William's learned coun-
"' sei, and is famed for introducing the Treating Act. His wife was the
' daughter and co-heiress of Watkin Kiffin, Esq. He died July 11, 1700.
\ Sir Watkin Williams Wynn, that mimificent lord of Wales, is his great-
grandson. • 10

110 LIFE OF JEFFREYS.

was mistaken. "I say it was saucy," cried Jeffreys;
"and I tell you, you had been saucy if you had done it;
for every man that meddles out of his province is saucy.
Every little prick-eared fellow, I warrant you, must go
to dispose of the government!" Stanhope was sulky,
and he replied, "It may be I should have known better
than to have gone on such an errand." — Lord chief jus
tice. " So you would have done well to do ; and you
should know better than to ask such insignificant, im
pertinent questions as you do," &c. Serjeant Bigland
was laid hold of in the same trial. He was recorder of
Nottingham, and swore in the sham mayor. When he
came to be sworn, he told the court, that he had asked
the mayor, whether he desired his advice as recorder, or
how? Jeffreys took him up: "But what authority had
you to swear him ? I reckon it to be worse in those peo
ple that understand the law, than in others, that they
should be present at such things. Do you ash me as re
corder, or as counsel ? But they would have done well
to advise people to meddle with their own business; let
my brother take that along with him."'
It is difficult to say, why he should have been so grossly
accused of partiality: the following instance will show
that the crown counsel had no more mercy than the rest,
when they ventured beyond the rules of evidence. In
Titus Oates's case, when he was indicted for perjury,
Jeffreys would not suffer the attorney-general to prove

' Roger North says, that in Sacheverell's trial, the lord chief justice
sided with him, and reproved the attorney-general : but how can this beV
for the attorney-general was not there, and the chief justice was clearly
against the defendants.

LIFE OF JEFFREYS. Ill
the narrative of the popish plot, delivered to the House
of Commons by Oates, till he had distinctly satisfied the
court of its having been made on oath in the Lords'
House. And when Sir Robert Sawyer put a witness into
the box, and asked him, whether what he swore at a for
mer trial was true, the judge burst forth against the
King's counsel: " That is very nauseous and fulsome, Mr.
Attorney," said he, "methinks, in a court of justice." —
Mr. Attorney-general. " 'Tis not the first time by twenty
that such evidences have been given." — Lord chief jus
tice. "I hate such precedents at all times, let it be done
never so often. Shall I believe a villain one word he
says, when he owns that he forswore himself?" — Attor
ney-general. " Pray, my lord, give me leave ; I must
pursue my Master's interest." Then the solicitor-gene
ral tried to persuade Sir George, but in vain ; and when
Mr. North was beginning, he was stopped with, "Look
ye, sir, when the court have delivered their opinion, the
counsel should sit down, and not dispute it any further."
And so it ended.
However, nothing could exceed the treatment which a
reluctant witness would experience from this Judge. He
fastened himself on such a person at the trial of Lady
Lisle; and he was Dunne, the messenger who carried on
a correspondence between the prisoner and Hicks, the
person she was charged with harbouring; but the witness
bore the attack for some time with great adroitness, for
he seemed to have made a resolve that his mistress should
never suffer through his testimony. However, Jeffreys
grew quite mad; he lectured the witness, menaced him
with hell-fire, then persuaded him, and uttered the most
savage exclamations ; but all in vain. At one time he

112 LIFE OF JEFFREYS.

thought of his old witticisms, and asked the man what
trade he followed. "My lord, I am a baker by trade."
— "And wilt thou bake thy bread at such easy rates?"
The witness had said that he travelled a great many miles,
and had only a piece of cake and cheese for it. " I as
sure thee, thy bread is very light weight, it will scarce
pass the balance here." He got out a name with all the
acumen of the most wire-drawing advocate. — " Now must
I know that man's name." — "The man's name that I
went to at Morton, my lord ?" — Lord chief justice. " Yes ;
and look to it, it may be I know the man already; and
tell at what end of the town the man lives too." — Dunne.
"My lord, I cannot tell his name presently." — Lord
chief justice. " Oh ! pray now, do not say so ; you must
tell us, indeed you must think of his name a little." —
Dunne. " My lord, if I can mind it, I will." — Lord chief
justice. "Prithee do." — Dunne. " His name, truly, my
lord, I cannot rightly tell for the present." — Lord chief
justice. "Prithee recollect thyself; indeed thou canst
tell us if thou wilt." — Dunne. "My lord, I can go to
the house again, if I were at liberty." — Lord chief jus
tice. "I believe it, and so could I; but really neither
you nor I can be spared at present ; therefore, prithee do
us the kindness now to tellus his name." — Dunne. "Truly
my lord, I cannot mind his name at present." — Lord
chief justice. " Alack-a-day ! We must needs have it!
Come, refresh your memory a little." And then it came
out. Dunne made a few trips, but was very cool at first :
"" How came you to be so impudent," cried the judge,
"as to tell me a lie?" — "I beg your pardon, my lord."
— Lord chief justice. " You beg my pardon ! That is

LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 113
not because you told me a lie, but because I have found
you in a lie. I hope, gentlemen of the jury, you take
notice of the strange and horrible carriage of this fellow."
The worst was yet to come for poor Dunne : he was again
at issue about some fact which Jeffreys wished to get from
him, and which he was by no means desirous of giving,
when the judge struck upon a new plan, saying, "Dost
thou think, that after all this pains that I have been at
to get an answer to my question, that thou canst banter
me with such sham stuff as this ? Hold the candle to his
face, that we may see his brazen face." The witness
declared that he was cluttered out of his senses, and that
he would say whatever the court desired. And-soon af
terwards they held the candle nearer to his nose, but then
he would tell nothing, except that he was robbed of his
senses. Jeffreys had long since summed up his character;
" Thou art a strange, prevaricating, shuffling, snivelling,
lying rascal," said my lord.'
We come now to September, 1684, when Sir George
Jeffreys ,was summoned to the cabinet. No act in the
King's reign could have annoyed Lord Guilford more
than an introduction of this kind; and in truth it was
something like the letting a bear loose into a garden.
The lord keeper had been brought up with the old school
of Charles the Second's better days ; he was a staid sober-
thinking counsellor, rather stiff in his demeanour, but
loyal to a proverb. It was, in spite of this, his misfortune
to come under the denomination of a trimmer, a class

The whole of the very long examination of this raan is well worth
the reading. It is to be found in the State Trials, fol. vol. It. pp. 108
—122. 10=^

114 LIFE OF JEFFREYS.

of people whom Jeffreys maligned and persecuted with
out example. These persons were a subdivision of the
Tory party who would not go along with all the high-
flown measures of the court. Yet we shall see that the
hatred which Sir George bore them ultimately cost him
his life.
The venerable sages who have kept the great seal of
England, seem generally to have regarded such as have
approached their dominion with much jealousy; Lord
Ellesmere could never reconcile himself with Coke ; and
North felt an uneasiness whilst he had the seal, which
must be mainly attributed to his proximity with Jeffreys.
In a word whatever the one proposed the other thwarted;
and as Sir George was fully in the Duke of York's con
fidence, who influenced the King's mind very greatly
during the last period of his life, it was no marvel to find
the young man of thirty-six gaining a frequent victory,
much to the mortification of the veteran. However, when
they came to contest a matter of business, the man of
real metal prevailed. As soon as the new cabinet minis
ter had returned from his northern expedition against
the corporations, the lord keeper was addressed by the
Duke of York on a Sunday morning, and requested to
aid a motion to be made on that evening to His Majesty.
All the great men were shy as foxes ; and it soon ap
peared, that a great secret was on the point of develop
ment. The lord keeper came to the cabinet ignorant of
the whole, and the King took his seat, when up rose Jef
freys with the recusant rolls before him, and made a
speech as follows : " Sir, I have a business to lay before
your Majesty, which I took notice of in the north, and
which will deserve your Majesty's royal commiseration.

LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 115

It is the case of numberless numbers of your good sub
jects that- are imprisoned for recusancy. I have tho list
of them here to justify what I say. They are so many,
that the great jails cannot hold them without their lying
one upon another." When he had spoken, he laid his
papers and rolls on the table; but no one answered him
for some time, contrary to North's expectation, who con
cluded that some Protestant lord would take up the matter.
At length the Lord Guilford addressed the King: "I
humbly entreat your Majesty," said he, "that my lord
chief justice may declare, whether all the persons named
in these rolls were actually in the prisons or not." The
chief justice hastily replied, "that all the jails in Eng
land could not hold them ; all certainly were not actual
prisoners, but they were liable to prosecution if any pee
vish sheriff chose to enforce the law." On this, the lord
keeper turned to the King, and boldly said, "he thought
that there was no reason to grant such a motion then ;
that all these persons were not Roman Catholics, but that
there were many sectaries amongst them ; that they were
a turbulent and seditious people ; and that if it pleased
the King to pardon any Roman Catholic, he might issue
a particular and express immunity in favour of the per
sons intended to receive grace." The King was very at
tentive, and the matter dropped for that time. It had
not escaped the lord keeper that it would have been his
province to affix the seal to the proposed general pardon.
As soon as the great man returned home, he exclaimed,
" Are they all stark mad?" And then he noted it down,
thus: Motion, cui solus obstiti.
Motion, which I alone opposed.'

' North's Lives.

116 LIFE OF JEFFREYS.

However, in the next year, the royal compassion was ex
tended to some particular cases.
This was a bold proceeding for a Protestant chief jus
tice, and savoured highly of that benighted bigotry on
the part of James, which led him so soon afterwards to
brave the indignation of his subjects.
Whether this judge had any religion of his own, it is
difficult indeed to say : he was ostensibly a Protestant,
and it is affirmed, that he declined in favour at court
through his reluctance to countenance the new religion.
Nevertheless, Lady Russel, in a letter to Dr. Fitzwilliam,
(April 1, 1687,) tells him, that Lord Peterborough was
declared a Roman Catholic, and that two more, the ohan-
cellor and the lord president (Sunderland,) were reported
as forthcoming papists on the following Sunday: yet, for
tunately, as it happens upon many occasions, report is
one thing — fact another ; and from the best authorities
we now have of the bearing of Jeffreys towards either
faith, he certainly did the most acts for the support of
the Protestant establishment. Sir John Dalrymple also
affirms, that the chancellor regretted his having yielded
so much to the King's inclination for popery ; that he
" hesitated, repented, trembled." The choice of his chap
lain, Luke Beaulieu' of Christ Church, confirms the sur
mise of his attachment to the reformed faith. He was
divinity reader in St. George's Chapel at Windsor, and
published several things against popery; and Wood says,
that he asserted the rights of his Majesty and the Church
' This divine was born in France, and educated at the university of
Saumur. He came over to England, where he was naturalized, and be
came a student at Oxford for the sake of the public library. Ho was
rector of Whitchurch, Oxon, in the year 1685.

LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 117
very usefully. Another of his chaplains was Thomas
Spark.' When the brief allowed by the King for the
benefit of the distressed Protestant refugees was put in
operation, Jeffreys (who at first refused to affix the seal
to it") was so strict as to the qualifications of the relieved
persons, that it was believed he admitted no one to re
ceive the alms, who would not take the sacrament from
his own chaplain. And the remarkable passage which
occurred at his death, when he sent for Scot, another di
vine and author against popery, to give him consolation,
confirms stiU more his secret regard for protestantism.'
When a man comes to die, the true feelings of his heart
are apt to burst forth ; and the main argument to prove
King Charles II. a Catholic, is, that he had Hudleston, a
priest, smuggled, as it were, into his apartment, which
was in general the rendezvous of Protestant bishops ; and
' Spark, student of Christ Church, anno 1672, aged seventeen, was the
son of Archibald Spark, of Northop, in Flintshire. He was indebted to
Lord Jeffreys for much advancement. He died in 1692, rector of Ewe-
hurst, near Guildford, Surrey; of Norton, or Hog's Norton, near Bos
worth, Leicestershire; prebendary of Lichfield and of Rochester, D. D.
By his excesses, and too much agitation in obtaining spiritualities, he
brought himself into an ill disposition of body, which, contrary to his
expectations, brought him in the prime of his years to the grave. — Wood.
' Lady Russel tells something which shows that the chancellor had
some good points which he would occasionally develop. In one of her
letters, she says, "I am unwilling to shake off all hopes about the brief,
though I know them that went to the chancellor since the refusal, and
his answer does not encourage one's hopes. But he is not a lover of
smooth language; so that in that respect we may not so soon despair." —
Letters, p. 55. Dr., afterwards Bishop Beveridge, objected to the read-.
ing the brief in the cathedral of Canterbury, as contrary to the rubric.
Tillotson replied, " Doctor, doctor. Charity is above rubrics." — Note to
the above.
' This will be related hereafter.

118 LIFE OF JEFFREYS.

having succeeded in obtaining his priest, confessed, and
died a true Catholic'
In November, 1684, Mr. Rosewell, a dissenting mi
nister, a gentleman of sufficient consequence to be pa
negyrized by a funeral sermon,^ came within the grasp of
the chief justice, and by a good fortune quite remarkable
for those times, ultimately escaped. He was taken in his
own house, and carried by water to a coffee-house near
him " like a roaring lion, or a raging bear ; " and, amongst
Aldermanbury, where Jeffreys lived. Jeffreys received
other questions, asked him where he preached on such a
day, naming it. Rosewell answered in Latin, that he
hoped his lordship would not insist upon his answering
that question, as he might thereby accuse himself. The
judge, in a passion, said, he supposed the prisoner could
not speak another sentence in Latin to save his neck.
The parson thought it civil to try another language, and
so he spoke in Greek. Jeffreys was astonished at this,
but soon ordered him to be taken away; and at night
there came a warrant for committing him to the Gate
house on a charge of treason. The next morning his wife
begged admittance to him ; but meeting with a refusal,
' Extract from Dalrymple's Memoirs, Appendix, part i. p. 96, et seq. .
— "What the Duke of York said was not heard; but the King of Eng
land said from time to time very loud, 'Yes, with all my heart.' — 'The
King wills that every body should retire except the Earls of Bath and
Feversham.' The physicians went into a closet, the door of which was
immediately closed, and Chiffins brought Mr. Huddleston in. The Duke
of York, in presenting him, said, ' Sir, here is a man who has saved your
life," and is now come to save your soul.' The King answered, ' He is
welcome.' He afterwards confessed himself with great sentiments of
devotion and repentance." ' By Mead, 1692.
? After the battle of Worcestpr.

LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 119
she petitioned the great man for an interview, who loaded
her husband with the most severe invectives, calling him a
great knave, a great villain, and so on, and bade her petition
the King.' This she did, and the King read her request,
the chief justice standing near him ; upon which leave was
given that she should visit the prison at the discretion of
my lord chief justice, who, nevertheless, huffed very much
when he heard of His Majesty's kind speech, and kept
her from her husband for several days afterwards. Roger
North, always railing at those to whom he was politically
opposed, informs us, that Rosewell had made his peace
with the chief justice, whence some corrupt motive is
drawn as a natural inference. He would make us be
lieve, that a bribe was taken in this affair ; but confesses,
in another place, that when Jeffreys was pleased to be
impartial, no one became a seat of justice better. We
shall presently see that there is no ground for imputing
corruption ; though it may be very true, as North asserts
that the judge was "tickled with mirth and laughter at
the King's counsel," and "openly rejoiced at the acci
dent." This accident was a flaw in the indictment.
When Sir George came upon the bench, he seemed to
have sat down with the most impartial resolutions, and
seeing Mr. Wallop, an advocate, always obnoxious to him
because he was retained for the dissenters, he asked him
what business he had there. Wallop alleged a curiosity
to hear the trial, and moved a short distance from the

' When Mrs. Rosewell discovered some uneasiness at this abuse of her
husband, " Mind him not," said the friend to whom she was speaking,
"you'll he able to hold up your head with comfort, when he will look
down with shame."

120 LIFE OF JEFFREYS.

bar. But Jeffreys declared that the trial should not pro
ceed whilst he was in court, and so he was obliged to re
treat. He was afterwards employed to argue in arrest
of judgment on Rosewell's behalf. As the case pro
ceeded, the dreadful magistrate was softened, and gave the
accused a very fair and patient hearing ; but, notwith
standing, the jury pronounced him guilty. Jeffreys be
haved with more gentlemanly manner to this jury, who
were persons of very good station, than he was accus
tomed, and evidently repressed the coarseness so familiar
to him. The fact was, that the principal witnesses against
the minister were three women of infamous character,
common informers against conventicles; one of whom
was convicted of perjury, and pilloried in the next reign,
and another whipped at the cart's tail for some bad be
haviour. Rosewell made a very admirable defence ; and, happily
for him, there was present a baronet, Sir John Talbot,
who though not friendly to dissenters, highly appreciated
what he had said, and thought the verdict wrong. From
the trial he posted away to the King, and declared, that
he had seen the life of a person, who appeared to be a
gentleman and a scholar, in danger upon such evidence
as he would not hang his dog on; and, "Sir," says he,
"if your Majesty suffers this man to die, we are none of
us safe in our houses." This address had a full influence
upon the rOyal ear ; and whilst it was operating, in came
Jeffreys, overjoyed, and vaunted of the signal service
which he and the Surrey jury had done ; ' when to his
utter confusion the monarch replied, under a strong feel-
' Rosewell was tried at Kingston-upon-Thames.

LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 121
ing of sympathy, that the prisoner must not die, and that
he, Jeffreys, must find out some way to bring him off. In
due time judgment was moved for against the preacher
by Sir Thomas Jenner,- the recorder, to whom Rosewell
attributes his persecution; and the attorney-general,'
who was present, could not have had any presentiment of
the coming scene. The convict did what was very com
mon, but almost always unsuccessful in those times — he
moved to arrest the judgment. The King's counsel of
course expected a fierce reply from the chief, overturn
ing all the objections without scruple, and the usual sub
missive nod from the puisne judges ; but instead —
" What say you to it, brother Jenner, and the King's
counsel?" inquired the judge. "I cannot see," doled
forth Mr. Serjeant Jenner,^ the recorder, " that he has
' Sir Robert Sawyer. He conducted the court prosecutions with suf
ficient violence; but was turned out by James the Second for his objec
tions to the dispensing power, by which James proposed to introduce
the Catholic religion. He was an old friend of Mr. Pepys, who ex
presses himself very much pleased on one or two occasions to find his
old chamber acquaintance in such good practice at the bar. Sir Robert's
daughter was married to a son of Lord Pembroke.
2 Thomas Jenner, made a baron of the Exchequer in 1686, when
honest Gregory was turned out; and judge of the Common Pleas in
1688. He was the judge who punned upon Dr. Hough's name, during
the famous controversy between the King and Magdalen College re
specting the election of a president. " Sir," said Jenner to the Doctor,
" you must not think to huff us." Hough was afterwards Bishop of
Worcester. This Baron Jenner was a mere tool of the court, and was
afterwards excepted out of King William's bill of indemnity. There is
reason to believe that he was one of the judges who tried the Duke of
Monmouth's adherents in the west.
Prom Sir Thomas Jennet's Speech to his Wife and Children.
A wise learned serjeant-at-law I was made,
And a fine dainty coif was put on my head,

122 LIFE OF JEFFREYS.

alleged any objection, which here requires an answer from
any of us, that are of counsel for the King." Hogarth,
or some such genius, could alone have represented to us
the countenance of the person thus addressed, when he
archly and drily returned, "Yes, brother, methinks he
does." And again, after some words from the attorney-
general, there was the same tenderness. "But if I take
the gentleman right, (for I tell you beforehand justice
must be done to all people impartially. The crime is a
very great crime that he stands accused of; and the jury
have found him guilty of the crime laid in the indict
ment. But if I take him aright,") &c. The attorney
was thunder-struck, he had never dreamed of such a hu
man kindness ; nevertheless he mustered up courage to say,
"All this, my lord, is only in delay." — " Mr. Attorney !
De vitd hominis nulla est cunctatio longa." ' Rosewell,
finding how the tide had set in, exclaimed, "I pray
Which is heavier by far than an hundred of lead.
This it is to be learned and witty.
But soon after this I was made the recorder.
To keep the worshipful rabble in order.
And wore a red gown with long sleeves and border.
This it is, &c.
By great James I was raised to the Common Pleas bench,
'Cause he saw I had exquisite politic sense.
Which his wisdom perceived in the future tense.
This it is, &c.
At Sarum five hundred pounds have I gotten,
To save malefactors from swinging in cotton,
For which they were hang'd and are now almost rotten.
This it is, &c.
' We can't linger too long, when a man's life is at stake.

LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 123

God to bless your lordship ! ' ' — Lord chief justice. ' ' Nay,
you have no need to thank me ; for I desire to do justice
to all men." And then he thundered against conventi-
clers, concluding : " I could not forbear giving that hint
that I did, that this might be a warning to people, how
they transgress the law in going to such meetings."
Rosewell was afterwards pardoned; the court incli
ning strongly in favour of his objections.
The struggle respecting the recusants was not the only
contest between Lord Guilford, the chief of the trim
mers, and the lord chief justice, the managing tool of
the high party. In reality, it seems to have been under
stood that Jeffreys was to have the seals as soon as the
lord keeper could be displaced ; and death, which over
took that great man shortly afterwards, probably saved
them the odium, and him the mortification of delivering
them to his rival. The promotion of Bedingfield,' who
became chief justice of the Common Pleas in James the
Second's time, on the removal of poor honest Jones, gave
Sir George an opportunity of trying his strength against
the old statesman. The lord keeper wished to make this
man a judge, and he told him of such his intention. With
a thousand acknowledgments, the serjeant bowed down,
and poured forth what is common when a great man
speaks, adding, that he should own his preferment from
that quarter, and no other, as long as he lived. Now the
serjeant had a brother, a woollen-draper in London, who
was one of the chief 's companions. No sooner had Jeffreys
discovered the channel through which the pliant counsellor

This chief justice died suddenly whilst he was receiving the sacra
ment, in 1687.

124 LIFE OF JEFFREYS.

was to reach the bench, than he sent for this draper, and
plainly told him, that his brother must be judge through
my lord chief justice's interest, or not at all ; for that he
should be opposed if he presumed to owe his elevation to
any other. North tells us, that Bedingfield was glad to
compound for his promotion in any way rather than af
front the powerful favourite, and the lord keeper had the
generosity to overlook this want of resolution ; so that
the Serjeant had his place in due time, though not during
the life of Lord Guilford, whom he avoided ever after this
incident.' Another story of the same kind belongs to the history of
Chief Justice Wright.^ When this person was a serjeant,
he brought himself, through a prodigal style of living,
into a state of the deepest distress ; so that, as he de
clared, unless he were made a judge, his ruin was sealed.
But he was not nice about trifles, and had the particular
good fortune to have made Sir George Jeffreys acquainted
with his easy character, which led to as much friendship as
Sir George was capable of. On a vacancy, therefore,
' He got his place in the Common Pleas, Feb. 13, 1686^ and was made
chief justice, April 21, in the same year.
' Sir Robert Wright was descended from a good family at Thetford,
in Norfolk, and bore a character for extravagance and licentiousness. He
was "of a handsome person, voluble tongue, and plausible behaviour;"
which ensured him some very fair practice, although he seems to have
been but superficial in his profession: for he frequently came to his
friend North, when he had an opinion to give, got his advice, and then
wrote it down as his own. When North was in town, he contrived the
business by post, and meanwhile, put his clients off on pretence of more
serious consideration. He married a daughter of Dr. Wren, Bishop of
Ely, which set him going on the Norfolk circuit. He died at last mi
serably in Newgate, in the beginning of King William's reign, being
charged with an endeavour to subvert the government.

LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 125

Wright was to be judge. But all powerful as his patron
was at court, another person must be consulted— the lord
keeper ; and with this upright man he had little hope from
the following circumstance : —
When they both went the Norfolk circuit together, they
became very intimate ; and the serjeant finding his purse
empty, availed himself of his brother North's friendship,
by borrowing his money. These loans became at last so
considerable, as to induce North to take a mortgage of
his friend's estate, which he charged with 1500L How
ever, it was not long before the serjeant desired some
more money, and borrowed 5001. accordingly from Sir
Walter Plummer on the same estate, making an affidavit
that it was free from all incumbrances. Plummer brought
the affidavit to Sir Francis North, while he held the ori
ginal mortgage, but he said nothing on the subject, and
the Serjeant had his pockets filled a second time out of
the estate. When the King asked his lord keeper whether
this gentleman was not a proper person to be a judge, the
case assumed a very different feature ; his lordship said,
" he knew him but too well : he was satisfied that he was
the most unfit person in the world to be judge." —
"Then," said the King, "it must not be." But then
came the influence of Jeffreys. Again and again the
King pressed the lord keeper, saying, " Why may not
Wright be a judge?" And, at length. Lord Guilford
told his Majesty every thing, the perjury not excepted ;
and it was very creditable that he would not speak ill of
his old acquaintance till his duty overpowered him . ' ' And
now," said he, "I have done my duty to your Majesty,
and am ready to obey your Majesty's commands, in case
it be your pleasure that this man shall be a judge." —
11*

126 LIFE OF JEFFREYS.

"My lord," said the King, "I thank you:" and went
away. Soon after came the warrant, and the keeper
sealed it.'
Such events as these may be called the victories of the
chief justice over the head of the Chancery; and it had
been well if the former could have been content with his
triumph, and had not chequered it with the blemish of
arrogance. Vain and upstart, he shook forth his new
plumage for the public wonder; and, decked with the be
witching influences of a court favourite, stalked out su
preme. This was one way by which he vented himself.
There was formerly a side bar below in Westminster-hall,
where the King's Bench judges used to robe ; while the
court of Chancery sat a little above, but within view of
the judges. Jeffreys saw Wright walking in the hall, his
promotion being determined on, and beckoned him. The
Serjeant approached very humbly ; on which the chief took
him by the shoulders, whispered in his ear, and flung him
off, holding out his arms at the same time, and leaning
over the bar in the sight of Lord Guilford, who observed
the motion, and was hurt at it. It was as much as to say,
says North, that in spite of that man there, Wright should
be a judge.
One instance more of his hatred to this eminent indi
vidual, and we have done. There happened lo be a dis
pute between the Duke of Norfolk and his brother, which
was heard in Chancery. The chief justices, of whom
North was one, and the chief baron, were asked for their
opinons, which they gave; but Lord Nottingham, the
chancellor, decreed the contrary, without • canvassing
' See North's Lives, 4to. pp. 246, 247, 248.

LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 127

their reasons. When North became lord keeper he re
versed this decree, on which an appeal went up to the
House of Lords ; and Jeffreys, chief justice, indulged him
self with a formal abuse of this latter opinion, which he
loaded with every censure, and hesitated not to affront
his lordship himself, which was a rudeness quite unheard
of in that august assembly. He procured, however, the
keeper's decree to be reversed, for a papist was affected
by it ; and just then it was the interest of court suitors to
support popery.
This heedless judge would come down to the council
sometimes quite drunk, and inveigh against trimmers.
The justices of Stepney and Wapping once fell out, and by
the violence of two parties, headed by Smith and Bailey,
the sessions were disturbed. One of these factions, that
of Smith, was patronised by Sir George; and he came to
the board quite furious, telling the King, that he had
trimmers in his court, and would never be happy while
trimmers were there. . The lord keeper drily answered,
(for he knew that all this outrage was levelled at him,
the principal trimmer,) that the chief justice seemed so
well informed on the subject of these quarrels, it would
be advisable to refer the whole matter to his arbitration.
This was agreed to; but the fracas continued for some
time, till Bailey's party was overturned. It was so or
dered, says North. This fertile and lively writer lets fly
another arrow at our chief justice for helping off one
Hayes with the jury, who was tried for treason about this
time, adding, "upon what terms who knows?" Hayes
came to his trial towards the close of the year 1684, and
certainly was acquitted ; but on examining the report in
the State Trials, it appears, that the judge rather leaned

128 LIFE OF JEFFREYS.

against him when the evidence was summed up : so easy
is it to entertain and create a prejudice against men who
have become obnoxious.
In February, 1685, the King died; it was at a very
critical moment, for measures had been adopted for re
conciling him with his son, the Duke of Monmouth, and
his brother was about to visit Scotland by the royal com
mand. It was the policy of Charles to keep himself un
shackled, and that of his brother to spread such toils round
the monarch as should secure him from the approach of
those he in reality loved the most. The parliament, the
cabal, even the fair chamber counsel, had failed to enchain
this master of dissimulation ; but his heart had one avenue
open, and there natural affection lived and throve. Very
important were the changes which ensued upon his decease;
and favourably so, according to the probability of all
human events, for Jeffreys. Had the liberal party, with
Monmouth at their head, been blessed with the royal
countenance, the day of retribution had sooner overtaken
the judge who had robbed them of their best associates,
and gibed at their love for freedom : as Providence willed
it, there was for him a change from suspense to a tri
umphant certainty ; from the prospect of a headsman and
axe, to the stillest whisperings of the royal closet. The
Duke of York was King, and Jeffreys his prime minister.
On the 15th of May, 1685, the honours of the peerage
were conferred upon the ambitious favourite : it was the
second instance of ennobling a chief justice which we find
in our history.' Probably, as Mr. Nichols suggests, he

'Hubert de Burgh, a very considerable judge in the reign of Henry
the Third, was the first who attained to the honour.

LIFE OF JEFFREYS.

129

composed or dictated the preamble to his own patent ;
and as it tends to illustrate the intention of parties at
that time, the original and translation are here given : —

ORIGINAL.
Quum nihil magis regium sit,
quam eos, qui se vel in toga vel in
armis claros et insignes reddiderunt
tum premiis augere tum honoribus
illustrare ; quum-que predilectus et
perquam fidelis consiliarius noster
Georgius Jeffreys, eques auratus et
baronettus, per omnes jurispru-
dentiae gradus, ea industria et feli
citate processerit, ut nos, cum dux
Eboracensis essemus, eum pro so-
licitatore nostro generali elegeri-
mus, ejusque fidem et fortitudinem
in omnibus quse vel personam vel
res nostras spectarunt semper ex-
I)loratam habuerimus, illo praeser-
tim tempore cum prava quorundam
malevolorum instigatione nos a prte-
clarissimo'fratre nostro domino Ca-
rolo secundo, nuper Magnse Britan
nia, Scotiae, &c. ipso licet invitis-
simo, avulsi fuimus, et a suavissimi
ipsius praesentia, primum in Flan-
driam, postea in Scotiam, tantum
nonrelegati; quae omnia perpendens
frater noster amantissimus, et sin-
gularia Georgii Jeffreys' merita ali-
quo modo agnoscere cupiens, eum
ad summa juris dicundi tribunalia
evexit,unde primo capitalis Cestriae
justiciarius evasit, deinde capitalis

TRANSLATION.
Since nothing can be more wor
thy of a king, than to enrich with
rewards and dignify with honours"
such as have distinguished them
selves in civil and military athieve-
ments; and since our much loved
and right faithful counsellor George
Jeffreys, knight and baronet, hath
advanced through the degrees of
jurisprudence with such diligence
and success, as that, when we were
Duke of York, we chose him to be
our solicitor-general, and held his
fidelity and courage undoubted in
all things which touched our person
or our affairs, especially at that
time, when by the wicked instiga
tion of some factious persons, we
were torn from our most illustrious
. brother, our Lord, Charles the Se
cond, late of Great Britain, Scot
land, &c. against his will, and
scarcely 'less than banished from
his most kindly presence, first into
Flanders, then into Scotland ; duly
considering all which, and desirous
in some way of acknowledging the
merits of the said George Jeffreys,
our most beloved brother raised him
to the highest judicial benches ; first
to be chief justice of Chester, then

'"nipti"

Dicti " should have been here.

130 LIFE OP JEFFREYS.

justiciarius RegiiBanci apud West- chief justice of the King's Bench
monasterium, ubi etiamnum sedet, at Westminster, where he even now
justitiamet tutelamsubditisnostris 'sits, resolutely and faithfully ad-
ad normam legis intrepide et fide- tninistering justice and protection
liter administrans : quarum ejus vir- to our subjects according to the law:
tutum intuitu, id quod supra me- in consideration of whose merits,
moratus frater noster, dum adhuc and which our brother above men-
viveret, in animo habuit, nos jam tionedintended, whilst he lived, we,
sponte nostra, et pro ea qua dictum of our own will, and from that re-
Georgium Jeffreys benevolentiS. gard which we bear the said George
prosequimur, eum inter pares hujus Jeffreys, are of opinion that he
regni cooptandum esse censuimus. should be admitted amongst the
Sciatis igitur, &c. &c.' peers of this realm. Know, there
fore, &c. &c.
He was created Baron Jeffreys of Wenj, in the county
of "Salop. This title was derived from his property in
that county. He held the barony of Wem, and the ma
nors of Wem and Loppington, besides other lands and
tenements in those parts. Evelyn, who seems to have
been on pretty good terms with every one, wished him
joy on his creation; and he says, that the new peer was
very civil upon the occasion.
Whatever may be the real secret of the " horrid popish
plot;" whether a real conspiracy to be executed with
screwed guns and silver bullets ; (by the way, the ma
nagement was most clumsy; at one time the assassins had
their flints loose, at another they charged their screwed
guns with all bullets and no powder, then with no powder
in the pan, and again with all powder and no bullets;) or
whether it was a mere treasonable bauble to dazzle the
eyes of the populace, — we of this day care very little :

'From the original in the possession of James Bindley, Esq., F.A.S.,
given in Nichol's Leicestershire, Vol. ii. part 1, p. 116.

LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 131

but it becomes our duty to mention Oates,* the great
hero of the piece, in this place, since the day for expia
ting his unlucky jest upon Jeffreys was come: he stood at
the King's Bench bar charged with perjury, the prince
on the throne against whom he had whetted his tongue,
and the judge on the bench whom he had stung with his
untimely wit ; a judge too not given to be very impartial
when he viewed his prisoner through the mirror of political
hostility. However, an appearance of indifference and
fairness was evinced by the court, till they found that
Oates was resolute and stubborn in his defence ; and even
then the rules of evidence were respected, and there was
a little fracas between the chief and the King's counsel
respecting them. But Jeffreys became very turbulent
occasionally, and once his temper broke out beyond all
discretion. Oates wished to know Lord Castlemaine's
religion, and Sir George said, that every one knew that.
But Oates would have it told in court, and, said he,
"That's not the point, my lord; I must have it declared
in evidence."
Ld. Ch. Just. — I wonder to see any man that has the
face of a man, carry it at this rate, when he has such an
evidence brought in against him.
Oates.— I wonder that Mr. Attorney will offer to bring
this evidence ; men that must have malice against me.

' Oates, Bedlow, Dugdale, Prance, whose breath alone,
Cou'd almost states subvert, and kings dethrone !
To sculp their shadow's in the pow'r of art;
Ink may be black enough to act that part.
Drawn to the life would you their souls behold.
That work requires a more infernal mould.
Memoirs of Titus Oates, 1688.

132 LIFE OF JEFFREYS.

Ld. Ch. Just. — Hold your tongue ; you are a shame to
mankind. Oates. — No, my lord, I am neither a shame to myself
nor mankind. What I have sworn is true, and I will stand
by it to my last breath, and seal it, if occasion be, with
my blood.
Ld. Ch. Just. — ' T were pity hut that ii were to he done
hy thy blood.
A very sanguinary speech! but Oates did not regard
it ; he went on wrangling for some time afterwards.
The doctor (but Jeffreys could not endure that he should
be called so) was convicted upon two indictments, and'
was visited with such floggings as might have made him
wish himself most cordially within the pale of the Roman
church with all her penance and stripes : he had such a
punishment as should have chased perjury from England
for a century afterwards, from the mere dread of it.
1st. He was to pay a thousand marks upon each in
dictment. 2d. To be stripped of all his canonical habits (a sen
tence which belongs only to the courts ecclesiastical.)
3d. He was to stand twice in the pillory.
4th. To be whipped from Aldgate to Newgate one
day, and two days afterwards from Newgate to Tyburn.
And 5th. He was to stand in the pillory on five days
in every year as long as he lived.
Yet, notwithstanding this, (and the sentence was exe
cuted with great severity,) "there are thousands," says
his biographer in 1685, " of those unthinking, unconverted
animals, that have that veneration still for their darling
Titus, that they pay him even a wild Indian adoration,
and make a god ofthe devil himself." An unsuccessful

LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 133
attempt was made to reverse this cruel judgment ; but he
was pardoned at the Revolution, and lived to publish
several things afterwards. It is not a little singular that
so slight a mention has been made of the harsh conduct
of other judges during these times, whilst many of the
chiefs, and Jeffreys among the number, have been set down
for monsters, though all their brethren were doing the
same thing. No doubt they cannot be excused ; but the
plea of communis error will avail much, when it is con
sidered that an age of faction is never remarkable for
delicacy. In the trial which has been mentioned. Sir
Francis Wythens,' a puisne judge, was full of these inde
cent railleries against the prisoner, and the close of his
speech on passing sentence is very memorable: — "And
I must tell you plainly, if it had been in my power to
have carried it further, I should not have been unwilling
to have given judgment of death upon you, for I am sure
you deserve it." This Wythens was perpetually indulg
ing in levities and humour at the expense of prisoners .
When Fernley was tried for treason, there was a specimen
of this judge's propensity. A witness was called for the
prisoner. Officer. "He is a great whig." — Judge Wy
thens. "If he be a whig he can't be a little one." — Wit
ness. " I formerly knew the man ; he was a barber, and
used to trim me. I always looked upon him to be a good,

'He was of no great value. Being called before the House of Com
mons to answer for his courtly opposition to petitioning, (for he was an
abhorrer,) he cringed and sneaked, and said he knew he had done wrong,
but feared to offend the king ; on which. North tells us that even his own
friends_ voted with the country party against him, and so he was unani
mously kicked out of the House. He was also excepted out of King
William's act of indemnity.
12

134 LIFE OF JEFFREYS.

soberman." — Wythens. "AWappingman! asober Wap-
pingman!" Soon after he found room for a pun upon Trim
mers. The prisoner's witnesses were asked if they went
to church. Wythens. " There were a parcel of them
that went constantly to church trimmingly." Even Chief
Justice Jones, who, by comparison is highly estimated,
was harsh on occasion; and on the trial of Alderman
Cornish will be found not to have treated him too ten
derly. About this time Crispe, the common-serjeant, who, we
may remember, dissolved the tumultuous common-hall by
order of the court lord mayor, had the misfortune to dis
please Lord Jeffreys, and, though the particular nature
of his offence has not been communicated to us, he fell
under some censure, though he found means to withstand
the prejudice against him, and to continue in office until
his death.' He is spoken of with high praise by North.
Hitherto we have abstained from speaking of the sub
ject of this memoir as a judge in civil matters ; yet it has
not been from a fear of exhibiting him in that capacity ;
since, however he might have been denied the reputation
of legal knowledge by the furious and successful whigs
of the revolution, it seems now pretty well agreed that
he brought a considerable share of experience, and a very
rare acuteness, to the Nisi Prius Bench. Indeed, through
the diligence and fidelity of those learned and laborious
men, who from time to time oblige us with the arguments
and judgments which take place in our courts, the mem
bers of the law are enabled to form a fair estimate of the
proficiency which the judges of Nisi Prius have attained

' About the year 1700.

LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 135

in the science. As far as relates to Jeffreys, we must
have recourse to the reports of Sir Bartholomew Shower,'
and Mr. Skinner,^ who wrote while he presided in- the
King's Bench; and to some parts of the "Modern Re
ports." Sir Bartholomew was recorder of London; and
if Sir Robert Wright, the chief justice when the seven
bishops were tried, is to have credit, the learned gentle
man was very fond of a speech, the judges at the same
time not being over partial to too much oratory. Seve
ral counsel had been already heard in the case of the
bishops, (a pruriency which perhaps will now receive a
cheek in the Court of Chancery, if the new act be passed,^)
' Bartholomew Shower, brother to John Shower, an eminent divine,
attained to considerable practice at the bar. He was constituted re
corder of London in 1687, in the room of Mr. Tate, who succeeded Sir
John Holt. He was obliged to yield his place, in 1688, to Sir George
Treby, when the city charter was restored ; and Wood says that he stood
in competition for the recordership, in 1691, with Sir John Hawles, who
lost it. But the fact was, that as soon as Treby became chief justice of
the Common Pleas, Sir Salathiel Lovell, afterwards baron of the Ex
chequer, succeeded to the city honours; and thus both must have been
disappointed. He was Sir John Fenwick's counsel, and pleaded vehe
mently against the bill of attainder. In 1701 he died, and was buried
at Harrow-on-the-hill. His publications were law reports and Pamph
lets. ^ Robert Skinner, father of Matthew Skinner, King's ancient serjeant,
and chief justice of Chester, in 1742, who died in 1749.
" An act to amend the practice of the Court of Chancery, introduced
at the end ofthe session of 1826 into the House of Commons.
We cannot forbear inserting Lord Nottingham's elegant compliment
to Mr. Somers, afterwards the Chancellor. Six or seven counsel had
been heard to what was understood to be motion of course, when Mr.
Somers rose, and said, " that he was of the same side ; but that so much
had been already said, that he had no room to add any thing ; that there
fore he would not presume to take up his lordship's time, by repeating
what had been so well urged by the gentlemen that went before him."

136 LIFE OF JEFFREYS.

when the recorder rose to speak to some point which had
been started. Ld. Ch. Just. " What again ? Well, go
on. Sir Bartholomew Shower, if we must have a speech."
However, the learned counsel gave way; but soon after,
there being a pause till some one arrived who was to give
evidence, the judge began his raillery again : — " Sir Bar •
tholomew Shower, now we have time to hear your speech,
if you will." Soon afterwards a great many more speeches
were delivered, and Sir Bartholomew grew restive again ;
"Will your Lordship be pleased to spare me one word?"
— Ld. Ch. Just. " I hope we shall have done by and
by." — Mr. Recorder. "If your lordship don't think fit,
I can sit down." — Ld. Ch. Just. "No, no; go on. Sir
Bartholomew Shower, you'll say I have spoiled a good
speech." Then Serjeant Trinder began, "My lord, I
have but one word." — Ld. Ch. Just. " How unreasonable
is this now, that we must have so many speeches at this
time of day ! But we must hear it ; go on, brother !"
But to return to Jeffreys. The reader need not be ap
prehensive that we are going to infiict a critical disquisi
tion on this judge's legal merits upon him ; no one doubts
them at this day, as Serjeant Davy, of facetious memory.
Said on the trial of Elizabeth Canning. "The chief jus
tice, with all his faults, has ever been esteemed a great
lawyer." Two very remarkable occasions presented themselves
whilst he remained on the common law bench, which gave
" Sir," said the chancellor, " pray go on ; I sit here to hear every body.
You never repeat, nor will you take up my time; and therefore I shall
hear you with pleasure." It often happened in those days, that six,
eight, or even ten advocates on a side were heard in the Court of Chan
cery.

LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 137
him opportunities of displaying his learning and shrewd
ness to great advantage. The first is styled, par excel
lence, " the great case of monopolies :" the next was Lady
Ivy's monstrous attempt to possess herself of valuable
property in Shadwell, through the medium of false writings.
In the latter case some little incidents happened, which
we shall also give, as they tend to prove Jeffreys's near
acquaintance with the world in small things.
The East India Company quarrelled with Thomas
Sandys for invading their exclusive right of trade; he
said, that the sea was open for all merchants to pass with
their merchandises where they pleased, whereupon the
company were pleased to demur, as it is technically
called ; that is to say, they would not allow Mr. Sandys's
plea to be a sufficient answer in point of law to their ac
tion, and they referred the decision to the Court of King's
Bench. Jeffreys delivered a very elaborate judgment.
lie made two points: 1st. Was the grant good, which
licensed the company to trade to the Indies to the ex
clusion of others ? Then, Was the action maintainable ?
He began by complimenting the King for his condescen
sion in allowing his prerogative to be debated in West
minster-hall, thereby following the example of Lord Chief
Baron Fleming. All things had their commencement by
royal grant, so that an artificer in the city of London
could not use two trades ; a carpenter could not be a
joiner, nor a bricklayer a plasterer, &c., and yet there
was more liberty for inland than foreign trade. For the
law merchant prevailed in most matters of merchandise,
especially when the goods were upon the high seas ; so
that even by the allowance of the common law, a great
difference was observable between the customs and rights
12* '

138 ¦ LIFE OF JEFFREYS.
of traders, and those of ordinary persons. Beyond ques
tion, it was a just measure of the prerogative to restrain
foreign trade. Welwood's Epistle had been quoted, who
spoke of vindicating the conservancy of the seas in fa
vour of all loyal traders: Westminster-hall was not the
place for quoting epistles or authorities; but Welwood
doubtless little dreamed of interlopers, when he spoke of
loyal subjects. Foreign trade being introduced by the
laws of nations, ought to be governed and adjudged by those
laws ; whence springs the Court of Admiralty. There
fore, as the restraint of such trade was ever reckoned
inter jura regalia, and uncontrolled by any act of parlia
ment, and as it was agreeable to the law of nations, the
royal prerogative was clearly efficient in the case at bar.
Again, with regard to an injurious monopoly, which had
been insisted on bythe defendant's counsel, such would not
be the case, for an exclusive privilege would only be
granted upon good cause, and for the public advantage.
The infancy of an undertaking like the present would be
most effectually protected by a society, who, whilst they
risked the possible loss, should be entitled to the undis
turbed profit. It was prohibited by the States-general,
on pain of .death, and forfeiture of ship and goods, that
any, save the Dutch India Company, should for twenty-
one years pass eastward of the Cape of Good Hope. And
surely, continued the judge, the Dutch have ever been
our greatest and most dangerous rivals in trade. The
King, by his charter, makes the plaintiffs, as it were, his
ambassadors to concert a peace with the Indians, and
Mr. Sandys has complained that he is not one of them.
Because the King may pardon every offender, but will
not pardon any highwayman now in Newgate, must those

LIFE OF JEFFREYS.

139

jail-birds, therefore, think themselves injured in their
liberty and property? The most flourishing trades have
begun by united stocks and policies. The company have
been at the trouble of discovering places, of erecting forts,
of keeping forces, of settling factories, and of making
leagues and treaties ; and it would be against natural
equity to wrest the benefits from them which they have
thus earned. Let the plaintiff take his judgment.'
On the 3d of June, 1684, the claim of Lady Ivy for
some property in Shadwell came to be investigated before
a judge as intelligent and keen as ever enlightened the
bench at Westminster, or a special jury assembled upon
an occasion so important. She was in possession; the
action, therefore, was brought against her, and it seems
that the plaintiff had been once before unsuccessful. The
judge plainly showed his disposition in the outset to sift
the cause in penetralibus, and, accordingly, showed the
counsel on either side very little mercy. They began
with an old book found among the evidences of the dean
and chapter of St. Paul's, in which some alteration had
been made, the object of which did not appear. " It is
plain," said the chief justice, "that in this slippery age
we live in, it is very easy to make a book look as old as
you would have it." Now the attorney-general, who
conducted Lady Ivy's case, was shrewd enough to take
advantage of this hint, and knowing that his was the side
on which forgery was suspected, he declared, seemingly

' The other judges who concurred, were Sir Francis Wythens, Sir
Richard Holloway, Sir Thomas Walcot. A paper in the Mss. Lansd.
1219, folio, contains the introduction of Sir George Jeffreys's speech,
which is not in the State Trials, but is otherwise imperfect.

140 LIFE OF JEFFREYS.

with much innocence, " They threaten us with forgeries,
and I know not what ; I believe it will be found on Mr.
Neale's side." However, the tide was soon to turn
against his client. Jeffreys fastened himself upon Lady
Ivy's first witness ; and unless a man were the very image
of truth, he had but little chance under such an ordeal.
But here was a man who undertook to tell the contents
of a deed he had never looked into, and who swore that
he knew its owner on first finding it, from a superscription
which was proved to have been written long afterwards.
"I am sure," quoth the judge, "thou swearest wildly."
And the next witness made so little account of time, that
he veered so lamentably from one day to another as to
draw upon him a most formidable lecture from the judge.
And the solicitor-general was pleased to make this very
polite address to the Lady Ivy, his client, then in court,
— "Your witness is drunk, madam!" Every step in this
cause was against the defendant ; and not only did the
jury find a verdict disallowing her claims, but she had
the misfortune to encounter two informations for forging
and publishing indentures, which were very soon after
wards filed against her. The most ingenious device in
this singular cause was a plan which suggested itself
to a Mr. Bradbury for the development of these fraudu
lent practices. The indenture relied upon by Lady Ivy
was stated as of such a day, in such years, " of the reigns
of our Sovereign Lord and Lady Philip and Mary, by the
Grace of God King and Queen of England, Spain, France,
both Sicilies, Jerusalem, and Ireland, Defenders, &c.
Archdukes of Austria, Dukes of Burgundy, Milan, and
Brabant, &c." Bradbury urged, and he brought re
cords in proof of his allegation, that Philip and Mary

LIFE OF JEFFREYS:

141

were never then called King and Queen of Spain and
both the Sicilies, but King and Queen of Naples, and
that Burgundy never stood before Milan. The judge was
extremely pleased with the demonstration of this theory,
while the attorney-general, who felt the shoe pinch, was
vainly striving to silence an interloper so dangerous.
However, the contriver of this detection was so much
elated by the encouragement he met with, that he could
not help interfering again on one or two occasions, which
brought the wit of Jeffreys upon him, seasoned with that
admirable knowledge of the world and of human nature,
for which the judge has never had sufficient credit with
posterity. Probably Mr. Bradbury had been diving into
all the old rat-eaten records for days and nights before
the trial; "for," cried he, "I dare affirm that there are
none of the rolls of that year so till after Easter Term ;"
and then he was stopped with " Lord, sir, you must be
cackling too; we told you your objection was very in
genious, but that must not make you troublesome ; you
cannot lay an egg .but you must be cackling over it."
Nor did the chief of the court use his brother judges
with much greater respect, if he thought they deserved a
lesson. We shall give an instance of this kind here in
the treatment of Mr. Baron Gregory,' who was subpoenaed
as a witness upon this occasion. When the learned baron

' William Gregory was chosen speaker of the house of Commons in
1669, by the recommendation of Lord William Russell, the King abso
lutely refusing to confirm the nomination of Mr. Edward Seymour. In
1679, he was made a baron of the Exchequer, but made way for Jenner,
the recorder of London, early in the reign of James II. Being a man of
integrity, he was immediately placed judge of the King's Bench at the
Revolution, and died in 1696.

142 LIFE OF JEFFREYS.

came into court, the counsel were pleased to behave very
civilly to him, and proposed that he should be examined
forthwith; whereupon Sir William, whose delicacy ex
ceeded his foresight, declared himself very unwilling to
interrupt the course of the evidence. "Nay, we will
take you at your word," said the chief, whose notions of
such scruples were very contracted; "but if it be long,
pray remember we would have eased you, but you com
plimented yourself out of it ; now you are likely to abide
by it a while, I assure you, brother." The baron waited
some considerable time, and his evidence at length was
not wanted ; upon which he retired, with another friendly
hint from the bench : " Well, brother, we cannot help
your staying now; but remember you had an offer made
you at first, and you are punished for refusing it." Here
was a sure and sound principle in human lif(3 recognised
by the chief justice, and false delicacy justly lashed.
Yet, whatever respect he might have shown to the com
mon law, he had no prejudice in favour of settled forms ;
and, indeed, it is an observation common to those times,
that when a judge desired a precedent, he would have it.
Jeffreys, the last of these worthies, was heard to say, that
if there were no precedent for what he did, he did not
see why he had not as good a right to make one as any
of his predecessors. And, so little respect did he pay to
the great oracle, Sir Edward Coke, that he used to stop
the counsel who were wont to quote him, and gruffly tell
them, that if Lord Coke had really said what they were
urging, his opinion was not law.
Had he, however, always persisted in establishing pre
cedents as honourable as his conduct to the mayor and
corporation of Bristol, his name had been immortalized

LIFE OF JEFFREYS.

143

for philanthropy. A very roguish -practice had obtained
in that money-getting city. The mayor, aldermen, and
justices, had been in the habit of selling their transported
criminals for slaves into the American plantations ; and
finding the barter very lucrative, they only regretted that
crime was not more on the increase within their good ter
ritory. So they hit upon this expedient. When any
little pilferers got into a scrape, all the horrors of hanging
were held out to them ; and through the officers, who were
creatures of the corporation, they were induced to pray
for transportation ; and then each alderman had his turn
to sell one, about which, by the way, they sometimes quar
relled. Jeffreys knew how to protect the rights of men
as well as any ; and having received a hint of this custom,
which had passed unnoticed for years, he instituted an
inquiry, whence it appeared that the mayor was equally
criminal with the rest of his brethren. He gave out pub
licly to the citizens, that he had "brought a broom to
sweep them.". This was a crisis which exactly suited a
man of our judge's temperament. There was no state
policy to interfere with him, and even-handed Justice was
therefore to be exalted in all her magnificence. Slowly,
in all his scarlet and fur robes, did the chief magistrate
descend from the bench of justice, by order of Jeffreys,
and having reached the common bar, he stood there like
a criminal to answer for his misdeeds. At first, indeed,
he hesitated, and slackened his pace, but he was quickly
overawed by the resolute chief, who, stamping, called for
his guards, for he was "general by commission." And
surely justice might have overtaken him and his friends,
had not the Revolution introduced a general amnesty, by
which the informations against these persons were can-

144 LIFE OF JEFFREYS.

celled. They had been compelled, however, to give large
security that they would answer the charges, and doubt
less thought themselves amply fortunate to come off so
easily, with all their unrighteous gains secure in their
pockets. The mayor. Sir Robert Cann, was so much
terrified, that he employed some friends in London to
appease the great man, who at length yielded, saying,
" Go thy way, sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto
thee." Before we speak of the great western tragedy, the con
duct of this hot-headed judge to Richard Baxter, the cele
brated nonconformist, who refused the see of Lichfield
and Coventry at the Restoration, shall be just adverted
to. His real offence was expounding some passages of
the New Testament in his paraphrase rather too strongly
against the Roman religion, for which a prosecution was
instituted against him as a seditious libeller of the Church
of England bishops. The passages selected for the charge
were picked out by Sir Robert L'Estrange and his com
panions. Baxter asked for time. — Jeffreys. " I will not
give him a minute's more time to save his life. Yonder
stands Oates in the pillory, and says he suffers for the
truth; and so says Baxter; but if Baxter did but stand
on the other side of the pillory with him, I would say,
two of the greatest rogues and rascals in the kingdom
stood there." On the 30th May, 1684, he came to trial.
Wallop, Williams, Rotheram,' Atwood, and Phipps,^ were
his counsel. The clerk was reading the title of a cause.

' Afterwards a baron of the Exchequer. Evelyn mentions him as a
trustee for Boyle's Lectures.
° Afterwards Sir Constantine, and Chancellor of Ireland.

LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 145

— "You blockhead you," cries the judge, "the next cause
is between Richard Baxter and the King." Wallop said,
that those who had drawn the information were the li
bellers, in attributing the defendant's words to the Eng
lish bishops, which he evidently meant for the Roman
hierarchy. "Mr. Wallop," qtioth my lord, "I observe
you are in all these dirty causes; and were it not for you
gentlemen of the long robe, who should have more wit
and honesty than to support and hold up these factious
knaves by the chin, we should not be at the pass we are
at." — Wallop. "My lord, I humbly conceive that the
passages accused are natural deductions from the text."
Jeffreys. "You humbly conceive, and I humbly con
ceive! swear him! swear him!" Wallop went on again.
Jeffreys. " Sometimes you humbly conceive, and some
times you are very positive : you talk of your skill in
church history, and of your understanding Latin and Eng
lish ; I think I understand something of them as well as
you ; but in short must tell you, that if you do not un
derstand your duty better, I shall teach it you." And
this silenced Wallop, for he sat down. Then Rotheram
began; and Baxter added, that he had incurred the cen
sure of many dissenters on account of his moderation.
"Baxter for bishops !" saith Jeffreys ; "that's a merry
conceit indeed ! turn to it, turn to it." On which Rothe
ram pointed out a place where Baxter had declared that
great respect was due to those who were called to be
bishops. But he was interrupted with, " Ay ! this your
presbyterian cant ! truly called to be bishops ! that is him
self and such rascals called to be bishops of Kiddermins
ter, according to the saying of a late author, 'and every
parish shall maintain a tithe pig metropolitan.' " Baxter
13

146 LIFE OF JEFFREYS.

was beginning again, but — "Richard! Richard!" ejacu
lated the judge, " dost thou think we'll hear thee poison
the court ? Richard, thou art an old fellow, an old knave ;
thou hast written books enough to load a cart. Hadst
thou been whipt out of thy writing trade forty years ago,
it had been happy;" and with many other such observa
tions he closed his harangue, which had the effect of
putting down Rotheram. But it was now Mr. Atwood's
turn : and he was going to read some of the text. — " You
shan't draw me into a conventicle with your annotations,
nor your snivelling parson neither," exclaimed Sir George.
However, Jeffreys met with his match, for the counsel
would go on ; and so the one inveighed, and the other
urged his client's defence, till he had made an end. And
then the chief justice finished with — "Well, you have
had your say." Williams and Phipps were quite con
founded, and so were silent ; and Baxter soon had his
quietus also: on which Jeffreys turned to the jury: —
" 'Tis notoriously known," said he^ " that there has been
a design to ruin the king and nation : the old game has
been renewed, and this has been the main incendiary: he
is as modest now as can be ; but time was, when no man
was so ready at, 'Bind your Kings in chains, and your
nobles in fetters of iron;' and, 'To your tents, 0 Israel!'
Gentlemen, for God's sake, don't let us be gulled twice
in an age." Of course the jury found him guilty, and
he was fined .£500, and bound to his good behaviour for
seven years. But through the mediation of Lord Powis,
a Roman Catholic nobleman, he had great kindness shown
him: his fine was remitted, and he soon afterwards was
left at liberty to preach, which he did to a separate con
gregation unto the day of his death, in December, 1691.

LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 147
Here, however, is an opportunity of telling something
much to the credit of Jeffreys, and the more so, because
a dissenter is our theme.
Philip Henry, a man of unblemished character, a non
conformist, had refused to pay a fine which some Shrop
shire justices had imposed upon him for attending a con
venticle ; upon which his goods were distrained,' and carts
were even pressed upon the road for the purpose of car
rying them away. This minister was the only noncon
formist in Flintshire, which was Jeffreys' county ; but he
always remained unmolested, although this great foe to
dissenters was chief justice of Chester, and came that
circuit. And upon the occasion we have above mentioned,
Sir George withheld his approbation of the measure, and
even inquired jocularly, by what new law the gentry
pressed carts to remove goods distrained for the offence
of going to meeting. He spoke with respect of Mr.
Henry, declared that he knew him and his character well,
and that the preacher was his mother's great friend.
Mrs. Jeffreys was a very pious, good woman; and, as her
son openly acknowledged, had sometimes requested Henry
to examine him when a school-boy, who, moreover, was
in the habit of commending his proficiency. There is
something of filial regard and a respect for old acquain
tance in this.
There is a stronger instance still of the judge's forbear
ance toward the same man. Mr. Henry was in the ha
bit of attending a meeting for prayer every Monday
morning; and this assembly having created some notice,
was mentioned very innocently to some person in London
¦ The conviction was certified from Shropshire into Flintshire.

148 LIFE OF JEFFREYS.

by means of a letter. This communication fell into the
hands of a busy-body, or malignant of some kind, who
laid an information against the writer and receiver of the
letter, which greatly pleased Jeffreys, who imagined that
it might be a branch of the presbyterian plot. He, ac
cordingly, "rallied the parties very severely;" and then
it came out that the project had its rise with Mr. Henry,
which occasioned the most serious fears for his safety.
But the whole matter was suddenly dropped, and no in
quiry made, which astonished the vulgar ; whereas it only
proves the consistency of Jeffreys when he knew that a
man of high character was in the right, and remembered
him in happy youthful days, of which the impressions are
so kind and so lasting.
When Jeffreys had left Mold (the assize town,) after
the distraining we have talked of, the enemies of Mr.
Henry began again, and presented him for keeping con
venticles ; but all the parchments against this favoured
minister had been cast into the Dead Sea with as good
success, for the chief justice frowned upon them, and they
were never more heard of. It is proper that we should
give Mr. Henry's opinion of this mercy. His son, Mat
thew, who wrote his life, says, that he " acknowledged the
hand of God, who turneth the hearts of the children of
men, as the rivulets of water."

LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 149

CHAPTER VI;
The Western Assizes — Duke of Monmouth's invasion— Special com
mission, and Jeffreys at the head of it— Countess of Pomfret — The
Bloody Assizes, so called— The number executed — Trial and execu
tion of Lady Alicia Lisle — Henry Pollexfen, afterward lord chief jus
tice — Conduct of Jeffreys — Cruel promise of James II. — Salisbury —
Church service at Dorchester — Intemperate speeches of the judge —
Many transported or sold as slaves— Weakness ofthe Monarch — Case
of Battiscomb — Sentence for the whipping of Tutchin — Trials at Exe
ter — State of the West during this assize — Cruelties at Taunton — Lord
Stawell's indignation — Warrant to the mayor of Bath — Boasts of Judge
Jeffreys — Further executions — Bishop Ken— The judge's charge to the
¦grand jury at Bristol — Anecdote — Case of the brothers "Spekes" —
Tory Tom's shrewdness — Dr. Oliver — Edmund Prideaux — Enormous
bribe paid to save his life — Reception of Jeffreys at court — Anecdotes
of Colonel Kirk — The Dissenters-^Observations on the character of
James II. and Judge Jeffreys — Execution ofthe Duke of Monmouth —
Mrs. Gaunt burnt — The Lords Grey, Stamford, and Brandon Gerrard
are pardoned— Bigotry of the King — Lord Jeffreys is appointed lord
chancellor — Trial of Hampden before Sir Edward Herbert — Danger-
field killed in a private quarrel— Satire on Jeffreys.
Every on« is familiarized with the history of Mon
mouth's invasion in the early part of the second James's
reign, with his fallen fortunes, his luckless capture, and
his much lamented fate. To punish his adherents, a spe
cial commission Was issued by the crown, at the head of
which was placed Lord Jeffreys, and, in addition to his
rank as prime judge, he had, by a second commission,
the authority of general.
The conduct, moreover, of this powerful minister in the
execution of his dangerous trust, is, as it were, natural
ized in our minds, and, perhaps, it cannot be very much
13*

150 LIFE OF JEFFREYS.

palliated ; although we do not profess to be governed by
the raving invectives of historians, or the teeming abuse
of copying scribes. For the foregoing reason, therefore,
the reader shall be but scantily troubled with stories
which he can trace the mention of from his childhood,
and, consequently, the severity of executions, the dying
speeches and confessions, the clamours of distressed re
latives, and, above all, the lugubrious dirges of contem
porary writers, will be rarely introduced.
We have no concern with the fury of the famous little
ale-house woman in the west, whose rage kindled instant
ly at the name of Jeffreys; a passion, be it said, en pas
sant, which she caught from a mother, who was an eye
witness of that dreadful personage; nor with that tena
cious feeling of the rabble which urged them to insult the
Countess of Pomfret, granddaughter to their hated judge,
when passing on the western road.'
Possibly, Sir Bartholomew Shower's mode of treating
the subject might be, after all, the best: it is excellent
for its brevity. "In Trinity term Monmouth's rebellion
in the west prevented much business ; in the vacation fol
lowing, by reason of that rebellion, there was no assize
held for the western circuit ; but afterwards five judges
went as commissioners of oyer and terminer and jail-
delivery, and 351 ofthe rebels were executed," &c.
Something, however, for the sake of justice or huma
nity, must be said concerning these three hundred and
fifty-one^ persons ; and something for the judge's sake.

' We might add, nor with poets ; especially when they write thus :
" This demy-fiend, this hurricane of man.
Was sent to butcher all i' th' west he can."
^ Some books speak of 251, but the number is differently stated from
330 to 350.

LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 151

whether he were the avenger of sedition, or the brutal
navigator in a sea of blood.
In the autumn of 1685, Jeffreys went forth, guarded
by a party of Colonel Kirk's soldiers, taking with him, as
his assistants, the lord chief baron,' and three puisne
judges f although it may be said, that these last were
mere ciphers, for all the fierce deeds are imputed to the
chief, and all the odium rests singly upon him. He acted
up to his commission, gave daily the word and orders for
going the rounds, and ordered what party of troops he
pleased to attend him.
Winchester was the first place where the ministers of
justice halted; for here was the Lady Alicia Lisle await
ing her trial, — a very obnoxious lady, for her husband
had been no other than the great John L'lsle,^ one of
' William Montague, Esq. He was one of the judges whom James
turned out afterwards for resisting his attempted power of dispensation.
He lived in retirement to a great age; and from his known uprightness
of character, il is to be presumed that he had little share in these scenes
of blood.
' One of whom was Sir Robert Wright, a baron of the Exchequer, and
afterwards chief justice of the King's Bench at the trial of the seven bi
shops. He was one of the true butcher-birds, and was the man who
promised to hang the poor soldier for deserting his colours upon Houns-
low-heath, if he -were promoted, which was done by moving Sir Edwai d
Herbert, and the promise was performed. Judge Jenner was another.
' He was son of Sir William Lisle, Knt., of Wootton, Isle of Wight;
went to Magdalen Hall, and thence to the Temple, and soon distinguished
himself at the bar. He was returned for Winchester in 1640, and be
came master of the hospital of St. Cross near that city, which he gave
up to Mr. Solicitor Cook in 1649. Jeffreys told his wife pretty clearly
how well his presence at the condemnation of King Charles was remem
bered. He was one of the council of state, some time president of the
high court of justice, arid was very instrumental in making Oliver the
lord protector. He was excepted out of the act of oblivion at the Re
storation, and fled into Switzerland, where, at Lausanne, he had great

152 LIFE OF JEFFREYS.
King Charles the First's judges, a zealous republican,
some time lord president of the high court of justice, and
joint commissioner of the great seal. Her offence was
the harbouring one John Hicks, an alleged traitor, who
was hung afterwards at Glastonbury, and who fled for
shelter after the defeat of the duke. One of the most
singular incidents, however, which accompanied this trial,
was the appearance of Henry Pollexfen,' as counsel for
the crown. This lawyer had been deep in the confidence
of the country party, or according to North, "in all the
desperate designs against the crown," and yet was se
lected for the King's advocate upon this emergency; and,
which is yet more strange, consented to the employment.
Fanatic as he is called, he had contrived hitherto to pre
serve a great character for consistency; and in spite of
his new retainer, was made chief justice of the Common
Pleas on the accession of King William.^
respect paid him, and was treated as chancellor of England, being clothed
with the robe of that high officer. In 1664, some Irishmen, angry at his
kind reception on the continent, thought proper to shoot him with a mus-
quetoon, whereupon he was honourably buried.
' Henry Pollexfen, or Polixphen, was a native of Devonshire, the fa
mily being settled at Kitley, near Plympton. His business at the bar
was very steady and considerable ; and it is observable, that he was in
all the principal cases in the latter part of Charles the Second's, and in
the succeeding reign. In 1688 he -ivas returned for Exeter, and at the
Revolution made attorney-general, whence he was presently removed
to be chief justice of the Common Pleas.' He died in 1692. Roger
North calls him "the veriest butcher of a judge;'' but Burnet vouches
for his honesty. He was the author of some Reports.
° The conciliation of Pollexfen upon this occasion was no indifferent
stroke of policy, since the writers who have undertaken to defend the
conduct of King James, rely upon that lawyer's appointment to be the
crown counsel, as a proof that the monarch wished to adopt a course of
moderation.

LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 153

But to return: Hicks and one Nelthorp, both of Rye-
house Plot notoriety, were found in the house of the pri
soner under these circumstances: they had escaped from
Weston Moor, and entreated an asylum at the hands of
Lady Alice. When the application was made to her,
she entertained it with great civility, being entirely igno
rant of the route which her guests had taken. Hicks
either had the candour or the temerity to acquaint her
with the truth, on which she instantly despatched her
principal servant to a justice of the peace with informa
tion concerning them, but gave especial orders that they
might be suffered to escape. At this crisis a party en
tered, and made the fatal discovery. Jeffreys, bitter foe
as he ever showed himself to the dissenters, was trans
ported with rage beyond himself at this trial; for, in ad
dition to a prisoner who had been harbouring dissenters,
he had a very reluctant presbyterian witness to deal with.
It would seem, in fact, that this judge had worked him
self up to a lunatic pitch of frenzy against nonconform
ists, and that he could scarcely be said to command his
senses when one of such a persuasion was brought before
him. And yet he displayed his usual knowledge of men's
characters by the use of many religious admonitions, and
even imprecations of the divine wrath against liars, which
greatly tended to alarm the presbyterian witness, who
in reahty did shuffle in his testimony for the purpose of
screening the culprit, but was entirely mastered by the
chief justice. The expressions used towards him were
such as he would be most likely to have heard in the
places of worship which his creed taught him to attend,
and the repetition of them in so awful a place as a court
of justice would render them the more formidable to his
mind.

154 LIFE OF JEFFREYS.

One part of Jeffreys's conduct at the trial has been
strongly reprobated. He told the jury that Nelthorp
had privately informed him of the whole conversation
which took place between the prisoner. Hicks, and him
self, when they were together at supper. And although
it might have been a very flat and just contradiction of
the witness, who was then swearing most outrageously
for his mistress, the judge had clearly no right to men
tion it from the bench. " I would not mention any such
thing as any piece of evidence to influence this case," said
he ; but the jury must have been shamefully biassed by
such a statement, because the Lady Lisle was clearly
made out to have been cognizant of the rebellious de
signs of those she sheltered, by evidence of that conver
sation. The Lady Lisle said, that had she been tried in Lon
don, several persons of quality would have testified how
strongly she had "condemned the rising of Monmouth ;
that she had shed more tears for King Charles than any
woman; that she apprehended the object of Hicks's visit
to be no more than an anxiety to escape the general war
rant against nonconformists; and that her son was ac
tually in arms against the rebels through her advice.
The good woman, seventy years of age, is said to have
slept during great part of the charge to the jury; and,
beyond doubt, she was well prepared for the scene which
was to follow, and well apprized of her judge's outrageous
prejudice. But the jury betrayed a feeling which did
them some credit. They asked, whether the prisoner
could be found guilty of concealing a person who had not
been convicted of any offence, for Hicks was not as yet
tried; and a very sensible question it was. Jeffreys said,

LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 155
it made no difference, and this opinion of his was one
ground for reversing the judgment after the Revolution.
However, the jury were still dissatisfied; they thought
that there had been no proof of Lady Lisle's knowledge
that Hicks had been in the army. Nothing more palpa
ble, according to the judge's opinion; and at length the
death-sealing verdict was obtained.'
"Ifl had been among you, and she had been my own
mother, I should have found her guilty," said the satiated
Jeffreys, who now had his victim bound to the horns of
the altar; and then he passed judgment on her, in com
mon with the other criminals who had been capitally con
victed at the assizes. Moreover, the sheriff was ordered
to prepare for her execution on that afternoon ; but Jef
freys threw out this hint, "We that are the judges shall
stay in town an hour or two. You," addressing himself
to the prisoner, "shall have pen, ink, and paper brought
you ; and if, in the mean time, you employ that pen, ink,
and paper, and this hour or two well (you understand
what I mean,) it may be you may hear further from us,
in a deferring the execution." This intimation might
have been applied to a discovery of more state-prisoners,
or it is possible that the great man looked keenly for a
bribe. For, although writers may have been incorrect
in attributing venality to our chief justice upon all occa
sions, it must be confessed that he began a system of
corruption on this circuit, to say the least ; and being
' Oldmixon, in his History of the House of Stuart, tells us that the jury
brought her in twice "Not guilty;" and Rapin says that this happened
three times ; and further, that Jeffreys threatened an attaint of jury :
the report, however, in the State Trials, is widely at variance with this
aggravated statement, and Hume adopts the more moderate story.

156 LIFE OF JEFFREYS.

himself originally without an estate, now spared no means
of acquiring one.
At the intercession of some Winchester clergymen, the
lady was respited for a few days ; and it was revenge,
probably, at his pecuniary disappointment, that induced
the inexorability of Jeffreys against petitions for a final
reprieve. There was, however, one more turnpike-gate,
before the aged prisoner had fully arrived at the close of
her sufferings. Access to the throne was ostensibly
open; and very considerable interest was made at court
to preserve so blameless a life. One thousand pounds
were offered to Lord Feversham, the King's general, if
he should succeed in saving her ; and the noble lord went
to His Majesty, and begged her life, but heard from the
mouth of royalty, that the King had promised Jeffreys
not to pardon her.
Although this latter story comes from Burnet, who, in
spite of his vivid phraseology and occasional want of cor
rectness, has been more and more confirmed of late in
his principal statements, James's want of clemency has
been established by other accounts. When he was peti
tioned for a reprieve by two tory peeresses,' he declared
that he would not respite her for one day; and these
news we have from one who was bent upon excusing the
whole transaction;^ and we are assured again, that Jef
freys had acquainted His Majesty that Lady Lisle's pre
tensions to loyalty were feigned. She was accordingly
beheaded^ as soon as her brief respite expired, declaring.

' Lady St. John and Lady Abergavenny.
a The author of the " Caveat."
" Mr. James Macpherson would have us believe that no appUcation

MFE OF JEFFREYS. 15T
with her dying bneath, that the judge omitted to recount
her defence to the jury, which, indeed, was but too true.
Her guests, Nelthorp and Hicks, soon followed. When
Hicks's brother, then dean of Worcester, was importuned
on behalf of his relation, it is said he coldly answered,
that "he could not speak for a fanatic." Some intem
perate expression might have fallen from that very
learned and religious man,' but a total want of feeling is ^
highly improbable, since his brother acknowledges, in a
letter written just before his death, that the dean was
gone up to London to see what could be done for him.
The only disquisition, (and that as short as need be,)
to which we feel disposed to ask the reader's patient at
tention, is, whether the chief justice did actually incur
was ever made to the King for a pardon; and he attributes the changing
of her sentence* to Jeffreys. This, however, is a prerogative which the
King has always exercised in person, and there are many authorities
which prove that a request for mercy reached the highest quarter, and
that it failed, though the causes of that failure be variously represented.
' George Hicks, dean of Worcester, the author of " Jovian," was a
very learned, but intolerant man. He indirectly reflected upon Tillot
son, whose pupil, Edmund Prideaux, was supposed to have been impli
cated in the rebellion of 1685, as though the divine were answerable for
his pupil's future prejudices ; not reflecting, at the same time, that his
own brother had suffered for the same fault. He could not take the
oaths at the Revolution, and therefore was ejected from his deanery.
William Talbot, kinsman to the Earl of Shrewsbury, was his successor.
Hicks was, moreover, a very considerable author.

*Proin burning to beheading, not hanging, according to Mr. Macpherson. This
gentleman has another incorrect passage in a page or two afier the above statement ;
for he says that the unhappy Mrs. Gaunt wag tried before Sir Edward Herbert, who
was, in fact, a mild, clement man ; whereas chief justice Jones presided at the trial,
and treated the prisoner with a severity as fully deserving of censure as any violences
of the Lord Jeffreys ; and, which was worse, he mixed insidiousness with his beha
viour. But this Jones had established a character for honesty, and thus escaped the
iash ofthe whig writers, and the traditional anger of historians.
14

158 LIFE OF JEFFREYS.

an undivided responsibility respecting the career which
he pursued against the western malefactors ; or, whether
he was the instrument, willing enough it may be, of his
Royal Master. This very serious inquiry shall be post
poned a little, while we proceed in the history, or, as
lawyers would say, go the circuit.
Having despatched their business at Winton, the judges
advanced to Salisbury, where their proceedings were so
light, in comparison of the memorable punishments then
in immediate prospect, that they might almost have de
manded the pair of white gloves, the pure and innocent
emblem of a maiden assize.' Some few of the rebel
whigs were whipped and imprisoned, but there was no
political execution.^
The good people of Salisbury have not to this day for
gotten the remarkable loyalty which was manifested by
their townsmen in this struggle, as they reason from the
sparing of blood within their city; and truly, it is no
small confirmation of their professed love for the then
sceptred monarch, that King James was no way back
ward to trust himself within their walls at the commence
ment of his troubles. The only set-off against their claim
is, that Jeffreys had made Dorchester his head-quarters,
and that he had been gleaning prisoners from the time
he first entered Hampshire, whom he carried along with
him like oxen to a general slaughter-house, as the enemies
of our judge would say.
' A maiden assize is said to be, when there is not a single prisoner for
trial at a circuit town.
" According to one account, there was a single execution at Salisbury;
but by another, no prisoner was there indicted for high treason. Possi
bly the execution might have taken place for some other offence.

LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 159
And now the fearful cavalcade moved on to Dorches
ter, where the first great thunderbolt was destined to
fall on the ill-fated sons of rebellion. These might in
deed say : Omnes eodem cogimur, omnium
Versatur urna, serius, ocyiis
Sors exitura, et nos in aeternum
Exilium impositura cymba.'
which may be thus paraphrased :
"Wd' are all in a trap at the mercy of the same man;
for each of us he shakes his raffle; and sooner or later
will the lot leap forth, the signal of our journey on the
sledge to an eternal exile."
It is customary for the judges to attend divine service
before they proceed to the business of an assize town,
and Jeffreys was not the man to neglect a ceremonial so
customary, as well as so imposing ; for he would, if possi
ble, do all things with due form.
It was on Friday, the 4th of September, that he pro
ceeded to St. Mary Dorchester, having opened his com
mission on the preceding day. Here the clergyman
spoke of mercy; but it was observed that the Lord Jef
freys laughed both during prayers and sermon;^ a pretty

' Thus all must tread the path of fate ;
Thus ever shakes the mortal urn.
Whose lot embarks us, soon or late,
On Charon's boat, ah I never to return. Francis.
' One is irresistibly reminded of the fine pictures which the " Great
Unknown " has given us of the famous Claverhouse and General Dalzell,
just before the battle of Bothwell Brig. Henry Morton had gone out to
propose terms on behalf of the covenanters to the gentle Duke of Mon
mouth; Colonel Claverhouse (afterwards Viscount Dundee,) and General

160 LIFE OF JEFFREYS,
plain sign that he was (according to the singular conceit
of an old writer,) about to "breathe death like a destroy
ing angel, and to sanguine his very ermins in blood."
The minister finished, and the chief went forth, inocu
lated (as we shall prove hereafter) with the royal unc
tion, and attended by his judicial brethren. The court
was hung with red cloth, " a colour suitable to such a
succeeding bloody tragedy," as our writer says; and in
due time their lordships entered with the fiower of the
west, the gentry of Dorset, Somerset, and Devon." Then
came the charge to the grand jury, a vehement and ear-
piercing harangue, which astonished and alarmed all who
heard it, cognizant as they must have been of the man's
character who was addressing them. Not only after
"principals" was their most strict inquiry to be bent,
but after "aiders and abettors." And who might not
have been an "aider or abettor?" for the jury had shel
tered many of their relations, which made them acces
saries to high treason after the fact. The court then
adjourned until eight the next morning.
Dalzell (a guest, by the way, of James Duke of York,) stood beside the
Duke. The Duke received the terms with courtesy. " Here Morton
observed Dalzell shake his head indignantly, and whisper something into
Claverhouse's ear, who smiled in return, and elevated his eye-brows, but
in a degree so slight as scarce to be perceptible." The Duke dismisses
the plenipotentiary with these words: "I earnestly entreat," speaking
of the answer, " it may be such as to save the effusion of blood." "At
this moment another smile of deep meaning passed between Dalzell and
Claverhouse. ' Yes, gentlemen,' repeated the Duke, 'I said I trusted
the answer might be such as would save the effusion of blood. I hope
the sentiment neither needs your scorn, nor incurs your displeasure !'
Dalzell frowned, but made no answer. 'It is not for me to judge the
propriety of your Grace's sentiments,' said Claverhouse, his lip just
curled with an ironical smile. The subsequent carnage was immense."
— Tales of My Landlord.

LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 161

The panic-struck jury, moulded, as it were, to the will
of the court by the well-timed threats which had been
held out, soon found bills of indictment against thirty
persons ; and in the course of the assizes they implicated
more than three hundred in the great transaction. But
does the reader imagine that it had ever been the inten
tion of Jeffreys to give all his prisoners the benefit of a
long and patient hearing ? Well did that sagacious lawyer
calculate that he might have sat in judgment until the
spring assizes if he had been vexed with the " say " of all
these unhappy men. Now, therefore, came the ruse de
guerre. He held out the white flag, and proclaimed that,
"if any one of them there indicted would relent from their
conspiracies, and plead guilty to the same, tliey should
find him to be a merciful judge." It is very important
just to mention here that which we shall show rather more
at large presently, that the kind of people who were to
be dealt with were such as by no means inclined to " re
lent from their conspiracies;" they were men of con
spicuous hardihood and resolute daring, even while the
cloud of death was overshadowing them.
But, moreover, that there might be menace as well as
encouragement, the prisoners were informed, at the same
time, that those who put themselves on their trials should,
if found guilty, have -very little time to live; indeed, Jef
freys did not scruple to say, at once, that their confes
sions would save him trouble. And the matter was after
wards managed in this way : two officers took a list of the
accused, and went to them with the sister promises of
pardon or execution ; and as many were induced to accept
the proffered mercy, these" officers were in a condition to
appear as witnesses of their confession, (as the law was
1-1=^

162 LIFE OF JEFFREYS.

then administered,) in the case of their retracting. This
artifice was not forgotten when the judge was lampooned
some years after as a fallen chancellor, to the tune of
"Hey, brave popery!"
The prisoners to plead to his lordship Jid cry,
But still he made answer, and thus did reply:
We'll hang you up first, and then after we'll try,
Sing hey, brave Chancellor I 0 fine Chancellor !
Delicate Chancellor I 0 !
However, the first thirty, not so easily caught by the
sham bleating of the wolf, were minded to venture upon
the defensive, and so they pleaded not guilty. The result
of this boldness is soon told. It was on Saturday that
these prisoners came to the bar, and the same evening
Jeffreys signed a warrant to hang thirteen on the Mon
day following, which was punctually performed. The
rest followed very soon afterwards, save one Saunders,
who had been acquitted for want of evidence. But it is
not to be supposed that all these died without a word of
supplication to save their lives, nor that they were con
victed without an effort to procure a different verdict.
There was a constable of Chardstock who, having some
money in his hands for the use ofthe militia, was deprived
of it by the Duke's friends, and this was his offence. The
evidences against him were a woman of bad fame, and a
catholic, whose house had been searched for arms by
Monmouth's party. The prisoner objected to the testi
mony. "Villain! rebel!" exclaimed the judge, "methinks
I see thee already with a halter about thy neck;" and
he was ordered especially to be hung the first. Very
considerable interest was made to preserve Matthew
Bragg, an attorney, whose crime was walking home with-

LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 163

out his horse, of which the rebels had deprived him, and
thus became an aider and abettor according to the then
prevailing construction. People of the best quality sought
a reprieve, and even a respite of ten days for him ; but
he was put to^ death on the Monday, in company with the
twelve others who have been mentioned. Jeffreys, indeed,
was disposed tb be facetious, for he jestingly declared,
"that if any lawyer or parson came in his way, they
shd^ld not escape him." This might be a jocose saying,
but it was no joke, for the judge kept his word.
The business now proceeded, but the great point which
Jeffreys aimed at was gained. He had intimidated the
culprits, who pleaded guilty by dozens ; but the ire of their
judge was kindled, so that their time-saving plea stood
them in little stead.
Two hundred and ninety-two received judgment to die,
besides the sacred band of thirty ; and of the second batch
seventy-four' were consigned to the hangmen of Dor
chester, Bridport, Lyme, Sherborne, &c. The remainder
were transported, severely whipped, or imprisoned. In
deed, the most extraordinary whippings which Jeffreys
ordered were little thought of at the instant amidst the
more heavy infiictions of justice. Many of the transports
were sold for slaves. The whole county was adorned
with the gibbeted quarters of the factious, which were
distributed up and down as was thought expedient.
Yet the principal terrorist was indulging himself in
luxuries during these alarms, solaced by the company of
his favourites, who were keen in discovering the sources
from whence they might, jackal-like, bring plunder to

' Some accounts say eighty-seven.

164 LIFE OF JEFFREYS.
their lion. The fountain of mercy fell in muddy drops.
There was one John Lawrence, who managed an estate
near Dorchester ; the Duke of Monmouth's party came
and took. three horses from his care, on which he remon
strated with that nobleman, and at last recovered one.
The giving up of the two others was deemed an abetting,
and so he was drawn into the plot. Jeffreys would have
had his master in the scrape ; but that being impractica
ble, this poor fellow, who had the temerity to stand 4iis
trial, was ordered to be hung at Wareham ; and surely so
it would have happened but for one of the judge's cour
tiers, who found that money was to be had, and who got
a reprieve upon the payment of 2001. down, and a security
by bond for 2001. more.
After all, the greatest hardship which befell any man
at these assizes was the sad end of a Major Holmes, who
suffered at Lyme. He had lost one of his sons in the
battle, and an arm besides,' when he was captured, and
brought up to London. King James, as Father Orleans
acquaints us, desired to see him ; and the prisoner boldly
said upon the interview, that it would be more advantage
ous for the King's reputation to grant him his life, than
beneficial to himself to receive it. "No one was more fre
quently in the King's antechamber," till he was sent down
into the west as a kind of king's evidence, (at least Father
Orleans would have it so,) for the purpose of pointing out
the fittest objects for mercy or for punishment, that he
might "doe some service ere he receiv'd his pardon."
' Which he himself is said to have struck off in a kitchen immediately
after the battle. He is called Colonel Holmes in the accounts of the
condemned persons, and is probably the same with Major Holmes, who
was engaged with Argyle in Scotland in the same cause.

LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 165

Other accounts state that Jeffreys caused him to be pri
vately seized ; but certain it is, that he was hanged ; and the
King, according to the biographer just mentioned, called
Jeffreys into judgment for this harsh act, but was soon
satisfied perforce on the ground of necessary justice,
which "the King having made him judg of, knew not
how to contradict."
We have seen that Jeffreys was once captivated by a
woman's generosity; but he had learned a most cruel
disregard of the fair as he advanced in life, of which the
second Lady Jeffreys might, to be sure, have been partly
the occasion, as we shall see by and by. Mr. Battiscomb,
a man of very tolerable estate and engaging manner, was
so ill-fated as to become an inmate of Dorchester jail,
and so ill-advised as to defend the equity of his cause,
which had like to have choked Jeffreys, who furiously
ordered him to a place of execution, there "to be hung
by the neck till he should be dead." All the ladies in
Dorchester were interested in the fate of the young man,
who, by the way, when the judge's fit was over, had offers
of life made him on the condition of his betraying some
friends, which he resolutely repelled; and thus, having
shut out the last hope of mercy, had become doubly an
object of admiration: several girls, one especially, went
to Jeffreys, and asked his life, but he is said to have re
pulsed them quite en hrute.^
There are some lines written upon this unhappy dam-

' Ralph, in his review of James the Second's reign, gives a story
which is too gross to repeat here. It is a most brutal reply of Jeffreys
to this young lady. Page 892 of Ralph.

166 LIFE OF JEFFREYS.

sel, and some of them sufficiently curious.' The prisoner
suffered at Lyme, and his character is thus given us : "All
that knew or saw him, must own Mr. Battiscomb was
very much a gentleman. Not that thin sort of animal
that flutters from tavern to playhouse, and back again.

' A poem on a lady that came to my lord chief justice to beg Mr. Bat-
tiscomb's life, sister to one of the sheriffs in the west, which he denied.
Harder than thine own native rocks.
To let the charming Silvia kneel,
And not one spark of pity feel :
Harder than senseless stones and stocks !
Ye gods ! what showers of pearls she gave !
What precious tears ! enough to save
A bleeding monarch from the grave.
Ey every hapless virgin curst :
Winter blasts not more unkind.
Deaf as the rugged northern wind ;
By some Welsh wolf in murders nurst.
Hast thou eyesl or hast thou none.'
Or are they worse than marble grown.'
Since marbles weep at Silvia's moan.
Rebels stiff, ahd supple slaves.
All the frantic world divide ;
One mnst stoop, and t'other ride ;
Cringing fools and factious knaves :
Tho' falling on the loser's part.
Gently Death arrests my heart,
And has in honey dipt his dart.
Life, farewell ! thou gaudy dream.
Painted over with grief and joys.
Which the next short hour destroys ;
And drowns them all in Lethe's stream.
What blest mortal would not die,
Might he with me embalmed lye.
In precious tears from Silvia's eye !

LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 167

all his life made of wig and cravat, without one dram of
thought in his composition ; but one who had solid worth,
&c. His body made a very handsome and creditable
tenement for his mind; and 't had been pity it shou'd
have liv'd in any other ; " and so on.
Here is another instance of the judge's brutality to
females. Two persons named Howling were among the
condemned at Taunton, who had two sisters, and they
hung upon the state coach imploring mercy at his hands ;
whereupon the incensed magistrate bade his coachman
lash their fingers with his whip. And he moreover re
fused one of these sisters a respite of two days only for
her brothers, though she offered him one hundred pounds
for that little favour.'
The miseries which were inflicted upon the inhabitants
of this county shall be concluded with an account pf a
most horrible sentence of whipping which was pronounced
upon one Tutchin, a young man of Hampshire. This
fellow (who, after all, was but a saucy rogue,^) appeared
to a charge of rebellion under the assumed name of

' Sir John Dalrymple has confounded those Hewlings with one Simon
Hamling, of whom we shall presently speak. — See his Memoirs, p. 78.
° This person was a great promoter of sedition by his writings. He
was tried in the reign of Queen Anne for a libel published in 1703, in
his " Observator," but escaped, through some legal difiiculties which
were started after the verdict. He died in 1707, through some violence
which his scurrility had brought upon him. — See Toulmin's Taunton by
Savage, p. 510, in the note.
Careless, on high, stood unabash'd De Foe,
And Tutchin, flagrant from the scourge, below. Dunciad.
This man had the assurance to visit Jeffreys in the Tower, after his
disgrace.

168 LIFE OF JEFFREYS.

Thomas Pitts,' and was acquitted for want of evidence.
This happened at Taunton ; but as Tutchin was a man
of Dorset, and was to be punished in that county, we
mention him here. Jeffreys soon found out his true
name, and asserted, that "he was never so far out
witted by a young or old rogue in his life." He then tried
to fish out of Mr. Tutchin the names of some of his con
federates, but failed; upon which he grew furious, and
not being able to hang him, issued forth the following
sentence: "Imprisonment for seven years, and once a
year to be whipped through all the market-towns in
Dorsetshire: to be fined. one hundred marks, and find
security for his good behaviour during life.'-' This was
a blow indeed; and the ladies in court immediately burst
into tears; but Jeffreys called out, "Ladies, if you did
but know what a villain this is, as well as I do, you would
say that this sentence is not half bad enough for him."
And the clerk of the arraigns was so much astonished,
that he could not help observing upon the number of
market-towns in Dorset : he said, that " the sentence
reached to whipping, about once a fortnight, and that Mr.
Tutchin was a very young man."^ — "Ay, he is a very
young man, but an old rogue," retorted the invincible
judge; "and all the interest in England shan't reverse
the sentence I have passed on him." Tutchin himself
had that keen regard for his bones, and was so fully sen
sible of the discipline intended him, that he actually pe
titioned the King to be hanged with his fellow-prisoners.
It seems that the court felt the enormity of the chastise
ment proposed ; but all that transpired was, " Mr. Tutchin
' Thomas Pitts, gent., was the author of the " Western Martyrology."

LIFE OP JEFFREYS. 169

must wait with patience." Then the young man tried to
buy a pardon, but in vain ; and then came the small-pox,
a day or two before his first lashes were to have taken
place, and reduced him so low, as to occasion a reversal
of the sentence by Jeffreys himself. Most probably, as
in Rosewell's case, the King had peremptorily com
manded the change.'
The doom of the Dorsetshire men being fixed, the
judges went forward to Exeter. Jeffreys was beset on
all sides by petitions from the inhabitants of the places
through which he passed, that he would compassionate
their relations. But a little incident occurred, which had
like to have driven away the veriest shade of mercy. The
cavalcade had stopped io sleep at the house of some ho
nourable gentleman, when in the midst of a disorder, oc
casioned, it is said, by the servants, some pistols were
fired in the night. The great man took the alarm in
stantly, for he had a suspicion that a design was on foot
against him ; and, at parting, he declared, that " not a
man of all those parishes that were of that vicinitude, if
found guilty, should escape."
However, the severity exercised in Devonshire fell short
of that which had occurred in Dorset, as did the dread
ful punishments which awaited the next county : yet the
same method of economizing time was resorted to, and
with much success. There was one John Foweracres
who had sufficient nerve to stand a trial, but by no means
the fortune of gaining his acquittal ; and the precedent

' We are told also, that a boy of Weymouth, about ten or twelve years
old, was most cruelly whipped for being in possession of some popular
pamphlet. 15

170 LIFE OF JEFFREYS.

of going before a jury was considered so obnoxious, that
the prisoner was ordered for instant execution. This had
the desired effect, for the rest of the culprits immediately
pleaded guilty, which saved "further trouble." Never
theless, thirty-seven were hanged in different parts of the
county, and several transported, whipped, and imprisoned.
The number of accused amounted to two hundred and
forty-three. We cannot forbear to insert here a description, which
was given at that time, of the beautiful western country.
"He" (Jeffreys) "made all the west an Aceldama;
some places quite depopulated, and nothing to be seen in
'em but forsaken walls, unlucky gibbets, and ghostly car
casses. The trees were loaden almost as thick with quar
ters as leaves: the houses and steeples covered as. close
with heads, as at other times frequently in that country
with crows or ravens. Nothing could be liker hell than
all those parts ; nothing so like the devil as he. Caldrons
hizzing, carkases boyling, pitch and tar sparkling and
glowing,' blood and limbs boyling, and tearing, and man
gling, and he the great director of all ; and in a word,
discharging his place who sent him, the best deserving to
be the King's late chief justice there, and chancellor
after, of any man that breath'd since Cain or Judas." If
this be an exaggerated picture, it must be confessed that
there is imagination in it. The prisoners, however, re
ceived great kindness from the city of Exeter. "Most
sorts of provisions, as hot broth, boyled meat, roast meat,
divers sorts of pies, were daily sent into the prison ; the
persons that sent them unknown to them."

' It was Kirk who is said to have ordered the boiling the rebellious
carcasses in pitch.

LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 171

Five hundred unfortunates still lingered in the county
of Somerset, and thither Jeffreys was now come, de
termined upon expedition, and in no wise abated from his
zeal. He began at Taunton, so lately the scene of
boughs, herbs, and flowers, in honour of Monmouth, where
twenty-six virgins had presented the invader with co
lours made by their townsmen ; the captain of the young
women going forth to meet the duke with a naked sword
in one hand, and a Bible in the other. Some of these
were children, ten or twelve years old ; and yet their little
frolic cost their parents dear; for when all was hushed,
and the circuit over, the girls were excepted out of the
act of amnesty for presenting the rebel chief with the
standards. But then the knavery peeped out; for on
payment of certain small douceurs according to ability,
their pardons came out piecemeal, and they were deli
vered from a public trial which was threatened. Some gave
^50, some .£100 ; and the money went, not to Jeffreys,
but to the Queen's maids of honour as a Christmas-box.
They sent an agent into the country to discriminate, as
it should seem, and complained at first of the small sums
which were extorted, for they expected seven thousand
pounds ; but they were compelled to be satisfied, and the
matter dropped.'

' The affair did not pass away without a struggle, for the Duke of
Somerset interfered on the behalf of the court ladies. He wrote to Sir
Francis Ware,* urging him to secure some of the rebellious girls, and,
above all, the school mistress. Another letter from his grace to the
baronet, recommended the giving a power of attorney to some one,
which the maids of honour were to sign ; but Sir Francis represented
that the teacher was a woman of low birth, and that the scholars worked

* Baronet of Hestercombe.

172 LIFE OP JEFFREYS.

On the first night of the chief's arrival at Taunton, he
not only opened the commission, but gave his charge,
which was furious enough ; and Ralph tells us, that he
declared "it would not be his fault if he did not depopu
late the place." A sad omen for the men in Taunton
Castle. But the old game was, notwithstanding, very
available for confessions. This is celebrated in a poem
called "Jeffreys's Elegy:" —
He bid 'um to confess, if ere they hope
To be reprieved from the fatal rope :
This seem'd a favour, but he'd none forgive ;
The favour was, a day or two to live ;
Which those had not that troubled him with tryal,.
His business blood, and would have no denyal.
Two hundred he could sentence in an hour, &c.
One Simon Hamling, a dissenter, had gone to Taunton
to advise his son to remain neuter ; but as the Duke of
Monmouth was at that time in the town, the father was
taken before a justice on suspicion. Now, it seems, that
the magistrates loved a bribe as well as the chief justice ;
and as the rage of the day waxed very hot against secta
ries and conventicle preachers, Hamling, who would not,
or did not know how to attack the justice's weak side,
the banner by her orders, without knowing any offence, upon which the
greater severities were abandoned. Oqe Miss Mary Blake, who worked
the colours, died in Dorchester jail, as some say, of the small-pox,
whilst her sister received a pardon. Another girl surrendered herself
in court, when the judge looked so furiously upon her, telling the jailer,
at the same time, to take her, that she pulled her hood over her face,
and fell to weeping, and not many hours afterwards died through fear.
See Toulmin's History of Taunton, p. 162 ; and the same book, edited
and enlarged by J. B. Savage, where the original letters may be seen.
Taunton, 1822, p. 529.

LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 173

stood no chance of escaping a committal. William Gat-
chett, or Gatchell, a constable, had been compelled to
execute a warrant for bringing provisions to Monmouth's
army, on pain of having his house burnt, &c., and was
accordingly sent to jail as an accomplice. Now these
two men had most excellent defences, but unhappily,
perhaps, had the courage to make use of them ; they there
fore gave in their pleas. Not guilty. Of course the jury
convicted them, and thus secured them the advantage of
being hung first : so they were sent to the gallows the
morning after their trial. The constable was a very de
cided character ; for as he went to execution, he looked
upon the Taunton men very calmly, and said, "A popu
lous town, God bless it !" But Hamling 's case was the
most hard. The evidences against him were profiigate
fellows, who would do any thing for the committing justice ;
and the prisoner proved that fact, but in vain. And what
is still more remarkable, the justice himself was there,
and could not help telling the judge that there certainly
was a mistake concerning that man. And now, unless
we had positively told the history of his execution, the
reader would have looked for an instant acquittal. Jef
freys was made of sterner stuff. — "You have brought
him on ; if he be innocent, his blood be upon you !"' ex
claimed the judge. What a scene does all this bandying
reveal to us ! The magistrates were corrupt, and cared
little or nothing for justice, and Jeffreys despised the ma
gistracy. As far as appearances went, he did not respect

' That was a dry speech of Nero, who, when he was told that the
wrong man had been executed, coolly replied, " Doubtless he deserved
to die as well as the other !" 15*

174 LIFE OF JEFFREYS.

any one on earth who differed from his gigantic opinions.
There was a tory nobleman in those parts, Lord Stawell,
who was so much displeased with the severity which had
been exercised, that he refused to see the chief justice.
The peer resided at Cotheleston at that time; and very
soon afterwards came forth an order that one Colonel
Bovet, of Taunton, should be executed close by my Lord
Stawell's residence. Indeed, there was but little scruple
or delicacy as to the place of death ; for it was not by
any means impossible in those days to find a man hang
ing by a rope out of a chamber window ; and in fact, such
an event is said to have happened at Taunton, and the
hanging to have been accomplished by an executioner of
Exeter. It is not practicable to be correct to a man ; but we
have authority for saying, that one hundred and forty-five
were adjudged to die at the assizes held for Taunton, and
that one hundred and forty-three of these actually suf
fered. The following warrant was sent by the sheriff of
Somerset to the mayor of Bath :
"Edward Hobbes, esq. sherreiffe of y^ countle afore
said, to the con'''^' and other his Ma*'''' officers of the cittie
and burrough of Bath, greeting: Whereas I have rec*
a warr' under the hand and scale of the right hon'"' the
Lord Jeffreys for the executing of several rebells within
yo"^ said cittie. These are therefore to will and require
yo^ immediately on sight hereof to erect a gallows in the
most'publike place of yo'' said cittie to hang the said tray-
to" on, and that yo^ provide halters to hang them with,
a sufficient number of faggots to burne the howells of
fewer traytors, and a furnace or cauldron to boyle their
heads and quarters, and salt to boyle therewith, halfe a

LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 175

bushell to each trayf, and tarr to tarr y™ with, and a
sufficient number of speares and poles to fix and place
their heads and quarters : and that yo™ warne the owners
of fewer oxen to be ready with a dray and wayne, and
the said fewer oxen at the time hereafter mentioned for
execusion ; and yo™ yo' selves, togeather with a guard of
fortie able men att the least, to be present on Wednesday
morning next by eight of the clock, to be aiding and
assisting to me, or my deputie, to see the said rebells
executed. Given under my seal of office this 16th day of
November, A° 1° Jacobi Secundi, 1685.
"Edward Hobbes, Vic.
" Yo™ are also to provide an axe and a cleaver for the
quartering the said rebells."
If mercy had been suffered to enjoy even the triumph
of a moment, Jeffreys' great boast had been idle ; for he
vauntingly puffed forth, on his return, that "he had
hanged more men than all the judges of England since
William the Conqueror." Colonel Kirk was left far be
hind by this seasonable brag. Jeffreys once asked a ma
jor how many the soldiers had killed; the officer said one
thousand. " I believe I have condemned as many as that
myself," returned the peer.
Two hundred and eighty-four were ordered for trans
portation at this town, and forty-three were recommended
for a pardon. There was another little list of fifteen
very lucky beings who were intended for execution, but
were accidentally omitted in the warrant. The whippings
went on as usual. "I will pay my excise to King Mon
mouth," said one Mrs. Brown, an unfortunate gossip of
Lyme, to an officer of excise, but quite jestingly. This

176 LIFE OF JEFFREYS.

tattling occasioned her some smart floggings through the
market-towns of her county. There was a Captain
Madders, who bore the character of being a good Christian
and an honest man, and was, moreover, positively instru
mental in giving due and loyal notice of the duke's
rising. All this was told Jeffreys ; but whether the captain
had refused to pouch the chief, as we say at Eton,
or otherwise howsoever, as the special pleaders say, is
not quite capable of solution. "Oh! then," cries my
lord, when he had heard the recommendation, " I'll hold
a wager with you he is a presbyterian : I can smell them
forty miles." He was hung. There is a great triumphing
with some writers about the death of John Hucker.' Sir
John Dalrymple says that this execution escaped censure.
Hucker,^ who gave the alarm to Feversham's army, plead
ed his treachery in mitigation. " He deserves a double
death," said the impartial judge; "one for rebelling
against his sovereign, and the other for betraying his
friends." However, Hucker had no mind to die under
so gross an imputation ; for in a letter which he wrote a
few hours before his execution, he thus complains : — I
also lye under a reproach of being unfaithful to an inte
rest that I owned, which I utterly deny and disown." —
Men sometimes go to the gallows under false colours, if
they think that their reputation will be saved by the
disguise. The carts with prisoners were now put in motion again.

' Dalrymple calls him Robert, which was the name of his son, who
had no concern in the matter.
^ It has been asserted that he did this because the duke refused to
make him governor of Taunton.

LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 177

for there was to be another visitation for Somerset at
Wells ; and to be short, after the accustomed manoeuvring
to gain confessions, and menaces to enforce verdicts, one
hundred capital convicts were obtained, of whom ninety-
seven died by the executioner. There was a general
settlement of accounts here ; three hundred and eighty-
five were delivered over to different people for transporta
tion, a few were pardoned, and about five escaped, who
were fully destined for the other world, but left out of
the warrant. Upwards of one hundred more were bound,
each for the other, to appear at the next assizes, in the
penalty of 1001. And then the chief justice proposed to
jog towards home, taking Bristol in his way.
We must stop for an instant to speak of the excellent
Bishop Ken, of Bath and Wells. This prelate had checked
the severities of Feversham, (who was anticipating Jef
freys very ably,) by hinting that persons were entitled
to a trial by jury after the first heat of victory had sub
sided. And, afterwards, he spared neither expense nor
pains in soothing the truly wretched state of the accumu
lating prisoners in Wells, who were gnawed by despair,
fear, and disappointment.
This divine was a remarkable man in other respects:
he was one of the seven bishops who came under the lash
of the privy-council for opposing the King's declaration,
and yet lost his see at the Revolution, because he could
not subscribe the new tests.
We left Jeffreys on his road to Bristol, where it was
really intended to make some examples, for that city had
shown some readiness to open the gates to Monmouth,
though such lengths were not gone. It will be recollected,
that a severe usage of the mayor and aldermen has been

178 LIFE OF JEFFREYS.

already told, and a magnificent harangue against slavery
with all the consequences detailed to the reader in a
former page. It is to be feared, that the merit of
arresting the evils of kidnapping must be considerably
lessened, when we find that the whole affair was a politi
cal attack upon the place for its inclination to rebellion,
and not a pure emanation of justice : not but that a more
heavy penalty would have been inflicted than the mere
bullying and fining of the corporation, had it been practi
cable ; but as Ralph says, " Jeffreys, to his great morti
fication, found no traitors to fatten upon here (Bristol.")
So that he was obliged to content himself with pulling
their strongholds to pieces, — the pride and ostentation
of their magistracy, which he certainly found means to
mortify in a very painful degree ; and as he never could
endure that any one should be greater than himself, he
was delighted beyond measure at the opportunity. He
began by putting himself at the head of the commission
before the mayor, which had not been usual, and this
must have displeased the Bristol men not a little ; but
they were too much terrified by the fame of his exploits
to show their teeth. They received him, therefore, with
great state and splendour, and this was meant to soften
him ; but, "Lord!" said he, "we have been used to these
things;" and very coolly proceeded to business. His
charge is so precious a morceau, that it cannot be entire
ly omitted, because it so plainly bespeaks the man ; nor
can we give it quite at its length, for fear of wearying
those who read. Here are some extracts :
" Gentlemen, I am, by the mercy of God, come to this
great and populous city; a city that boasts both of its
riches and trade, and may justly indeed claim the next

LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 179

place to the great and populous metropolis. Gentlemen,
I find here are a great many auditors who are very in
tent, as if they expected some formal or prepared speech ;
but assure yourselves, we come not to make neither set
speeches nor formal declamations, nor to follow a couple
of puffing trumpeters; for. Lord! we have seen these
things twenty times before : no, we colne to do the King's
business." — "But I find a special commission is an unu
sual thing here, and relishes very ill ; nay, the very wo
men storm at it, for fear we should take the upper hand
of them too : for, by the by, gentlemen, I hear it is much
in fashion in this city for the women to govern and bear
sway." Then he told them that he should give them no
trouble about points or matters of law, but only mind
them of events which had happened, "for I have the
calendar of this city in my pocket," said he; and he then
complained of the stone, and the unevenness of their
roads, which was a bad omen for them. After this came
a long sermon about the blessed martyr. King Charles,
and rebellion the sin of witchcraft, a panegyric on King
James, and an ample acknowledgment of his absolute
power as God's vicegerent on earth: and then he opened
on the Duke of Monmouth, by way of antithesis : — " On
the other hand, up starts a puppet prince who seduces
the mobile into rebellion, into which they are easily be
witched ; for, I say, rebellion is like the sin of witchcraft.
This man, who had as little title to the crown as *the least
of you (for I hope you are all legitimate,) being overtaken
by justice, and by the goodness of his prince brought to
the scaffold, he has the confidence (good God ! that men
should be so impudent !) to say, that God Almighty did
know with what joyfulness te did die (a traitor!)" —

180 LIFE OF JEFFREYS.

" Great God of heaven and earth ! what reason have men
to rebel? But as I told you, rebellion is like the sin of
witchcraft : fear God and honour the King is rejected by
people, for no other reason, as I can find, but that it is
written in St. Peter. Gentlemen, I must tell you, I am
afraid that this city hath too many of these people in it;
and it is your duty to search them out." — [Here the
grand jury were in as many words directed to the mayor
and aldermen.] — " For this city added much to that ship's
loading; there was your Tylys, your Roes, and your
Wades, men started up like mushrooms, scoundrel fel
lows, mere sons of dunghills : these men must forsooth
set up for liberty and property ! A fellow that carries
the sword before Mr; Mayor must be very careful of his
property, and turn politician, as if he had as much pro
perty as the person before whom he bears the sword,
though perchance not worth a groat. Gentlemen, I must
tell you, you have still here the Tylys, the Roes, and the
Wades : I have brought a brush in my pocket, and I shall
be sure to rub the dirt wherever it is, or on whomsoever
it sticks. Gentlemen, I shall not stand complimenting
with you: I shall talk with some of you before you and I
part, I tell you ; I tell you, I have brought a besom, and
I will sweep every man's door, whether great or small.
Must I mention particulars ? I hope you will save me
that trouble." — "I do believe it would have went very
hard with you if the enemy had entered the city, not
withstanding the endeavours which were used to accom
plish it. Certainly they had, and must have great en
couragement from a party within, or else why should
their design be on this city ? Nay, when the enemy was
within a mile of you, that a ship should be set on fire in

LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 181

the midst of you, as a signal to the rebels, and to amuse
those within ! when, if God Almighty had not been more
gracious unto you than you was to yourselves, (so that
wind and tide was for you,) for what I know, the greatest
part of this city had perished; and yet you are willing to
believe it was an accident. Certainly here is a great
many of those men whom they call trimmers : a whig is
but a mere fool to these; for a whig is some sort of a
subject in comparison of these; for a trimmer is but a
cowardly and base-spirited whig ; for the whig is but the
journeyman-prentice that is hired, and set over the re
bellion, whilst the trimmer is afraid to appear in the
cause." — "Gentlemen, I tell you, I have the calendar of
this city here in my hand. I have heard of those that
have searched into the very sink of a conventicle, to find
out some sneaking rascal to hide their money by night.
Come, come, gentlemen, to be plain with you, I find the
dirt of the ditch is in your nostrils." — [Now he opens
upon the chief offence, alluded to by his having the ca
lendar in his pocket, — the selling convicted criminals for
slaves.] — "Good God! where am I — in Bristol? This
city, it seems, claims the privilege of hanging and draw
ing amongst themselves ! I find you have more need of
a commission once a month at least. The very magis
trates which should be the ministers of justice, fall out
one with another to that degree, they will scarce dine
with each other; whilst it is the business of some cunning
men that lie behind the curtain, to raise divisions amongst
them, and set them together by the ears, and knock their
loggerheads together : yet I find they can agree for their
interest, or if there be but a kid in the case ; for I hear
the trade of kidnapping is much in request in this city :
16

182 LIFE OF JEFFREYS.

they can discharge a felon or a traitor, provided they
will go to Mr. Alderman's plantation at the West Indies.
Come, come, I find you stink for want of rubbing. Gen
tlemen, what need I mind you of these things? I hope
you will search into them, and inform me. It seems the
dissenters and fanatics fare well amongst you, by reason
of the favour of the magistrates: for example, if a dis
senter, who is a notorious and obstinate offender, comes
before them to be fined, one alderman or other stands
up, and says. He is a good man (though three parts a
rebel !) Well, then, for the sake of Mr. Alderman, he
shall be fined but five shillings. Then comes another,
and up stands another good man alderman, and says, I
know him to be an honest man (though rather worse than
the former.) Well, for Mr. Alderman's sake, he shall
be fined but half-a-crown ; so, manus manum fricat;^
you play the knave for me now, and I will play the knave
for you by and by. I am ashamed of these things: and
I must not forget to tell you, that I hear of some diffe
rences among the clergy, — those that ought to preach
peace and unity to others : gentlemen, these things must
be looked into."
The scope of this tirade, peculiar and without prece
dent, was to alarm the jury, to extort mutual crimina
tions and confessions, and thus build up a calendar of
malefactors. The mayor and aldermen of Bristol would
have filled Jeffreys's purse most marvellously, if their
necks could have been drawn within the hempen circle ;
but the experiment was idle, and all that remained was
to make a due inquisition into the slave trade. Much of

' They tickle each other's palms.

LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 188
the result of this charge has been related : to be very
brief, therefore, the corporation were' presented as kid
nappers ; and as they descended from the bench to the
¦ bar, Jeffreys bawled out, " See how the kidnapping rogues
look!" This was not, however, the first time that our judge
had mortified a sleek citizen. Sir James Smith, lord
mayor of London in 1685, bitterly complained to Sir
John Reresby of the superciliousness which he met with
from the great man: he declared, that he was but the
mere ombre of a lord mayor, the authority being entirely
usurped by another chief magistrate ; and he added, in a
tone of pity, that haughtiness would be the ruin of my
Lord Jeffreys. Good easy man ! he thought of acquaint
ing the King with it, and Reresby even advised him to
do so; but Monmouth and Argyle, then in arms, gave
way, and other matters supervened. Sir Robert Gef-
fery, some distant relation to the then new chancellor,
sat in the civic chair the next year.
But both Smith and Reresby agreed together that this
judge had a method of ejecting as many as five aldermen
at a time (which was done at York,) without hearing
their defence. Such was the virtue of the "ring," — such
its giant-rearing qualities.
However, six men were convicted of treason at Bristol;
and three of these were executed, although they have
been considered ever since as " martyrs to political re-

' See Bristol, by Corry and Evans, vol. ii. p. 8. The names of the
persons executed in the west may be found in "The Life and Death of
George Lord Jeffreys." London, 1693, Svo. p. 54, and in "Proceedings
against the Rebels in 1685," &c. Lond. 1716.

184 LIFE OF JEFFREYS.
The work was now fully done, and the horses' heads
were turned towards the metropolis. Most writers have
declared, that Jeffreys hastened home to pounce upon
the great seal, which had become vacant by the death of
Lord Guilford. And there seems to be very good reason
for believing that the king wrote a letter with his own
hand to the chief justice on the circuit, urging him to
return home and receive the seal, for tha,t he was obliged
to be chancellor himself in the meanwhile. But it is
quite clear that the vacancy happened at a most favour
able juncture, for the commission had been opened at
the last place, and three or four hundred men hung, and
what more could be done for the King's service ? The
men of Cornwall had not involved themselves in the dis
aster, being quite satisfied, perhaps, with the resistance
which their ancestors had made to King Henry the VIL,
and with the unlucky fate which attended them in that
rebellion. As it therefore suited the convenience of our
judge to go home, the purse and the insignia of the chan
cery were very agreeable things in prospect for him after
his sanguinary labours. Indeed, according to Evelyn, it
was the common talk of the time, that the seal was to be
bestowed in this manner as a reward for the rigorous
prosecution of the rebels. A great blunder which has
been frequently imitated, is that of ascribing Jeffreys's
peerage to his services in the west, whereas he had been
created baron of Wem in the May preceding, of course
before the landing of Monmouth.
A cry for mercy harassed the returning magistrate, as
might be expected ; for those who pleaded guilty were not
sacrificed quite so soon as the people who dared to say
that they were innocent. When the cavalcade was pass-

LIFE OF JKFFRKYS. 1S5

ing from Somerset into Wilts (Jeffreys still in the quality
of Lieutenant-general, with a body of dragoons as his life
guard,) a major in the regiment took the liberty of saying
to him, that there were two Spekes, and that one of these
being left for execution, was not the man intended; and
that, perhaps, favour might be shown him. "No, his
family owe a life," replied the general-judge; "he shall
die for his namesake." The mayor of Taunton also in
terceded for this person, but Jeffreys silenced him with
the same reply, and a violent motion of his arm. These
Spekes were brothers, and he who had been intended for
the rope had escaped. There is an old fable, which warns
us never to adventure ourselves within reach of the lion's
mouth, if we can by possibility escape; and there was a
man of those days called Tory Tom, who knew the moral
of this very correctly. The major, above-mentioned, had
sent this fellow to the guard-house at Wells for sauciness,
and, after some time, Tom begged for his liberty; but
while he sent a letter with this view, he took care to pro
cure some people to intercede with the major that his
name should not be mentioned to Jeffreys, for that, right
or wrong, Tory Tom would be hanged if any one gave
him an ill word in that quarter. Upon submission he
got his discharge, and was not left " to the mercy of his
own tory judge." How great men are sometimes out
witted by their confidants and underlings ! What would
the embryo chancellor have said, or rather what would
he not have sworn, had he known that one of Monmouth's
professed and dear friends was travelling very safely to
London, nearly about the same time with himself? And
yet nothing is more certain ; for Dr. Oliver, a physician
to Greenwich Hospital, (the man who advised the duke
16*

186 LIFE OF JEFFREYS.

after the battle to seize a passage-boat and make for
Wales, where he might have been concealed,) was safely
stowed with the judge's clerk, to whom he had been re
commended by a tory, and both were moving on towards
the east in company.
But if it should be imagined that all the rigours and
penalties were now over, we must bring again to remem
brance the mulcting of the poor Taunton children, who
were long vexed with threats of punishment, and demands
of heavy fines : and the most remarkable instance of ex
action still remains behind. Edmund Prideaux, Esq.,' of
Ford Abbey, Devon, was brought to London in June by
Lord Sunderland's^ warrant, and committed to the cus
tody of a messenger : this was two days after the Duke
of Monmouth's landing. He was kept in imprisonment
for a month without examination, and was then discharged
upon his habeas corpus, giving security to the amount of
10,000?. for his future appearance. On the 14th of Sep
tember, he was again sent prisoner to the Tower, charged
with high treason. The agents on the circuit had by this
' Son of Mr. Attorney-General Prideaux. Mr. Attorney was of the
Inner Temple, and sat in parliament for Lyme; he was a busy man in
examining the King's cabinet of letters, taken at Naseby, and in the
bustles of those times raade a very conspicuous figure. He was some
lime a commissioner of the great seal, and was made a baronet by Oli
ver, who made him post-master for all the inland letters. He was also
recorder of Exeter, and practised within the bar. At the Restoration
he managed to make his peace, and died, very rich, August 19, 1669.
The great Archbishop Tillotson was employed to instruct his son ; and
he so far ingratiated himself with the attorney-general, as to obtain
1000/. out of the Exchequer for the improvement of his college (Clare
Hall.) This money, however, was seized by the parliament forces, and
applied towards the fortifying Cambridge Castle.
" Then secretary of state.

LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 187

time satisfied themselves of his capacity to ransom his
life, and all hands were at work to hatch an accusation,
while Jeffreys boldly declared his resolution to hang; and
this he would have done with the greater pleasure, be
cause Edmund Prideaux, the commonwealth attorney-ge
neral, was the father of this hardly beset gentleman.
Prideaux applied to the King, but received this damning
answer, — " That the King had given him to Jeffreys."
Mrs. Prideaux, who was refused access to her husband,
until she had consented to remain with him in confine
ment, found the case very desperate, for the alternative
of instant execution or pardon was holden out to many
of the western prisoners, if they persisted in a refusal to
accuse him on the one hand, or would come forward and
impeach him on the other. So being informed that his
Majesty's gift had been conferred for the eminent ser
vices which had been rendered to the crown, she ventured
to ask the terms on which the agents would guaranty
her husband's temporal salvation. 10,000?. she received
for answer. There was a demur to this extravagant de
mand. It has happened not once nor twice to men who
have been extremely anxious to purchase estates, that on
their hesitating to give the sum required, a considerable
advance has been forthwith propounded in place of the
expected abatement; and thus it happened here. The
price was raised to 15,000?. and actually paid, a set-off
of 240?. being allowed for the prompt payment of a part.
The prisoner had been in duresse for seven months, and
without knowing the particulars which had occasioned his
misfortune. Another person of respectability in that
country laid down fifteen or sixteen hundred guineas

188 LIFE OF JEFFREYS.

which came into the same coffers.' With part of this
money the chancellor bought the manor of Broughton, or
Nether Broughton, in Leicestershire, in 1687. He gave
34,000?. for the property, which he mortgaged in the
course of a year afterwards.^ Some disposition was mani
fested on the accession of William III. to compensate
Mr. Prideaux for his losses ; and a bill was accordingly
brought into the Commons "for charging the manors of
Dalby on the Woulds, and Nether Broughton in Leices
tershire, with the repayment of 15,000?. and interest,
extorted by him from Mr. Prideaux." It was unsuccessful,
and one of its. most strenuous opponents was my Lord
Chief Justice Pollexfen, the same man who conducted the
crown cases in the west, and who became a trustee, with
others, for the children and creditors of the deceased
peer. These lands were sold, however, about the year 1709,
by virtue of an act which was passed for that purpose, it
being found impossible otherwise to satisfy certain settle
ments made by the first lord in 1688.^ Thus the rude.

' Jeffreys certainly received 1416/. 10s. for the job in the West from
Graham and Burton, the crown solicitors, as appears from the parlia
mentary inquiry which was instituted.
° He bought two estates of the Duke of Albemarle with this money.
° It was an act for " vesting the barony of Wem, and manors of Wem
and Loppington, and several lands and tenements in the county of Salop;
and the manors of Dalby and Broughton, and lands thereunto belonging,
in the county of Leicester; and the manor of Fulmer, and several lands
and tenements in the county of Bucks (amongst which was Bulstrode,)
late the estate of George, late Lord Jeffreys, deceased, in trustees, to be
sold." — "George Jeffreys died seized of the manor of Broughton, with
its rights, members, and appurtenances ; and also of all that capital mes-

LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 189

untutored boy, who came up from Wales in 1658, without
an acre of ground, is found in possession of capital mes
suages, woods, pastures, manorial rights, and royalties.
But an old writer applies the saying of Juvenal to him : —
Criminibus debent hortos, praetoria, mensas,
Argentum vetus, et stantem extra pocula caprum.
Great men to great crimes owe their plate embost,
Fair Palaces, and furniture of cost. — Dryden.
No sooner had Jeffreys regained the court, than he was
strictly questioned upon his conduct, according to Father
Orleans, the great apologist for James ; but he palliated
and excused himself so ably by reason of the King's wel
fare, that no further notice was taken ; and so the manes
of the innocent sufferers, if any such there were, re
mained unpropitiated.
Now is the fittest time, were we so disposed, to recount
all the bitter imprecations which men have poured forth
against the subject of this memoir, and then, in the true
strain of panegyric, to palliate his faults, till they first
slide gently into failings, and presently ascend into the
scale .of virtues. There must, however, be some exte
nuating circumstances in the conduct of every one, be it
never so reprehensible in the general; for nature can
hardly be so depraved, as not to let in good at some time
or another. But there will be no elaborate attempt to
excuse or explain away in these pages, and the very sting
suage, mansion-house, park, and all those messuages, woods, lands, mea
dow, and pasture, parcel or reputed parcel of the manor of Dalby, in
possession of Timothy Hemsby, at the yearly rent of 157/. lOi. and also
of Brandriffe's tenement, parcel of the said manor, in possession of
Christopher Hawley, at the rent of 14/. &c." — See NichoWs Leicestersh.
vol. ii. part 1, p. 119.

190 LIFE OF JEFFREYS.
of the transaction will be suffered to remain as acute as
the judge's severest censurers can wish. But it must just
"be told what sort of people the special commissioners had
to deal with, and in doing this, no disrespect is intended
to any class or sect in religion. They were not a broken-
down, repentant, spiritless race, who had plucked up
their muskets in a moment of excitement, and then laid
them quietly down again in patient expectation of punish
ment, like wayward schoolboys who await the lash. Arch
deacon Echard, who speaks very strongly against the ef
fusion of blood, admits that the behaviour of the priso
ners was such as rather tended to exasperate the judges,
than to encourage a feeling of compassion for them ; and
this was a highly dangerous exploit, if it be considered
that a patient under a raving fit of the stone was to try
them. Kirk' had determined to know their temper after the

'Colonel Kirk was a soldier of fortune, and had acquired, by a long
command at Tangier araong the Moors, a considerable appetite for
military execution. Amongst other cruelties which he practised at
Taunton after the battle, was a massacre of thirty persons, whom he
caused to be hung whilst he was feasting. Ten went off in a health to
the king, ten to the queen, ten to Jeffreys. Some say that he caused
the drums to beat, when the criminals were struggling in death, that
"they might have music to their dancing.'-' Others doubt the cruelties
altogether, and contend that such a man could never have been employed
at the Revolution as major-general, if he had been guilty of such enor
mities. But William, only three days after his landing, would hariUy
have troubled himself with the character of a man, who was a brave and
active soldier, and ready to serve him, for Kirk disliked and deserted the
fortunes of James. Indeed, according to the colonel's opinion, the mo
narch knew so little how to profitjby his victory at Sedgemoor, that when
he took leave of a Mr. Harvey at Bridgewater, who had been very civil
to him, he said, "I believe it will not be long before I see you again ;"

LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 191

battle which had marred all their hopes, and so hanged
a man on the White Hart sign-post, at Taunton, three.
times, to see if he would own his fault. The man affirmed,
that if it was to do again, he would enga.ge in the same
cause. And another refused his life, which was offered
him on condition of his crying "God bless King James!"
and there was something about his manner which intimated that it would
not be on the same side. Kirk, as well as Jeffreys, always said, that he
did nothing but by express orders from the King and his general, and
that he put a restraint upon tbe power and instructions given him. When
James wanted him to turn papist, he very drily said that he was "really
very sorry, but that he was pre-engaged." The King smiled, and asked
him what he meant. " Why, truly, when I was abroad," answered Kirk,
"I promised the Emperor of Morocco, that if ever I changed my re
ligion, I would turn Mahometan; and I never did break my word in my
life, and must beg leave to say I never will." As to the famous story
of Kirk's ill usage of a young lady, there being many doubts and much
argument upon the subject, we cannot do better than to refer the reader
to the History of Taunton, by Dr. Toulmin, the new edition by J. B.
Savage, pp. 540 — 549. A story tending to exculpate Kirk is given there.
When he was standing at a balcony with his ofiicers to view the exe
cution of twenty rebels, a Mrs. Rowe begged the life of one; Kirk turned
to Bush, a stupid lieutenant, and said, " Go, bid the executioner cut him
down." Bush never asked the man's name who was to be cut down,* so
that when he came to do his bidding, — "Cut him down?" quoth Ketch,
" which him ? for there are twenty." The culprit to be saved was pray
ing most devoutly, and heard none of all this; but another, who was
thinking of something else besides his prayers, told Mr. Bush that he
was the man. Bush took his word; he was cut down, and away he went.
Why should not this be a different story, and so both be held authentic,
since there has always been an unsuspecting tradition of the other .' See
also Holt's Characters of the Kings of England, p. 263.

*How strikingly tliis fact rcserables a passage in " Coriolanus !" Coriolanus ia
begging llie freedom of liis host, with whom he had sojourned in Corioli. Cominius,
the general, agrees instantly to the request. Then Lartius speaks —
Marcius, his name.'
Coiiulanus. — By Jupiter, forgot ,
I am weary: yea, my memory is tired.

192 LIFE OF JEFFREYS.

Some of them asserted the righteousness of their enter
prise in open court; and such as these, with all our
mercy and clemency, would be hung now if they should
be esteemed of sufficient consequence. A great numher
of the disaffected were dissenters ; and this was a race
that Jeffreys would call "stiff-necked," and hated as
sincerely as he loved power : and truly there had been
some very furious fanatics among them, the fifth mo-
narchites, for example. The judge was not to be blamed,
if he kept a very jealous eye over people who were not
backward to introduce innovation under an appearance
of the most godly sanctity, or unbridled enthusiasm.
There were some good, well-meaning Christians among
them ; but we say that Jeffreys had met with a great deal
of detestable and snivelling hypocrisy, and that he was
led away by his passions to condemn the general body.
God forbid, that- there should be any persecution for con
science sake ; but let those beware who would remove the
ancient land-mark, and thus endanger the security of a
well compacted and firm constitution. They may gratify
the visionary ideas of liberty which are splendid and
effulgent enough for regions of fanciful romance, but by
far too intoxicating for the heads of sober citizens. Slow,
and tardily moving with the opening intellect of the times,
should be the pace of improvement, neither excited by
passion, nor overawed by menace. The clinging crusts
which clothe the rock mark truly its years and strength :
the naked offspring of volcanic fire is spouted wildly from
the ocean, soon to sink back into its bosom. The judo-e
was involved with sons of violence, and it was not more
than his duty, pledged by oaths, to crush them. At the
justice of the execution the more moderate writers have

LIFE OF JEFFREYS: 193

not cavilled ; the source of regret is, that the divine at
tribute of mercy was not imitated. " I have indeed some
times thought," says the author of a Caveat against the
Whigs, "that in Jeffreys's western circuit, justice went
too far before mercy was remembered, though there was
not above a fourth part executed of w.hat were convicted.
But when I consider in what manner several of these
lives then spared were afterwards spent, I can but think
a little more hemp might have been usefully employed
upon that occasion." For this he is most unmercifully
censured by Ralph, which is not surprising ; but it shows
the resolution of the insurgents, and explains the zeal of
the high tory judges. Even Tutchin, who had been ex
cused his manifold scourgings, went off to the Tower to
see the old persecuting judge in his dark hour; and as it
no where appears that his visit was charitable, it would
not have been amiss, if he had been whipped out of that
garrison for his intrusion. And if we should find, more
over, that orders had been issued from the seat of royalty
to spare none, the case of Jeffreys will assume a very
different complexion, especially if it should appear that
he was "snubbed at"' on his return for not doing more.
A wise and good man would have resigned his place rather
than have obeyed such orders, but an ambitious courtier
would probably retain it ; and so did Jeffreys, who was
behind no man in pushing his own advancement.
But although thus much has been said to extenuate,
or (if that be too kind an expression) to explain this con
duct on the part of Jeffreys, it is impossible to say other
wise than that he either was an infuriated maniac, or

'His own expression.
17

194 XIFE OF JEFFREYS.

had a very inhuman thirst for blood. The rigours of
tardy justice could never have fallen at once for the same
crime upon three hundred and fifty persons, unless the
minister of their fate had been most painfully averse to
mercy. One more consideration remains — it is that which we
have promised; but, courteous reader! be not alarmed,
we have vouched for its brevity. Was the monarch guilt-
•less of this blood, or did he remain plausible but reckless
in his eastern metropolis ? Was James the unrelenting
tyrant, or did he pity as a father the sad punishment of
his subjects ? If he were cognizant of the unsparing rope,
and calmly parried back the written plea for mercy, the
controversy is no more —
The King, the King's to blame !
If, as at the Boyne, he had said, " Oh ! spare my British
subjects !" then has the royal head been stamped with
most unsightly blemishes, and the angry page of both
priest' and layman must be tarnished with one common
blot. There are several evidences in favour of the Monarch ;
first, Sheffield, Duke of Bucks. — Speaking of the King's
sudden and silent retreat to the continent, he tells us,
that "the mysterious carriage of this absconding cost
the Lord Chancellor Jefferies his life, (a thing indeed of
little value to anybody besides himself,) &c." — "This
proceeding of his was imputed to neither ill-nature nor

' Bishop Burnet, and many others.

LIFE OF JEFFREYS.

carelessness, two faults His Majesty was not guilty of,
but rather to his generosity ; which made him compas
sionate his very enemies so much, as never to forgive
that lord's cruelty in executing such multitudes of them
in the west against his express orders."
The Son. Roger North. — "Upon the news returned
of his (Jeffreys's) violent proceeding, his Lordship saw
the King would be a great sufferer thereby, and went di
rectly to the King, and moved him to put a stop> to the
fury, which was in no respect for his service, but in many
respects for the contrary. For though the executions
were, by law, just, yet never were the deluded people all
capitally punished ; it would be accounted a carnage, and
not law or justice ; and, therefore, orders went to miti
gate the proceeding ; but what effect followed, I know
not. I am sure of his Lordship's intercession to the
King on this occasion, being told it, at the very time, by
himself." From the Stuart MSS. edited by the Rev. J. S. Clarke.
— "His imprudent zeal, (speaking of Jeffreys,) or, as
some say'd, avarice, carrying him beyond the terms of
moderation and mercy, which was always most agreeable
to the King's temper ; so he drew undeservedly a great
obloquy upon His Majesty's clemency, not only in the
number, but the manner too of several executions, and
in showing mercy to so few, particularly an old gentle
woman, one Mrs. Alice Lisle, who was condemned and
executed (Sept. 2,) only for harbouring one Hicks and
Nelthorp, both ill men enough indeed, and the latter in
a proclamation ; but as pretended, was ignorant of it, and
therefore might suffer for a common act of hospitality."

196 LIFE OF JEFFREYS.

The case of Major Holmes is then mentioned, and the pal
liating circumstance of Pollexfen's appointment to be the
leading counsel. Speaking of the chancellor, it is said,
— " Certainly His Majesty had acted more prudently, had
he refrain'd from heaping such distinguishing favours
upon a person, who had by an imprudent zeal (at best)
drawn such an odium both upon his master and him
self." Again: "Though this was made one of the popular
topicks to decry His Majesty's government, 'tis certain,
the King was hugely injur'd in it : his inclinations were
no ways bloody, but ever bent to mercy; and, after all,
he pardon'd thousands on this occasion, who had for
feited both life and estarte." The escape of the peers
who were involved in the rebellion is then adverted to ;
and great stress laid upon the few executions which took
place in London, by comparison with those in the west.
Plre d'0rlea7is. — "Beaucoup d'autres furent punis,
et en plus grand nombre memo que le Roi n'avoit pre-
tendu. On en accuse la s6verit6 du Chevalier Jeffreys
leur juge, depuis chancelier d'Angleterre, la cruaut6 du
Colonel Kirke, et en general I'avarice des commissaires
preposez pour exercer envers les rebelles ou la sev6rit6
des lois, ou la mis6ricorde du prince : car on dit que le
plus ou le moins de part dans le crime commis, ne fut
pas en cette occasion le motif de la peine ou de I'indul-
gence, que les moins en 6tat de racheter leur revolte
furent ceux qui la pay^rent plus cher, et que si beaucoup
de gens perdirent la vie, ce fut parce qu'il s'en trouva
peu qui eussent assez d'argent pour la conserver. Le
Roi fut trop tard averti de ce dfeordre, mais on ne Ten

LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 197

eut pas plutot informd, qu'il en tdmoigna de I'indignation ;
et si des services importans, qu'il avoit re9u de ceux qui
en etoient accusez, I'obligea de les epargner, il repara
autant qu'il put leur injustice, par le pardon general qu'il
accorda k ceux des r6voltez, qui etoient encore en etat
d'eprouver les effets de sa clemence."
"Notwithstanding the rigour generally ascribed to the
government of James," says Macpherson, "there is
great reason to believe that the chief justice followed
more the bent of his own mind, than the commands of
his sovereign, in his behaviour in the west. The terrors
of others for Jeffreys's power prevented any impartial
account to come to the ears of the King." Then comes
Major Holmes's story.
Very different accounts are given by writers on the op
posite side of the question. The first we give more for
its curiosity, than for any use we desire to make of it.
" How can we choose but see, unless we have winkt
ourselves blind, that the hand of the same Joab has been
in all this ? that 'twas the famous D. of Y. who was at
first as deep in Godfrey's murther, as in the fire of Lon
don ; the same who was at helm all along after, and as good
as managed the executioners' axes and halters for so many
years? "
"He who show'd so much mercy to the poor west
country men, women, and children, destroying so many
hundreds in cold blood, and hardly sparing one man that
cou'd write and read, by his chief hangman, Jeffreys."
Gilbert Burnet, Bishop of Sarum. — " That which
brought all his (Jeffreys's) excesses to be imputed to the
King himself, and to the orders given by him, was, that
17*

198 LIFE OF JEFFREYS.
the King had a particular account of his proceedings writ
to him every day : and he took pleasure to relate them in
the drawing-room to foreign ministers, and at his table,
calling it Jefferies's campaign : speaking of all he had
done in a style that neither became the majesty nor the
mercifulness of a great prince. Dykfield was at that time
in England, one of the ambassadors whom the States had
sent over to congratulate the King's coming to the crown.
He told me, that the King talked so often of these things
in his hearing, that he wondered to see him break out
into those indecencies."
Jeffreys's declaration when Tutchin visited Mm in the
Tower. — He said, that " his instructions were much more
severe than the execution of them ; and that, at his return,
he was snubbed at court, for being too merciful."
Jeffreys's declaration to Dr. Scot on his death-bed. —
Scot told it to Lord Somers, Lord Somers to Sir Joseph
Jekyll, and the last to Onslow. The divine was drawing
the attention of the dying man to the famous expedition,
on which Jeffreys thanked him, and said with some emo
tion, — "Whatever I did then, I did by express orders;
and I have this further to say for myself, that I was not
half bloody enough for him who sent me thither."
What ! desire a man who had been imbruing his hands
in blood against the will and in violation of the honour
of his sovereign, to come back and take the seals of
England, to become keeper of his prince's conscience!
yet so did James. What is the meaning of giving one
subject up to another ? And yet such an event happened
— for the King had given Prideaux to Jeffreys. What
shall wc sny, if we find the very fountain-head of mercy

LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 199

dried up at the suit of a subject ? And yet we hear, that
the King had promised Jeffreys not to pardon the unhappy
Lady Lisle. Who went shares in the extorted bribes of
which those who could ransom were despoiled ? The
Queen, — the maids of honour. There was an act of
amnesty which the royal apologists most loudly applaud.
Who were excepted out of the- indemnities ? The poor
Taunton children of twelve years old, that their parents
might enrich the coffers of the court favourites.
"We must rely upon great facts," said Parr, whilst he
was asserting that all history was obscure in the detail.
We are content to follow the advice of that considerable
scholar, and we have great facts to adduce. The Duke
of Monmouth came before his uncle, and begged for
mercy: the King extorted a signed declaration from him
of his illegitimacy, and then left him to the insults of the
Queen, and to his fate. The duke rose from his knees
with the scorn which became a brave man, and died
under the axe. Here was no chief justice, it was the
pure act of the monarch, who had decided upon death as
his nephew's portion. If it be said, in allusion to tho
sentiment in Euripides, that in defence of empire a king
may shed blood at his liking, let it be remembered, that
the principal object intended is to remove from the me
mory of Jeffreys those contaminations which have marked
him as the contriver of those dreadful scenes. Again,
Mrs. Gaunt, the good anabaptist, (or baptist,) a woman
of known beneficence, was burnt for concealing one Bur
ton; and this happened in October, when the King had
been of necessity acquainted with the past transactions,
and had been dealing out his threats and reproaches, if
we pay any credit to the MSS. Her judge was Sir

200 LIFE OF JEFFREYS.
Thomas Jones, a person of a reputation the very opposite
to Jeffreys, yet she found no mercy. Cornish followed,
whose fate is said to have been afterwards commiserated
by the monarch, his accusers being condemned to per
petual imprisonment; but these signs of kindness and re
pentance were hardly visible till the kingdom was pass
ing away, and the last hope of safety was fast flitting
with the tide of popular feeling.
The mercy shown the great peers is relied on as a
proof of James's clemency. These noblemen were the
Lords Grey, Stamford, and Brandon Gerrard.' The first
played the part of treachery at Bridport, and at Sedge-
moor fight ; so that, when the Duke of Monmouth asked
Colonel Matthews, after the former action, what he
should do with the Lord Grey, the answer was : " That
there was not a general in Europe that wou'd have asked
such a question but himself." No wonder that a man
was pardoned who had done such essential service to the
King's forces under the disguise of a malecontent.
Stamford was imprisoned so long without a trial, that
he petitioned the House for an inquiry into his conduct,
and it was finally fixed for the first of the following De
cember; but instead of sustaining the prosecution, his
adversaries were content to have his name inserted in
the general pardon, certainly because they had no evi
dence against him; and he was glad to avail himself of
their vaunted clemency, being sensible how much a day
might bring forth.
Lord Brandon, according to Echard, contrived to ob-

' Lord Delamere was actually brought into jeopardy for his life, but
acquitted.

LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 201

tain a pardon by some means; and, considering that the
archdeacon was not over favourable to rebels, it is little
short of a clear proof that he came off, not from the com
passionate bowels of the King, but by much the same
manoeuvre which saved Hampden, — that is, by a good
round bribe. Jeffreys had 6000Z. from the patriot as the
price of his ransom ; and yet, in the Stuart Papers, we
find Hampden mentioned as a remarkable object of cle
mency ; but North says, that his brother told the King of
the game which was going on, and that it was instantly
checked. Whether the wary old courtier had waited
until the last minute, that is, until the country could not
be burdened with more gibbets, we cannot pretend to
say; but the facts are rather in opposition to any very
successful opposition on the side of my lord keeper.
Upwards of eighty were hung at Dorchester, one hun
dred and thirty-nine at Taunton, and one hundred at
Wells. If the soft distilling dew of mercy had fallen so
early, we should have had a converse ratio of the con
demned and executed; less than eighty would have died
in Somerset, in place of the numbers who suffered.
And with respect to Bristol, it was found impossible
to "rear the bloody hand" in that place, for the duke
had left the city rich in all her loyalty. If, therefore,
my Lord Guilford had represented the matter when very
young, it militates still more against His Majesty that
Jeffreys did not return in custody for such an outrageous
disobedience, the executions being at once suspended: if
it was mentioned late to the ears of royalty, Roger North
is hardly borne out, in saying that "orders went to miti
gate the proceeding;" and his brother scarcely escapes a
suspicion of having connived at the great punishment.

202

LIFE OF JEFFREYS.

He says indeed, " What effect follow'd, I know not. I
am sure of his lordship's intercession to the King on this
occasion, being told it at the very time by himself."
The most that can be made of the whole proceeding is,
that the lord keeper, though at the point of death, had
discovered the sanguinary measures which were going
forward, and had advertised the King, who knew better
than himself what was in hand; and that the monarch
made a show of wonderful mercy when some hundreds of
his most obnoxious subjects had been consigned to the
halter, and when Jeffreys had nothing left but to say,
as Monsieur Le Sage did afterwards, when Charles XII.
was killed at the siege of Frederickshall. — "The game
is up; let us be going." And when we are told, that
James declared when his throne was in danger, that
"Jeffreys was an ill man," making a compensation at
the same time to some person at Sarum, let it not be
forgotten, that this King would have sacrificed his fa
vourite chancellor at that time; first, because, being un
popular, he had no further use for him; and next because
he refused to go all lengths in establishing popery. And
he actually did sacrifice the judge, for .he stole off privily
at night without acquainting the unlucky chancellor, who
fully counted upon going with him, whereby he left the
keeper of his conscience behind, soon to become a ^cap
tive, and at the mercy of an infuriated multitude. If he
could have exterminated the name of Protestant from
his dominions, and erected the triumphant host in all his
cathedrals, James had attained his wish: the prince made
but a mere tool of his chief justice, who, hating dissent
ers, cut them off joyfully with the august permission
which accompanied him; but seceded most inopportunely,

LIFE OP JEFFREYS. 203

when he found that the Catholic religion was to reign
"lord of the ascendant." No sooner was it the policy
of the court to conciliate the dissenters, dictated by that
subtle courtier William Penn,' than Sir Edward Herbert
went down into the west, a meek, kind judge, who healed
all the wounds of the preceding year, issued forth the
most ample promises of pardon, and strove to unite the
dissenters against the church establishment. But long
disquisitions are odious; we have therefore determined
to stop, merely chaining together the few facts follow
ing,— Which nobody can deny.
King James put Monmouth to death, and then sent
out his chief justice to punish some western rebels. He
refused to respite Lady Lisle for a day, because he had
promised the said judge that he would not do so. Either
he sent out an order to save the prisoners after three
hundred and fifty-one had been hung, — or he made a
judge, who had disobeyed his orders, lord high chancellor
of England, tarnished as that person must have been
with a very massacre, if he had no orders for his con
duct. The King, moreover, made a present of a rich
man to the said judge, and permitted the members of his
court to enrich themselves at the expense of some poor
western widows.
After the strong collateral confirmation which has been
supplied, the testimony of Burnet, and the dying words
of Jeffreys will bear a stamp of authenticity which no
kingly apologist can explain away.
' King James was heard to say to some one, " William Penn is no
more a quaker than you are."

204 LIFE OF JEFFREYS.

From the London Gazette, Oct. 1, 1685.
Windsor, Sept. 28.
"His Majesty, taking into his royal consideration the
many eminent and faithful services which the Right Ho
nourable George, Lord Jeffreys, of Wem, lord chief jus
tice of England, had rendered the crown, as well in the
reign of the late King, of ever-blessed memory, as since
His Majesty's accession to the throne, was pleased this
day to commit to him the custody of the great seal of
England, with the title of Lord Chancellor."
In December, John Hampden came to his trial, not
before Jeffreys, according to the report in the State
Trials, but Sir Edward Herbert, who had succeeded.
The prisoner's petition for mercy was so abject, and his
fee of 6000L to the chancellor so softening, that he ob
tained his pardon; but, it is said, that shame haunted him
ever afterwards, and in about ten years he cut his throat.
About this time, also, Dangerfield came to his end. He
had been tried before Jeffreys shortly after Oates's sen
tence, and had judgment to receive such terrible whip
pings, that he chose a text for his funeral sermon. But
that which concerns Jeffreys in the affair of his death, is
the resolution which that nobleman persevered in to
punish the' author of it. The truth seems to be, that Mr.
Frances, a barrister of Gray's Inn, incontinently, and
certainly indecorously, accosted him after his fiogging
with these words; — "How now, friend! have you had
your heat this morning?" Dangerfield spat in his face:
Frances then thrust a bamboo cane into his eye, which,
according to the evidence of a surgeon, occasioned his
death. There are different representations of the whole

LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 205
business, which became at length a popular affair : it is
said, in one place, that the wounded man died directly ;
but Bevil Higgons tells us, that he lived so long after
wards in Newgate, as to occasion a doubt among the sur
geons who attended the coroner's inquest, whether he did
not die by reason .of his punishment. Attempts were
made to infiuence the widow of Dangerfield to consent
that the prisoner should be pardoned; but she refused,
although the application was backed by a bribe, and she
even had an appeal ready. She would have had occa
sion too to press her appeal, had it not been for Jeffreys,
there being a strong disposition at court to overlook the
matter ; but he posted ta Whitehall as soon as he learnt
the chance of mercy, and declared firmly that Frances
"must die, for the rabble was throughly heated." And
so the poor "state martyr was hanged." Yet with all
this anxiety on the part of Jeffreys to avenge Danger-
field (the better opinion is, that Frances was a political
ma;rtyr,) the ghost of the whipped sufferer arose, and
poured forth a lamentation in print, in which the judge,
who sentenced the body to be scourged, is not spared.
It begins with Revenge! revenge! my injur'd shade begins
To haunt thy guilty soul, and scourge thy sins.
A little further on, are these lines : —
The trembling jury's verdict ought to be, —
Murder'd at once by Frances and by thee.
There was also a long, wild elegy published upon
Thomas Dangerfield, where Jeffreys is dyed still blacker
than the deepest plungings mentioned in the Dunciad
would make him. A most unmerciful sentiment is con
tained in it: —
18

206 LIFE OF JEFFREYS.
But since nor friend nor poet can invent
Deeper damnation for his punishment.
May he be Jeffreys still, and ne'er repent.
The Jews are held to be mild in comparison of the
judge. Tho' milder Jews far more good nature have;
They forty stripes, Jeffreys four hundred gave.
Poisoning is then imputed to the chief justice:
Two strings to 's bow, for fear one should not do;
Stellettos sometimes fail; take poison too.
This reproach is ridiculous, for the body of Danger-
field might have appeared bloated after his punishment
from the severity of the stripes.
The whip, so unfeelingly dealt, while it reflected great
discredit upon the person who promoted its use, no less
disgraced the monarch who could have arrested its terrors.
There might soon have been a mandate a little more con
trolling than the poor solace which was sent to Tutchin,
"that he must wait with patience;" when, but for an
acute disease, he had been whipped a morning or two
afterwards. The elegy concludes with such a mountain of curses as
might weigh down the loftiest head ; but as they came
probably from a near relation who must have written so
fierce a declamation, there is some slight palliation of the
matter. Posterity will now admit, prohably, that truth could
hardly have shone forth amidst such a vapouring ; and
we hope, therefore, to gain a better evidence for any
good qualities we may find in the vilified chancellor, whom
we are about to introduce, fraught with purse and mace,
in the next chapter.

LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 207

CHAPTER VII.
The great seal— Conduct of the lord chancellor in parliament — Lord
Delamere arraigned before the Lords Triers at Westminster — Eccle
siastical high commission court^Dr. Sharp — Compton, bishop of Lon
don — The chancellor's cause-room— Anecdotes of the lord chancellor
— Account of Sir John Trevor — Doctrine of passive obedience — Trial
of the seven bishops — James throws off the mask with regard to his
religion — Dr. Peachell — University refractoriness — Determined con
duct of the mayor of Arundel — Duke <if Ormond — The rOyal dispen
sing power — Domestic life of the lord chancellor — Scandalous stories
of his second lady — Evelyn — Lord Clarendon — Mr. Jeffreys's father —
Sir John Trevor, speaker of the House of Commons — Anecdote of
Tillotson — Lord Castlemaine's mission to Rome — Father Petre — Earl
of Tyrconnel — Acquittal of the bishops — Birth of the Pretender —
Privy-counsellors present — Legal character of the lord chancellor dis
cussed — Sir Basil Firebrass — Gathering of the political storm— Reli
gious contest — The city charter — How far lord chancellor Jeffreys is
personally involved in the national and civic dissensions — Landing of
William III. — The court of James ih confusion.
"Herb, my lord, take it, you will find it heavy," said
the prophetic King Charles to his lord keeper North,
when he delivered the seal to that statesman. And Roger
North relates a confession made by his brother when
dying, which was; that "he had not enjoy'd one easy
and contented minute since he had had the seal." Jeffreys
was enjoying himself over his bottle with some friends
soon after his new preferment, when one of them told
him that he would find the business heavy. "No," said
he, "I'll make it light." What would my lord of Eldon
give if he could as unconcernedly throw into the balance
his huge tribunal of bankruptcy, his cabinet and parlia?

208 LIFE OF JEFFREYS.

mentary toils, with the superincumbent weight of equity
jurisdiction dragging its slow length along ?
So strongly was the charge of corruption entertained
against the new chancellor. Lord Jeffreys, that his un
willingness to take office has been absolutely asserted;
and, farther,. that a bribe was necessary to induce the
relinquishment of his scruples. Perhaps this is saying
too much ; but, whether chief justice, or chief judge in
the Chancery, his promotion was so much feared and dis
liked by the community at large, that no difficulty was
made of propagating any insidious stories to his disad
vantage. Aiid now we ffiid him fairly seated in the great
chair, quite resolved to be " top fiddler of the town." It
was by no means the scope of his ambition merely to vin
dicate his court from Lord Coke's imputation, who called
it, Officina justitise, a workshop to frame writs in ; Jef
freys had been.'a discontented man, if, in his own estima-
tioi, he could not have controlled the common, statute,
and equity law by a single effort. Boni judicis est am-
pliare jurisdictionem,^ was an old maxim, which was des
tined to come into'fresh remembrance upon this event:
so that, even in matters within their own province, the
judges of the common law courts ceased to receive the
courtesy and decorum which were due to their stations.
Sir Thomas Jones, then chief justice ofthe Common Pleas,
soon felt the power which was above him.^ Sometimes a
chancellor will direct an issue to be tried in a court of
law, that he may have the verdict of twelve men as to

' It is the part of a skilful judge to enlarge his jurisdiction.
° Jones had obtained this place in defiance of Jeffreys who coveted it,
as one of more profit than the chief place in the King's Bench-.

LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 209

some particular fact, and this is called a feigned issue.
A case of this kind came to be heard at the bar of the
Common Pleas, on which the plaintiff obtained a verdict
with the approbation of Sir Thomas, the chief justice,
and of the whole court. The defendant asked for a new-
trial, saying, that some of the jury had been tampered
with ; but his suggestion failed to meet with the counte
nance which he desired, and his motion was therefore
unanimously refused, as being made merely for the pur
pose of delay. It was a matter of some consequence, and
the defendant was not so easily persuaded to remain quiet.
He accordingly ventured into Chancery to ask for the
same thing, and on the same grounds, where he gained a
very different reception, for he had his motion granted
presently, and a new trial was "roundly ordered." Yet
this proceeding, which, if suffered on the sudden, was at
best a little disrespectful to the other court, was intolera
bly seasoned with sallies of wit against the learned per
sons who had delivered the judgment, so that there was
a plain design to mortify them. With a due degree of
deference to the high authorities from whom he might
dissent, a chancellor of this day might arrive at a similar
conclusion, and in so doing, he would not transgress the
practice of his court ; but the keeper of King James's
seals, steering quite clear of. all common civility, was
pleased to indulge in the most free personalities, and
never hesitated to accuse his brethren of carelessness in
the distribution of justice. But the admirable part of
the affair was its issue; for when the defendant came
to his second hearing, the plaintiff got a great accession
of damages from the new jury.
The conduct of this magistrate of equity shall now be
IB"'

210 LIFE OF JEFFREYS.
laid aside for a time, whilst we give some account of him
upon other occasions. And first with regard to his car
riage in the house of Lords. No doubt he imagined that
the august assembly would bow down before him, and that
he might soon overawe his co-peers hy his bluff figure
and well-appointed swagger. He had an opportunity of
making the experiment before he had held the seals two
months. The King had addressed his parliament in very
courteous terms ; but in the course of his speech two very
awkward propositions were developed : one was, that the
militia were not sufficient, and thence came the dilemma
of a standing army. The next was, an admission that
some of his officers had not conformed themselves to the
tests, and that he would not deprive himself of their ser
vices on that account, after the efforts they had made on
his behalf: whence the dispensing power might easily be
detected in its most odious forms. Both Houses were
alarmed at this avowal; but they rendered back their
thanks to His Majesty ; the Lords in totidem verbis, the
Commons with a proposition to indemnify the popish re
cusants, (most unsavoury words for the ear of royalty,)
and a modified grant. James was warm in his answer ;
upon which both Lords and Commons proposed to take
the King's speech into consideration. The latter, how
ever, were terrified into an adjournment: for Coke (of
Derby) was sent to the Tower for saying, "I hope we are
all Englishmen, and not to be frightened out of our duty
by a few high words." He was the seconder of the mo
tion. But the thing took a very different turn in the
Lords. Compton, bishop of London, introduced the sub
ject there; and the courtiers forthwith took the alarm,
saying, that as the House had thanked the King for his

LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 211

speech, the sentiments contained therein had been adopt
ed as of course. This ingenious snare was soon laid
open and rejected; and the test was manfully commented
upon as the bulwark of liberty. And then came oti my
Lord Jeffreys. He answered the popular speakers as
though he had been addressing an obstinate jury, or me
nacing a termagant prisoner; a carriage so entirely out
of place, that all his frowns and arrogance were unable
to beat down the uncompromising argument which the
other side had made use of: and so, out-voted and "out-
argued," as Ralph has it, the minister gave way, and a
day was fixed for investigating the subject. But it was
to the infinite mortification of Jeffreys that such a crisis
happened; and Burnet delights in recounting the defeat
which he endured. Soon afterwards, the parliament was
prorogued ; and as the great seal was thrown into the
Thames before the meeting of another, the chancellor
had no room for improving himself in the tact and method
of senatorial eloquence.' But this smart rebuff seems to
have had some slight effect upon him ; for being appointed
to preside at the trial of a peer for treason, he managed,
though still very tenacious of authority, and intoxicated
with his power, to deport himself before the assembled
lords -with a decency quite remarkable; yet, it was evi
dent, that after this the peers regarded him with jealousy,
and mainly suspected that he took "his law from the
King," according to his motto, as serjeant.^
' His civility may be compared to that of a bailiff towards a man of
rank under his arrest, such bailiff having been lately kicked for insolence
upon a similar event.
" John Jeffreys, probably his son, was member for Brecon Town, in
this parliament.

212 LIFE OF JEFFREYS.

Although the western circuit had been pretty thoroughly
travelled, there remained some men of noble blood in the
Tower charged with the late transactions, reserved, as it
werej to grace the greater triumph, by ransom or by death.
The escape of these lords has been already explained;
but as Lord Delamere stood his trial, the manner and
method of it must have some mention here, as they in
volve some strange actions of Lord Jeffreys, white staff
upon the occasion.
It had very early suggested itself tb the favourite, that
if he could cause the noble prisoner to be conveyed into
Cheshire, he would have him most conveniently within
the sphere of his local influence. The main accusation
rested on a proposal for a rising in that county; so that by
the course intended, a conviction might be quietly ob
tained in the very territory of the accused, to the sore
mortification of his high blood. Besides this, the people
would be awed, the trial by peers averted, and the
influence of Jeffreys in the neighbourhood would have
done the rest. Indeed, some disrespect which had been
shown him when chief justice of Chester, might now be
amply avenged — a gratifying crisis not to be sacrificed
without an effort: therefore, it was boldly declared, that
the treason having happened within a County Palatine,
the prosecution must be there. This was said by Jeffreys
under the King's Command to the assembled peers, who
were indignant that the Lord Delamere should be absent,
and had addressed the King upon the subject. The bill
of indictment was then presented and found in Cheshire,
and so far the plan had succeeded; for had the prisoner
been tried in the King's Bench, which it is but fair to say
would have amounted to a breach of privilege. Sir Ed-

LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 213

ward Herbert, a more mild judge,' would probably have
marred the prosecution, by conceding every indulgence,
and ratifying every excuse consistent with the law. But
it was soon determined to remove all the proceedings by
certiorari before a select body of lords at Westminster,
called Lords Triers.^ Jeffreys, the lord high steward,
was somewhat out of his element, for he now no longer
addressed "mean men," but spoke in the presence of the
first men in his country, who very little regarded his
newly-fledged nobility, and would utterly scorn any me
nace if he dared employ any. The King and Queen,
moreover, graced the solemn occasion; an unusual degree
of polish and courtesy was therefore observable in the
judge's deportment towards the whole court; yet, in the
course of his first speech to the accused, he could not
help thinking how comfortably he would be spared any
further pains, if a plea of guilty could be obtained; and
to this end, with a very crafty insinuation of mercy, he
begged of my lord at the bar, that if he were guilty, "he
would give glory to God, and make amends to his vice
gerent, the King, by a plain and full discovery." But
Lord Delamere was engaged upon any other subject
rather than a confession, and indeed, what seemed to
trouble him the most just then, was whether a peer was
bound to hold up his hand at the bar like a commoner,
but this was resolved to his satisfaction: and then he
asked another question, which he doubtless considered
' Yet this Herbert was the man who first proposed to dispense with
the tests. He had urged the matter to King Charles, who was too shrewd
to give any encouragement to such a dethroning fantasy.
' This selection is abolished by 7 Will. IIL, so that a nobleman must
now be tried by all his peers.

214 LIFE OF JEFFREYS.
mainly important: — "I beg your Grace would be pleased
to satisfy me, whether your Grace be one of my judges
in concurrence with the rest ofthe lords?"
Lord High Steward. — "No, my lord, I am judge of the
court; but I am none of your triers."
The song of the siren could not have enchanted the
ears of her captives more deliciously. Some delay then
arose before the prisoner would plead, and at length he
put in a special plea, which contained two objections to
the course then pursued : first, he said, that being sum
moned to parliament, he ought to be tried by all the peers
of parliament ; and, secondly, he claimed this privilege
still more strongly, because the parliament was still con
tinuing, and not dissolved. Sir Robert Sawyer, the
attorney-general, answered the difficulties which were
started, on which Lord Delamere prayed the aid of coun
sel; but not having any ready, the plea was rejected:
although, in the case of Edward Fitzharris, four days
were allowed that prisoner to procure and instruct advo
cates. Jeffreys's temper was rising once.
Lord Delamere. "I hope your Grace will be pleased
to advise with my lords the peers here present." — Lord
High Steward. "Good my lord, I hope you that are a
prisoner at the bar are not to give me direction who I
should advise with, or how I should demean myself here."
On which an apology was made him. He was neverthe
less somewhat confounded in his new state, and had a
little committed himself, for he let slip that he thought the
plea frivolous.
Lord Delamere saw the blunder at once. "I hope,
my lord, that the privilege of the peers of England is not
frivolous." — "Pray, good my lord," returned the discon-

LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 215

certed judge, " do not think I should say any such thing,
that the privilege of the peers is frivolous." He then
gave his charge to the peers in a very fulsome harangue ;
in the course of which the expressions "fierce, froward,
and fanatical zeal of the late House of Commons,"
" Arch- traitor Monmouth, " " hellish and damnable plots, ' '
could not fail to have pleased the royal auditors. The
chief evidence for the crown was a man who swore that
he was introduced to Lord Delamere and two others, with
a recommendation from Lord Brandon, and that he re
ceived money from them. This reward was for carrying
a message to the Duke of Monmouth, respecting a sum
of 40,000Z. which was Wanted to maintain ten thousand
men, to be levied in Cheshire against King James. But
however this may have been, he made a decided blunder
in the date, which gave Lord Delamere an opportunity of
calling witnesses to prove an alibi.
This was done most satisfactorily, and the peers gave
a unanimous verdict of acquittal. They evinced, how
ever, a strong dislike to the control of the lord high stew
ard, who, on his part, was equally obstinate in insisting
upon his own supposed rights. The accused desired an
adjournment, that he might have time to prepare his de
fence : the matter was referred to the judges, but some
lords were determined that the court should withdraw to
debate the question amongst themselves, alleging that their
privileges were concerned, though Jeffreys denied that
privilege was in any way at issue : and they withdrew
accordingly. The judges were against the adjournment,
and the lord high steward then chose to discourse of his
own power : —
" My lords, I confess I would always be- very tender

216 LIFE OF JEFFREYS.
of the privilege of the peers wherever I find them con
cerned ; but truly I apprehend, according to the best of
my understanding, that this court is held before me : it is
my warrant that convenes the' prisoner to this bar : it is
my summons that brings the peers together to try him ;
and so I take mys'elf to be judge of the court. My lords,
'tis true, may withdraw, and they may call the judges to
them to assist them, which shows they have an extraordi
nary privilege in some cases more before the high stew
ard, than juries have in inferior courts in cases of common
persons." He then went on to say, that he could not
withdraw with the lords if they desired to consult him,
but that all questions must be asked of him in open court.
" This, I confess, my lords," added my lord high steward,
" has a great weight with me ; and I know your lordships
will be very tender of proceeding in such a case, any way
but according to law ; for though you are judges of your
own privileges, yet, with submission, you are not judges
of the law of this court ; for that I take to be my pro
vince." He ended with a wonderfully element speech.
" Certainly, my lords, your lordships and I, and all
mankind, ought to be tender of committing any errors in
cases of life or death ; and I would be loth, I would assure
you, to be recorded for giving an erroneous judgment in
a case of blood, and as the first man that should bring
in an illegal precedent, the consequence of which may
extend I know not how far." However, with all this fair
language, the old heresy was broached again, that the
testimony of one witness to an overt act of treason, corro
borated by other substantial circumstances, was sufficient
proof of a treason. And this opinion was mentioned in
the House of Commons some years afterwards, upon tho
bill for attainting Sir John Fenwick. " It was told him

LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 217

[Jeffreys] then," said a member, "that if ever they met
him in the House of Lords, he should answer it with his
head." James was exceedingly exasperated against the poor
witness : the day after the trial he declared that Saxon
should be first convicted of perjury, and then hanged for
high-treason. This last threat was not put into execu
tion ; but the man was twice pilloried, twice whipped, and
fined besides for his mistake.'
This was the despotic treatment which the new monarch
loved: his minister was one whom "he delighted to
honour," because he was content to take his cue so obe
diently from the court ; and all things were now arranged
so as to promise the English a speedy change from free
dom and liberty of conscience to the papal and any other
obnoxious yoke which it might please the Sovereign to
impose. The pulpits were now teeming with discourses against
popery, for the nation had become seriously alarmed at
the King's determined inclinations ; and the clergy already
fancied that other hands would soon shear the fieeces of
their flocks, while they themselves would be compelled to
own a divided allegiance. The King was not backward
to perceive, on his part, the rising temper of the times :
he had not forgotten the flaming preachments of the
forty-one, nor the stern hum of the Cromwellians, nor the
sacred hurricanoes of the Covenanters. So there went
forth letters mandatory to the bishops, forbidding their

• According to the Stuart Papers, it seems that the court really be
lieved Saxon's story, and that his discomfiture arose from a mere slip in
the date. 19

218 LIFE OF JEFFREYS.
clergy to attempt controversial discussions in public ;
and having promulged the order, James decided also on
prescribing the punishment of disobedience.
The ecclesiastical high commission court, a name lost
to the British annals since the reign of Charles the First,
was erected, and seven commissioners' were appointed to
superintend and enforce its powers. The crown expected
that some severe animadversion would be passed upon
this new creation, and an answer was therefore at hand.
It was said, that in the new commission no power was
given to fine or imprison or tender the oath ex-officio,^
and that its judges were enjoined to keep within the bounds
of ecclesiastical censures ; that the ordinary power of the
archbishops and bishops had been revived at the Resto
ration, although the high commission court of Charles,
which permitted fine and imprisonment, and the tendering
the oath ex-officio, was indeed abolished ; that this was there
fore a legal constitution, even more so than Doctors' Com
mons and the bishops' courts, where the proceedings would
run in the names ofthe episcopal judges, whereas this man
date ran in the King's name. Most people were obstinate
enough, however, to think, that the law had been invaded
upon this occasion ; but in a country where four judges
had been turned out at once (a circumstance just then of
' George, Lord Jeffreys, lord chancellor; Sancroft, archbishop of
Canterbury; Crew, bishop of Durham; Sprat, bishop of Rochester;
Chief Justice Herbert; Lawrence Hyde, Earl of Rochester, lord treasu
rer ; Robert, Earl of Sunderland, lord president. The following were
afterwards added : the Earl of Mulgrave ; Cartwright, bishop of Chester,
in the room of Sancroft, who declined to act ; Chief Justice Wright ; Sir
Thomas Jenner. '
' A perfect inquisition, by which they compelled a man to swear that
he would answer all questions put to him. In default of obedience, he
might have been tortured.

LIFE OF^JEFFREYS. 219

recent occurrence) for questioning the royal competency
of dispensing with the laws ; and where again, a great
verdict had just been obtained by a defendant,' whose
defence was that the monarch could waive a penal enact
ment, as supreme lawgiver; it was not to be expected
that public opinion would be regarded with any very
particular respect. Amongst other capabilities with which
these great commissioners were invested, they were ena
bled to summon such as "seemed to be suspected of
offences ; — to correct, amend, and alter the statutes of
the universities, churches, and schools ; or, where the
statutes were lost, to devise new ones," &c. It was no
small aggravation of the horrors which the clergy had
already attached to this junto, that it could not assemble
without the lord chancellor. Jeffreys, consequently, with
all his grandeur and majesty, was the awful genius of the
place. Nor did he long remain unemployed ; and very
pleasant it seemed to him, that he was again so highly
elevated as to mortify great dignitaries at his capricious
pleasure. Sharp, the rector of St. Giles's, who is called
the "railing parson,"^ had expressed his contempt of such
as could be converted by Romish arguments. He was
constantly inveighing against popish errors ; and Comp
ton, bishop of London, who had so obnoxiously moved the
consideration of the royal speech, was his diocesan. —
These were fit subjects to begin upon. The King sent
forth a mandate to the bishop to suspend Dr. Sharp ; the
bishop very civilly declined, on the ground of his inability
to condemn any man who had not been cited, and heard
in his defence. This happened in August, 1686 ; and

' Sir Edward Hales, prosecuted in an action of debt by a coachman,
for not taking the test. " Father Orleans.

220 LIFE OF JEFFREYS.

the high court had been formed in April. It was deemed
proper that the new terrors and penalties should be
inflicted upon these two holy offenders, though Sharp had
been the bearer of the bishop's letter, and had made an
effort to save himself by very tame submissions. Accord
ingly, on the 4th of August, the lord chancellor was at
his place in the Commission Court, and the bishop made
his appearance. There was but one question, "Why did
you not obey the King?" But Compton was disposed
to procrastinate, and so he asked for time till November,
as counsel were absent on the circuit. "Hah! that's
unreasonable," quoth Jeffreys; "His Majesty's business
cannot admit of such delays ; methinks a week should be
enough : What say your lordships, is not a week enough T '
And their lordships said that a week was enough. The
bishop complained that he could not get a sight of the
commission; but the answer was, that "all the coffee
houses had it for a penny a piece." On the ninth day,
the business was resumed, when the bishop declared, that
a whole week's search had, with difficulty, put him in
possession of the authority which had been mentioned as
so common in every coffee-house. "My lord, when I
told you our commission was to be seen in every coffee
house," says my lord chancellor, "I did not speak with
any design to reflect on your lordship, as if you were a haun
ter of coffee-houses : I abhorred the thoughts of it; and in
tended no more by it, but that it was common in the town."
This vaunt of the chancellor's got the bishop a fort
night's further indulgence. But, at length, the day must
arrive for an answer to "Why did you not obey
the King ?" And at the appointed time the spiritual
peer came, attended by four doctors of the law as his

LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 221

counsel. But the civilians made a very left-handed de
fence for their client : indeed, the first. Dr. Oldish, ven
tured beyond the precincts of his scarlet tribe, and was
rash enough to affirm, that " if an attorney takes a man's
word for his appearance, there would lie no action against
the attorney." " Cujus contrarium" (which means, only
just the contrary,) exclaimed Jeffreys, who was pleased
to advertise the doctor of the existence of actions for
escapes. Some of the commissioners were disposed to
accept the bishop's submission, but the King plainly told
Rochester that unless he gave way, his treasurer's white
staff was gone. Most of the others would have agreed
upon the question being put, that the bishop had done
treason, if the King pleased ; and he was forthwith sus
pended by a formal and solemn sentence, together with
his subject rector. Dr. Sharp, both during the royal plea
sure. They dared not meddle with his revenues, notwith
standing, for that being a measure affecting tempora
lities, the matter would have been translated into the
King's Bench, where Herbert presided ; and as he was not
satisfied with the sentence of suspension, he might proba
bly have rendered the bishop justice, which at that time
would have been a precedent highly inconvenient.
The parson of St. Giles's was soon relieved, but the
prelate remained under the ban till the fright about the
Prince of Orange became very considerable, and then all
the great rough riders were unhorsed: Jeffreys was sent
to the corporation of London with their long-lost charter,
and the people of London saw their bishop very civilly
restored to his episcopal functions.
The chancellor showed himself quite equal to Serjeant
Bradshaw, who presided at King Charles's trial. Both
19*

222 LIFE OF JEFFREYS.

the accused desired to speak, the bishop before, the mo
narch after sentence ; both were repulsed most unceremo
niously: —
Lord Bishop. — My lord, may I have leave to speak
before sentence is read ?
Lord Chancellor. — My lord, we have heard you and
your counsel already.
King Charles to Bradshaw. — Will you hear me a word,
sir ?
Bradshaw. — Sir, you are not to be heard after the
sentence. King. — No, sir?
Bradshaw. — No, sir. By your favour, sir. Guard,
withdraw your prisoner.
King. — I may speak after sentence, by your favour,
sir ! I may speak after sentence, ever. By your favour !
— Hold ! the sentence, sir : I say, sir, I do — I am not
suffered to speak. — Expect what justice other people
will have. And then he was carried away by the guard.
And now, not as suitors, but as admiring reporters of
the greatness and dominion of our Jeffreys, we must
return to the court of Chancery, from whence so many
think themselves too happy to be emancipated.
He held his court at Dr. Shepherd's Chapel in Duke
street, Westminster, and made the adjoining houses
towards the park his residence. But just before we relate
the judicial extravagancies of this legal despot, it will not
be thought out of place, as we are upon the subject of
houses, if a specimen of his dealings respecting them, and
of the treatment with which he would annoy persons who
had an equitable claim upon him, be briefly told. Moses
Pitt, a bookseller, brother of the Western Martyrologist,
complains very strongly against his tenant, the chancellor.

LIFE OP JEFFREYS. 223

This gentleman had been captivated by the boundless
promises of building ; and amongst other dwellings which
he established in the vicinity of the Park, was one at the
south end of Duke street, of a superior order, which he
let, with coach-houses and stables, to the judge at 800?.
per annum. Jeffreys came with the rich Alderman Dun-
comb to see the house ; and observing a vacant piece of
ground adjoining, he said he would have a cause-room
(by which he meant a chancery tribunal) built upon it.'
Pitt said, that the ground was the King's property; but
it was agreed that James should be importuned for the
gift of it, and that it should be made over to the builder
by grant for 99 years at a peppercorn rent, in considera
tion of which the builder would erect the desired cause-
room. It seems, that in addition to the court which was
required, Mr. Pitt raised two large wings on either side
of the chancellor's house, which cost him altogether about
4000Z. and that his tenant never paid a farthing for the
fitting-up of the new erections, and the necessary offices
which appertained to the cause-room.^
However, when the whole was finished, the promised
grant was looked for very anxiously, and very respect
fully demanded; but Jeffreys found means of evading
' " It is easily known," says Pennant, " by a large flight of stone
steps, which his royal master permitted to be made into the park adja
cent, for the accommodation of his lordship. These steps terminate
above in a small court, on three sides of which stands the house. The
cause-room was afterwards converted into a place of worship, called
Duke street Chapel, and is on the left. When Jeffreys found it inconve
nient to go to. Westminster or Lincolns'-inn, he made use of this court."
" " In three or four months' time I built the two wings of that great
house which is opposite to the bird-cages, with the stairs and tarrass,
&c., which said building cost me about 4000^. with all the inside work,"
&c.— Pitt's Cry ofthe Oppressed, p. 29.

224 LIFE OF JEFFREYS.

the fulfilment of his pledge from time to time till the
architect's patience was exhausted, and King William had
approached too near to render the chancellor's downfall
by any means equivocal. Finding his ruin at hand, and a
speedy flight necessary, he sent for several tradesmen ;
and Mr. Pitt, the landlord, who had ever found him quite
inaccessible, although a near neighbour, contrived to get
into the great man's parlour, and there renewed per
sonally his long neglected claim. " I shall leave your
house," quoth Jeffreys, "and I shall not take away the
ground and building with me." This was the utmost in
dulgence of the answer. Half a year's rent was then
nearly due, but Pitt expressed himself much more anx
iously respecting the grant, than the payment of the ar
rears. The next day the chancellor departed to the Je
suit Petre's lodging at Whitehall.' It turned out, that
Sir Edward Hales, a vast favourite at court, the same
who gained so great a triumph in behalf of the dispen
sing power, had begged away this ground from Jeffreys ;
so that the judge, perceiving how impossible it was to
complete his contract, shuffled out of it in the best man
ner he was able.^ The learned counsel who attend the
' 1 688, Nov. 29. "In the morning, I went to see my lord chancellor :
he now lodgeth at the duke's old little chamber at Whitehall." — Cla
rendon's Diary.
= The history of the case was this : Pitt, when he received this pro
mise from Jeffreys, discovered that John Webb, the King's fowl-keeper
had a grant of the land from Charles II. during life ; and thereupon gave
him a consideration for a great part of it. Then Sir Edward Hales got
it from the King, which overturned the chancellor's pledge'; and though
Sir Edward seems to have paid half a year's rent to Mr. Pitt for a par
cel of this land, which -was used as garden-ground, he, in common with
some others who had recognised Pitt as the landlord, refused all subse
quent payments. This unfortunate architect and bookseller, after having
spent 12,000/. in the improvement of buildings at Westminster, was

LIFE OP JEFFREYS. 225

high court of Chancery at the present day, who rather
give than take the law from the considerable individuals
who preside there, can scarcely form an idea of the dis
respect with which their quondam brethren were treated in
the reign of James. We have seen how Jeffreys, when
chief of the King's Bench, disregarded their just pre
tensions to a courteous reception; how he set at naught
their high blood and birth, and held as valueless the ho
nourable stock from whence the larger number sprang.
And truly no greater share of civility was reserved for
the advocates in equity : the furious lecture of a quarter
or half an hour, proportioned to the offence of the pa
tient, was of daily occurrence. There was no room for
boasting on the part of those whom he occasionally spared.
— "This is yours," they would drily say; "my turn will
be to-morrow."' His angry opposition, however, to one
custom would probably be lauded by the public press of
this day. Six, eight, or ten of the best counsel would
be retained on a side, and of course each would indulge
the court with a view of the case. This, doubtless, was
a tiresome practice, and called for the most trying pa-
thrown into prison, where he remained long enough to be sensible of
the dreadful enormities which were perpetrated on the persons of poor
debtors at that period. — See his Cry ofthe Oppressed, in two parts. He
was a man of considerable enterprise, as may be collected from the
statement already given ; and moreover, he took the theatre at Oxford
for the purpose of printing his Atlas, in twelve volumes, folio : an un
dertaking which was fraught with ruin. Jeffreys's large house was let
to the three Dutch ambassadors, who came from Holland to congratulate
King William upon his accession in 1689. It was afterwards used for
the admiralty-oflice, until the middle of King William's reign.
' Sir John Trevor, the master of the rolls, treated the counsel with
equal freedom. He said something to his nephew, a, very promising
young lawyer, which cut him so severely, that he died in consequence.

226 LIFE OF JEFFREYS.

tience ; but the new chancellor soon decided against it.
"It was troublesome — it was impertinent — he could not
bear it — it was all repetition ; and, therefore, he would
not hear it."' Yet in the progress of these sallies, he
sometimes broke loose so wildly as to be obliged to beg
pardon, which he would do to the great satisfaction and
amusement of the audience. But if the ornaments of
the court met with this unsightly violation, what might
not the unfortunate attorneys expect ? What might be
the situation of the still less respected suitor ? Here Jef
freys was indeed himself; and often verified his own ob
servation, that he would "give a lick with the rough side
of his tongue."
A city attorney had a petition filed against him ; and
whether or not he had done wrong, it appears that
some one had threatened him with my lord chancellor ;
an admirable bugbear beyond question at that time of
day. "My lord chancellor ! " returned the citizen ; " I
made him." This very natural vaunt was put carefully
into an affidavit, and read over to the judge. " Well,"
says that nobleman, "then I will lay my maker by the
heels." And the patron of the young Hicks's-hall penny-
less advocate was sent to jail. Another very sharp de
cision against a solicitor is recorded. The lawyer was
ordered to give up certain papers in a cause, some of which
had got into the hands of his client, and, in fact, were
quite out of his reach; but, finding that the master in
' In the new act of parliament which has been propounded for the
amendment of the Chancery practice, a proposition has been introduced
to limit the number of counsel on either side. The evil alluded to rarely
occurs in the King's Bench ; and in the court pf Common Pleas only two
Serjeants are accustomed to address the bench.

LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 227

Chancery had reported him for disobedience, he made an
application to the court, stating the hardship, and his
readiness to do any thing that could be reasonably re
quired of him. This was, nevertheless, a trifiing with
the high order, and the unlucky solicitor found his way
to the Fleet. But half an hour afterwards the chancellor
called the registrar, and bade him inform the master that
some arrangement must be made for the performance of
the order, and that the master should exercise his discre
tion. On this the counsel for the prisoner took courage ;
and after several wily insinuations for his client, such as
that the end of the motion for papers had been obtained,
and that the solicitor had acted as well as he could under
the circumstances, he begged that the rule for the com
mitment might be rescinded. Jeffreys. " Sir, I make no
new order: I only add to what I have already pro
nounced." And the man remained in custody. Instances
have been remembered of his placing even counsel them
selves in the safe guardianship of the Fleet prison, and
this for errors in judgment ; whilst he sent men, wo
men, and children promiscuously to the warden, in a pro
portion of ten to one as compared with the commitments
of his predecessors.
His bare threats, however, were no small punishments ;
at least in this nervous age we should be apt to think so :
and although the great judge made a common practice
of uttering them, it is agreed that his countenance be
tokened most fearfully the likelihood of their execution.
A poor scrivener felt this awful influence, when he op
posed a petition for relief against a bail bond. The
plaintiff's bill was about to be dismissed, and the scri
vener would have gone off triumphant; but one of the

228 LIFE OF JEFFREYS.

counsel against him very waggishly said, that this man
was a strange fellow, sometimes going to church, some
times to conventicles ; in fact, " it was thought he was a
trimmer." Jeffreys' old recollections revived in a mo
ment. " A trimmer ? " said he ; "I have heard much of
that monster, but never saw one. Come forth, Mr. Trim
mer; turn you round, and let us see your shape." The
defendant was frightened out of his senses ; and lucky it
was for him when the bill against him was dismissed with
costs, so that he could go his way from the court. " How
did you come off? " said a friend of his, as he came into
the hall. " Come off? I am escaped from the terrors of
that man's face, which I would scarce undergo again to
save my life ; and I shall certainly have the frightful im
pression of it as long as I live." The sequel of the his
tory will show, how true this saying was, and how fatal
this tirade had been to the chancellor's welfare. It cost
him his life.
Sir John Trevor had now succeeded Sir John Churchill
as master of the^ rolls : he had been fostered by Jeffreys,
and owed his elevation to that powerful favourite; but
far from bending to the will of his patron with the abject
submission which was expected, he was bold enough to
turn again when trampled upon, and had even the hardi
hood to look with an ambitious eye towards the great
seal. Strange to say, he had some chance of supplant
ing his master ; but as he is connected, in some measure,
with the chancellor's private life at this time, a more full
account of him, and of the disputes which he maintained
in defence of his jurisdiction, shall be deferred, till we
come presently to detail the little that can now be ascer
tained of the judge's domestic history.

LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 229

In 1687, Jeffreys had another opportunity of indulging
his master's spleen against the church, and of upholding
the dispensing power which was the darling aim of his
sovereign. To attain this end he had laboured extremely
in the previous year; indeed, the monarch himself has in
formed us of the zeal with which his chancellor acted,
how he summoned the judges, and enforced the doctrine
of passive obedience as part of the English law, till all
the twelve, saving one,' declared themselves converts to
his arguments, or, which was more probable, bowed before
an influence which could presently strip off their ermine.^
' Sir Thomas Street, judge ofthe Common Pleas. He was first made
a baron of the Exchequer, and thence advanced to the Common bench.
Lord Clarendon attempted to patronize this judge at the Revolution, and
intended to have presented him to the prince ; but meeting with Lord
Coote, he was dissuaded from doing so. " While I was iu the outward
room," says the noble journalist, " my Lord Coote came to me, and told
me he was sorry to see me patronize Street. I told his lordship I had
long known the j udge, and that I took him to be a very honest man. My
lord answered to this effect : — I know he did not join in the judgment for
the dispensing power : he has married my relation ; but he is a very ill
man. I have given the prince a true character of him," &c. When
Street came the next day to Lord Clarendon, he was told that the prince
had ill impressions of him, and was advised to wait a little; which he
did long enough, as far as related to the restoration of his place, for he
was never made a judge again.
° It should be kept in mind, that in delineating the extraordinary cha
racter of Jeffreys, we say decidedly that he would go nearly all lengths
for the sake of his place; but that he would never desert his religion,
though, under the apprehension of disgrace, he certainly persecuted its
functionaries upon occasion. In the course of an inquiry which took
place before the House of Commons in 1689, this power of stripping off
the ermine was most strictly proved in the cases of Baron Nevil and
Judge Powell. The speaker asked the reasons of their discharge.
Nevil said, he was sent for to Chitfins's chambers, when the King came
in with a paper in his hand, and asked his opinion upon the dispensation.
20

230 LIFE OP JEFFREYS.

Devoted to the Catholic tenets, James now resolved to
bear the mask no longer; the precepts of his mother
church swayed him with an absolute dominion, and these
The baron said, he thought the King could not dispense with the penal
laws, but that he would consider of it. Jeffreys then took up the affair,
and sent for the judge several times ; but received a positive declaration
from him against the King's wishes. Street and Holloway were with
Nevil at different times upon the subject; and notwithstanding the chan
cellor's long harangues, and disapproval of the reasons, they maintained
the same resolution. When Judge Holloway concurred, it was in the
presence of the King, Jeffreys, Sunderland, Rochester and Godolphin.
The chancellor at length sent for Baron Nevil to his house, and said that
if he persisted he must expect to be discharged; and seven or eight days
after he had his quietus. To a subsequent question the baron replied,
that the chancellor managed the whole thing. Sir .John Powell thought
he was turned out for his opposition to the dispensing power, and an opi
nion against the crown in the case of a quo warranto. He said, that
Jeffreys was present at the consideration of these decisions in private,
and took an active part in bringing the judges over to the royal will. But
Powell was inexorable ; and he had the honour of being acquainted with
his discharge in the first instance bythe chancellor, who told him, at his
house, that he was sorry for it, but would not send the patent of revoca
tion till the end of the term. — " And I sat out the whole term," added
Powell. Sir Edward Nevil seems to have been a very honest judge : he con
trived to escape in those days with very little observation, and was re
warded with his old place in the Exchequer when King William re
turned. He was afterwards promoted to the bench in the Common
Pleas, and died in 1705, at Hammersmith, August 8.
We have had three judges named Powell, and they were contempora
ries. The first was the gentleman alluded to above ; a man of conside
rable abilities and integrity. He once laid a blame on a brother judge
(Holloway,) which the latter denied and retorted the charge upon
Powell. It was upon the much worn subject of the dispensing power.
Powell said he was at some distance from his brother, and thought that
he assented to the King's demand; Holloway, on the contrary, asserted
that he had never agreed to such an opinion, and he is certainly acquitted
of this by the testimony of others.

LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 231

prompted him to bring back his backsliding subjects to
the pure faith of the Virgin. It had been discovered

Powell was in disgrace for the resolution he displayed at the trial of
the seven bishops, where he zealously and successfully strove in their
favour. The following curious interference is related to have taken
place on the bench on that occasion. The Solicitor-general Williams
was adverting to the dispensation, upon which Powell spoke aside to
the chief justice, — "My Lord, this is wide, Mr. Solicitor would impose
upon us : let him make it out, if he can, that the King has such a power;
and answer the objections made by the defendant's counsel."
Wright, chief justice — "Brother, impose upon us? He shall not im
pose upon me; I know not what he may upon you: for my part, I do
not believe one word he says."
Sir John Powell was the only judge of the twelve in Westminster-
hall when this famous libel case was contested, who -was restored to the
bench. But he was called to account for the sentence passed upon the
Earl of Devonshire ; and severely questioned bythe House of Lords.
The noble earl struck Colonel Culpeper in the King's palace with a
stick, for some affront which had been given him : upon which he was
compelled to give bail in the King's Bench to the amount of 30,000/.
personally, with four sureties bound in penalties of 5000/. each. He
pleaded guilty to the information exhibited against him, and was fined
30,000/.; and Powell was implicated in this exorbitant mulct. The
judge declared he was very sorry; that he had been misguided by
books; that he conceived 3000/. fine enough, and begged Lord Devon
shire's pardon.
Sir Robert Wright followed in the same mercy-begging strain, saying,
that the large fine came, accordir}g to the course of the court, from the
puisne judge first. Holloway tried to show that all four judges were
equally guilty. AUibone was dead. But the lords had possessed them
selves of certain information, which induced them to ask whether this
enormous fine had not been privately cogitated and agreed upon before
they came into court. Wright denied it flat.. Holloway prevaricated,
and said, they had no orders from the King or the chancellor about it. —
" But," said Mr. Justice Powell, " Sir Richard Holloway may remem
ber, there was a discourse of the fine, five or six days before, at the b-rd
chancellor's, where Sir Robert Wright, Sir Richard Holloway, Sir Ri-
pjiard AUibone, and himself were." Then Holloway declared he did

232 LIFE OF JEFFREYS.
that Dr. Lightfoot' had not taken the oaths when he was
admitted to his master's degree at Cambridge ; and this
afforded a very convenient precedent for sending a can
didate to that university for the degree of M. A., who
should be sheltered against the usual ceremonies by the
King's dispensation. Accordingly, Alban Francis, a Be
nedictine monk, armed with a letter under the sign-ma
nual, presented himself at Cambridge, for the purpose of
having the degree conferred upon him. But the vice-
chancellor, Dr. Peachell, or Rachel, as some call him,
finding that the mandate required not only the dignity
which was sought, and to which no objection would have
no.t remember that ; and Wright said, they did not meet about the fine.
However, upon this. Sir John Powell told the discourse; and it was, that
Jeffreys first proposed 20,000/., but afterwards said, it had better be
30,000/., aud then the King might abate 10,000/. Sir John added, that
he expressed his dislike to this before the other judges, but not before
the chancellor. The lords voted the sentence a breach of privilege; but
Po-well was allowed to retain his place in the Common Pleas, which he
held till the summer circuit in 1696, when he died at Exeter.
Thomas Powel came up from the Exchequer, to succeed his name
sake in 1688; but continued a few months only, and was entirely laid
aside. John Powell, junior, called, by way of distinction there, of Gloucester,
(there being two John Powells in the Common Pleas at the same time,)
was a judge very eminent for his learning. He came up successively
from the Exchequer and Common Pleas into the King's Bench, where
he sat a great many years, and proved a most able assistant to the lord
chief justice Holt. He died at the latter end of Queen Anne's reign.
These are but mere samples of the promotions of puisne judges, so much
objected against of late. It is not for the author to presume to suggest
any thing here; but such as will take the trouble to examine the eleva
tions of judges, will find the custom of advancing them entirely identi
fied with the constitution.
' Most probably the great rabbinical scholar and learned writer. He
was a prebendary of Ely, and rector of Much Munden, in Hertfordshire.

LIFE OF JEFFREY?. 233

been offered, but that it was to be given without the ad
ministration of an oath, quickly determined upon a re
spectful opposition to a measure so novel and insidious.
So, after various expressions of their dislike to the pro
ceeding, the members of the university, after admitting
some one to the degree of doctor of physic, who took. the
oaths, sent to Mr. Francis, and declared their readiness
to admit him also, on condition of his submitting to the
same ordeal. But Father Francis of course declined to
do this, insisting as he did upon the King's dispensation ;
and, therefore, he was refused, upon which he went to
Whitehall to make his complaint in form. A second let
ter came down some time afterwards, upon which Dr.
Peachell wrote to the Duke of Albemarle, then chancel
lor, begging him to represent the illegality of the pro
posed admission to the King. His Majesty highly re
sented this obduracy as he considered it; and the conse
quence was a summons from the awful ecclesiastical com
mission to the vice-chancellor and senate, commanding
the former to appear in person, the latter by themselves,
or their deputies.
The sting of this body was the all-powerful chancellor :
he was so admirably calculated to intimidate offenders,
that, as we have elsewhere mentioned, the court could
not be convened without him. The vice-chancellor, ac
cording to Burnet, was an honest, but a weak man ; in
deed his imbecility is evident hy his starving himself at
the Revolution after a rebuke which Archbishop Sancroft
gave him for drunkenness ;' so that a more unfit man

' He tried to resume his eating functions, after three days of absti
nence ; but nature refused, and so he died.
20*

234 LIFE OF JEFFREYS.

could scarcely have been found at this juncture, when
the rights and privileges of so venerable an assembly
were to be called critically into question. Nevertheless,
every thing was to take place with due ceremony, and a
show of as much respeot as the commissioners could make
use of; and the Head was in decency compelled once
again to throw the lambskin over the wolf's shoulders.
On the 21st of April, the judges and the parties sum
moned made their appearance, and the burden of the
questions on that day was simply, "Why did you not
obey the King's command?" However, the vice-chan
cellor obtained with some pains the delay of a week. At
the next meeting the university delivered in an answer
to the charge, and in about ten days from that time all
met again for the purpose of deciding the subject. Jef
freys, terrible even in smiles, scared all the wits of Dr.
Peachell with the first question, — " Pray what was the
oath?" The Doctor had forgotten the oath which he
took when he was made vice-chancellor. At last he
stammered out: — "I cannot call to mind the very words
of the oath, but the substance of it is this; — that I should
well and faithfully prsestare, or administrare munus, or
officium Procancellarii."
Lord Ch. — "Ay, munus, or offioium; well, what then?-"
Then the vice-chancellor said that the office was de
clared by the laws of the land. Jeffreys was desirous of
establishing the fact, that masters of arts had been made
without taking oaths, with the sanction of vice-chancellors
who had taken the same oath as Dr. Peachell; and he
pressed the doctor with Lightfoot's case.
Lord Ch. — "Don't you remember any master of arts
made without oaths?" Dr. Cook (a doctor of the civil

LIFE OP JEFFREYS. 235

law who interposed now and then, and seemed to be the
main stay ofthe vice-chancellor) — "Not under the quality
of a university nobleman, my lord."
Lord Ch. — "Nay, good doctor, you never were vice-
chancellor yet; when you are, we may consider you."
The civilians had no chance with Jeffreys. Cook was
soon at his post again. " My lord, Dr. Lightfoot did sub-
scribe."-^Lord Ch. "What subscription do you mean ?"
Dr. Cook. "To the thirty-nine articles, and the first of
them is the Eug's supremacy." — Lord Ch. "Is sub
scribing swearing, doctor?" And so he was silenced for
that time. Then Mr. Stanhope began, but he was stopped
in the outset.
Lord Ch. — "Nay, look you now, that young gentle
man expects to be vice-chancellor too: when you are, sir,
you may speak ; but till then, it will become you to for
bear." It was impossible for any man to have a fairer
object for his raillery than this Dr. Peachell. After a
strict examination of the unfortunate Head, the noble
lord fell upon Dr. Smoult, the professor of casuistical di
vinity, who had carried up the opinion of the non-regent
house regarding Francis. — Lord. Ch. "And pray, sir,
who are you that you should be thought fit to represent
a whole house ? why should they choose you rather than
any body else?" — Dr. Smoult. "My lord, I suppose be
cause I was one of the seniors." — Lord Ch. "One of
the seniors ! if you come to that, why was not the very
senior chosen?" — Dr. Smoult. "I cannot tell, my lord;
they came to me." — Yice-Ch. "My lord, he is one of
our professors." — Lord Ch. "Nay, when I ask you
questions, they prompt you, and now you prompt them ;
but I must tell you, Mr. Vice-Chancellor, you ought to

236 LIFE OF JEFFREYS.

take an account of what is done in the house yourself
and not from others." Soon afterwards Jeffreys became
tired of all argument and explanation; and having made
a blunder which was corrected in open court by the
bishop of Rochester, one of the commissioners, a circum
stance which by no means improved his temper, he cut
short another deputy from the university, who was trying
to elucidate some act which took place there, with — " Ay,
sir, we took both what was done, and what was not done ;
therefore withdraw." Poor Dr. Peachell was turned out
of his high office, and suspended from the headship of
Magdalen College; but, notwithstanding. Dr. Balderson,
the new vice-chancellor, being a very spirited man.
Father Francis was refused.
The chancellor had now established himself not only
as the head, but the bull-dog of his party: he was ever
zealous to worry all who were not within the sacred fold,
and approved himself a most fitting successor of that
worthy person,— 7
Who still his clenched argument would end
With this home thrust, — he is not Caesar's friend.
The courtiers soon turned their wrath against the other
Magdalen College in the sister university, where the
temperate Dr. Hough had been acknowledged as presi
dent by a large majority, in opposition to the royal man
date, which directed that one Anthony Farmer should be
chosen. This was a man of so ill a reputation, that his
patrons were at last ashamed of him, although he pro
fessed the utmost affection for the popish cause. To say
that the inveteracy of the Fellows in adhering to their
choice would be the means of bringing them before the

LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 237
ecclesiastical inquisition, and that Jeffreys would be at
his post, prepared to repudiate the new Head, and to
punish the disobedient fraternity, is to relate a history
most consistent with the arbitrary wishes of the Sove
reign. But the angry peer transcended himself upon
this occasion ; for in place of a weak and watery vice-
chancellor, he met with a doctor who bearded him on the
throne of his holy office. The name of this college
champion was Fairfax, and the manner of his resistance
presented a scene which cannot but be classed with the
ridiculous, though the countenance of the judge, indeed,
changed from an expression of the most fawning benig
nity to the sternest threatenings of vengeance.
We are told that the university put in an answer to
the charge of disregarding the King's recommendation,
but that Dr. Fairfax's signature to this defence was
wanting. Jeffreys, imagining no less than that he had
found at least one man who had separated himself from
the bed of heretics, was in ecstasies ; and on the doctor's
applying to him for leave to explain his reasons for de
clining to subscribe the answer, said on the instant, "Ay,
this looks like a man of sense and a good subject : let's
hear what he will say." — "I don't object to the answer,"
said Fairfax, "because it is the vindication of my col
lege: I go further; and as according to the rules of the
ecclesiastical courts, a libel' is given to the party that he
may know the grounds of his accusation, I demand that
libel, for I do not know otherwise wherefore I am called
here ; and besides, this affair should be discussed in West-
• The same writing as a declaration at common law, intimating the
nature of the charge against the defendant or party libelled against.

238 LIFE OF JEFFREYS.

minster-hall."-:-" You are a doctor of divinity, not of
law," exclaimed the disconcerted judge ; that smile, which
had bewitched so many hapless defendants into an una
vailing though ingenuous confession, being now pursed
up. "By what commission or authority do you sit here?"
rejoined the undaunted Fellow. As long as Jeffreys
could enjoy the pleasure of indulging his pretensions to
special pleading by quibbling at the weaknesses of de.-
fendants, he could preserve a tolerable share of humour,
though at the expense of those upon whom he might
exercise it; but here was a man, not only emancipating
himself from the answer which would be a favourable sub
ject for the judge's raillery, but absolutely questioning
the very right and essence of his dominion. So he broke
out: — "Pray what commission have you to be so impu
dent in court? This man ought to be kept in a dark
room. Why do you suffer him without a guardian?
Why did you not bring him to me to beg him? Pray let
the officers seize him."'

' King James was not more polished in his behaviour than his chan
cellor. He very ofliciously went to Oxford in person, to expostulate
with his rebellious college; and after remonstrating with the chief men
of it, he addressed them thus, while they were kneeling to him, and
begging for mercy and liberty of conscience: —
"Ye have been a stubborn, turbulent college; I have known you to be
so this six-and-twenty years: you have affronted me in this. Is this
your Church-of-England loyalty? One would wonder to find so many
Church-of-England men in such a business! Go home, and show your
selves good members of the Church of England : get you gone! Know,
I am your King! I will be obey'd, and I command you to be gone.
Go, and admit the Bishop of Oxon Head, principal, what d'ye call it of
your college; (one that stood by said. President,) I mean president of
the college. Let them that refuse it look to it; they shall feel the
weight of their Sovereign's displeasure."

LIFE OF JEFFREYS.

239

The college continuing contumacious, it was left to the
Bishop of Chester, Chief Justice Wright,' (a creature and
protegt of Jeffreys) and Baron Jenner, of punning me
mory, to subdue them ; and the matter ended with the ex
pulsion of seventy-five Fellows, and the installation of
papists in their room.
Yet, notwithstanding this turbulence and vapouring
on the part of Lord Jeffreys, no man better knew the
world, and the particular respect which one member of
society, whether public or private, owes to another. The
following is as brilliant an example as can be furnished,
not only of this strong sense of propriety, but' of the com
mand of passion in a man who commonly allowed no
bounds to his resentment. There being a contested elec
tion for Arundel, the government showed great anxiety
that the court candidate should be returned, and Jeffreys
went down to further this object. The mayor, an at
torney of good character and fortune, was the returning
officer, and he did not fail to notice the busy, interfering
chancellor intriguing at the hustings for every feasible
vote. But he determined on concealing his knowledge
of the great political person present. With inviolable
firmness he impartially scrutinized, the pretensions of
every man who came up to poll; till, at length, having
rejected one of the court voters, Jeffreys rose up in a
furious passion, and declared that the vote should be ad-

' Like master like man. And so the chief justice followed, longo sed
proximus intervallo, at the heels of the chancellor. Mr. Fulham, one
of the Fellows, received this repartee from Wright: "Pray, who's the
best lawyer, you or 11 Your Oxford law is no better than your Oxford
divinity : if you've a mind to a posse comitatus, you may have one soon
enough."

240 LIFE OF JEFFREYS.

mitted; "I am the lord chancellor of this realm," said
the enraged nobleman. The mayor, surveying him with
scorn, thus replied: "Your ungentlemanlike behaviour
convinces me it is impossible you should be the person
you pretend; were you the chancellor, you would know
that you have nothing to do here, where I alone preside.
Officer, turn that fellow out of court." The crier pro
ceeded to do his duty ; and my lord, not over desirous of
proving at that morn ent that he ^actually kept the King's
conscience, retired to his inn. The popular candidate
was elected. In the evening Jeffreys begged the favour
of the mayor's company at his lodging; but the inde
pendent magistrate declined this suspicious honour; upon
which, nothing daunted, the chancellor proceeded to the
house of his antagonist, and introduced himself with this
winning speech: "Sir, notwithstanding we are in diffe
rent interests, I cannot help revering one who so well
knows, and dares so nobly execute the law«; and though
I myself was somewhat degraded thereby, you did but
your duty. You, as I have learned, are independent,
but you may have some relation who is not so well pro
vided for; if you have, let me have the pleasure of pre
senting him with a considerable place in my gift, just
now vacant." The mayor could not resist this flattering
bait ; and having a nephew to whom such a place would
be very acceptable, he named his relative, and the ap
pointment was immediately signed by Jeffreys.
It must not be supposed that the universities would
easily forget the carriage of the high ecclesiastical com
mission judge towards their great men : the indignation
against him was like that which the Roman senators ma
nifested when the Gauls plucked their beards ; and occa-

LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 241

sion was not wanting to gratify the resentment which had
been aroused. On the 21st of July, 1688, the Duke of
Ormond, chancellor of Oxford, died, and it was the royal
intention that the chancellor of England should succeed
to that rank, in the room of the deceased duke. But the
college had shrewdly suspected an interference in this
matter; and, accordingly, on the 23d of that month,
James, the late duke's grandson, was elected in convoca
tion without a dissentient voice. On the next day came
a mandate from court to choose George, Lord Jeffreys ;
but letters being sent for the purpose of satisfying His
Majesty that the election could not be revoked, the fa
vourite was obliged to rest contented;' and, moreover,
the King, though displeased at first, delivered to the new

' Jeffreys was outwitted more than once, as every man necessarily
must be who is striving for all things. In 1684, Dr. Grenvill was made
dean of Durham, and proposed to resign his prebendal stall. Jeffreys
got a promise of this preferment ; but the affair got to the Earl of Bath's
ears, and he contrived to make Crew, bishop of the see, acquainted with
it. So it was agreed, that while the instrument of the dean's elevation
was passing the broad seal, the dean himself should give up his prebend :
upon which Sir George Wheeler, who had married his niece, was forth
with installed; and the chief justice was balked by speed, in the same
way as he lost the university honours.
He was rebuffed on the northern circuit by a coroner about the same
time. Mr. Baddiley was the person, and he had been fined by my lord
for a misdemeanor of some kind. After dinner he got admittance to
the judge. — "How now," said Jeffreys, who expected to pocket what
he could get, "I suppose you are come to beg off your fine!" — "'No, my
Lord, have a care of that," was the reply : " for as you have laid it on,
it belongs to me to take it off." Fines and amerciaments were excepted
out of the King's commission as belonging to the see ; and Jeffreys per
ceiving the drift, was plaguily disconcerted at it. These two anecdotes
are from Crew's Memoirs, in Nichols's Leicestershire.
21

242 LIFE OF JEFFREYS,

Duke of Ormond the George and Garter which had been
worn by his late grandfather.
We must now go back to the year 1686, for the pur
pose of recounting a defeat which the chancellor sus
tained at the Charter-house, where he acted occasionally
as a governor. It seems that the King's first experiment
in favour of the dispensing power was tried at this insti
tution, although it was not concluded till after the quar
rel with the universities. Andrew Popham, a papist, was
recommended for an out-pensioner's situation. The mas
ter ' desired the applicant to wait till the governors had
met to consider his case. At this meeting Jeffreys at
tended; and the business being propounded, he proposed
a ballot for the man's admission without discussion. But
it was ordered otherwise, and the master was heard upon
the impropriety of receiving any person into the hospital,
who would not take the oaths of allegiance and supre
macy. He cited the clause in the act of parliament ex
pressly relating to the Charter-house. "What's that to
the purpose?" said a governor. "I think it is very much
to the purpose," answered the Duke of Ormond; "for
an act of parliament is not so slight a thing, but that it
deserves to be considered." So the question was put,
and Popham was refused. However, several governors
were anxious to have a letter written in answer to the
King's message; but, as Oldmixon says, Jeffrey's "flung
away ;" and he carried so many with him, that the rest
were not sufficient to constitute an assembly. The letter
was eventually sent, notwithstanding, on which the King
gave it to his chancellor, saying, "Find out a way that
' Dr. Burnet, author of the " Theory of the Earth."

LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 243

I may have right done me at that hospital." This pro
duced the grand threats of the quo warranto, and the ec
clesiastical commissioners ; but whether it was that the
governors' had too much influence, and too good a cause,
(which they had spirit enough to defend, ) or that the
court discovered their weakness in attacking Oxford and
Cambridge, it is clear that the Charter-house was left in
peace, as it had been once, before in the time of James
the First, when the great chief justice Coke stood for
ward as its champion, and pronounced a decisive judgment
against the party who had ventured to claim it.
But it is time to look homewards for awhile, and to
see whether any thing more than ordinary was passing
at this time in the chancellor's family. Nevertheless, it
is rarely, indeed, that we can approach a man's domestic
circle ; and proud is that national feeling which tells us
we are so safely sheltered from the crowd; yet, how
gratifying is the little whispered story of private life, got
even at the twentieth hand with all its discrepancies and
ambiguities ! What a treasure for a newspaper's proprie
tary is the early offspring of some well-turned scandal !
Our principle is in brilliant proof at the present moment,
when all the fond records of antiquated memories are
brushed up for the general pleasure of a peep behind the
curtain. And shall we be silent, if we can by any means
' The signatures of the governors were these : —
W. Cant.* Danby.
Ormond. Nottingham.
Hallifax. H. London.f
Craven. T. Burnet.}:

• Williara Sancroa. f Henry Compton. ]: The master.

244 LIFE OF JEFFREYS.
gain access to the family of that remarkable chancellor,
whose private bearing has already been described as so
frolicsome and licentious, and whose behaviour in the
marriage state (but that we know how contrary the course
of human nature will r.un on occasion,) might be supposed
as full of command as his judgment-seat? To be short,
such domestic tales as can be gathered shall be given at
once, according to Dr. Johnson's liberal recommendation,
" tell all;" and considering that the parties have been in
their graves for a century and a half, the value of the
history will suffer no depreciation from its scantiness.
The second Lady Jeffreys was a dame of most slippery
courses, if we are to credit rumour: indeed, the words,
"I dare be sworn she's honest," could never have been
predicted of her without a fearfully reminiscent blush.
To say truth, the common notion at the time of Jeffreys's
marriage was, that Sir John Trevor, of whom more ac
count shall be presently given, was the favoured gallant
of the lady's widowhood, and that he left, — who knows
what? as the satirist speaks. However, there happened
to be a great quarrel between Scroggs, the chief justice,
and Sir George, the then newly married recorder, while
they were at dinner. Scroggs found out that his friend's
wife had got into the straw only thirty weeks after mar
riage, which, considering that there was already an odd
story afloat about a Hansen-kelder, and that Trevor's at
tentions were no secret, afforded a high treat to the judge.
So, while Scroggs, who had got out his almanac, was pro
claiming this, Jeffreys was raging and denying, which,
as the story goes, "set him hard as Wakeman's trial. ' ' At
last, like rival counsellors who have been all day clamour
ing at each other, they went off very quietly together to pass

LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 245

sentence upon poor Harris, the bookseller. And really,
these pleasantries were not confined to Sir John Trevor ;
for, soon afterwards, a man named Montfort, a licensed
parasite of the chancellor, (who dearly loved flattery,)
appears upon the stage. He seems to have been a suc
cessful candidate for the lady's future favours ; so that
when the bruit of the young Prince's birth went abroad,
and created so great a sensation, — the Peter Pindar of
that day, singing of the great achievement, and of the
chancellor's belief in it, exclaims, —
And he believes the prince is real too.
But not so certain, nor, 'tis feared, so true.
As he wears horns, that were by M — fort made.
Peter is not content till he has entirely ruined the fair
one's good name : —
For he of Heav'n is sure whene'r he dyes :
Thanks to the care of fond, indulgent wife,
To make atonement for his wicked life ;
D  s her own soul, * "
*f » « # * «
Sir John Reesby affects to have been quite surprised
at the freedoms which the chancellor indulged in before
this Mr. Montfort, who had been a comedian. " I dined
with the lord chancellor," says he, "where the lord mayor
of London was a guest, and some other gentlemen. His
lordship having, according to custom, drank deep at din
ner, called for one Mountfort, a gentleman of his, who
had been a comedian, an excellent mimic ; and to divert
the company, as he was pleased to term it, he made him
plead before him in a feigned cause, during which he aped
all the great lawyers of the age, in their tone of voice,
and in their action and gesture of body, to the very great
211=

246 LIFE OF JEFFREYS.

ridicule, not only of the lawyers, but of the law itself,
which to me did not seem altogether so prudent in a
man of his lofty station in the law; diverting it certainly
was, but prudent in the lord high chancellor, I shall never
think it."
To resume for a moment my Lady Jeffreys, whose hus
band may truly be said to have
Mist of the maid and caught the dragon, —
she seems to have kept quiet possession of her home,
though not much encouraged at court. She was not pre
sent at the birth of the young chevalier ; but she had the
curiosity to ask Dr. Hugh Chamberlayne whether he had
any commands to attend Her Majesty ; to which he briskly
answered, he thought he should, unless their brains were
in disorder.
The chancellor never abated his vivacious, though in
temperate courses. He was always jollity personified.
One day at Alderman Duncomb's, he, the lord treasurer,'
and some others, worked themselves up to so high a pitch
of loyalty, that it was whispered they had stripped to
their shirts, and, but for an accident, would have got
upon a sign-post to drink the King's health. Neverthe
less, this furious debauch cost Jeffreys a fit of the stone,
which had nearly ended all his convivialities for ever.
He "virtuously" brought it upon himself, says Reresby.
Sometimes, however, he kept very good society. Evelyn,
the author of Silva, notes in his Diary, that Jeffreys had
always been very civil to him, and that he went to dine
with the great man on one occasion. On another day
' Rochester.

LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 247

he writes, "I returned home, when I found my lord
chief justice [Jeffreys,] the Countess of Clarendon, and
Lady Catherine Fitzgerald, who dined with me."
Another of the chancellor's high acquaintance was
Henry, earl of Clarendon ; but that noble lord had a pur
pose to serve by ingratiating himself at Bulstrode, having
some concerns at issue, which needed countenance from
the King. He was treated with great civility; and invited
to dinner, a gentleman, named Graham, having "prepared
my lord chancellor." After a disappointment, occasioned
by Lord Clarendon's illness, the parties met accordingly ;
and Jeffreys promised to take all opportunities of serving
his guest, begging that he might sometimes see him. —
And he showed a similar partiality on many subsequent
occasions. In fact, the noble earl had done well to ac
quire a judicial friend ; for he was at one time involved
in litigation. He had embroiled himself with the queen
dowager in the court of Exchequer, and with a Mr. Dock-
manique, about a New River affair ; in which latter case
Jeffreys interested himself highly to effect a satisfactory
settlement. One day they came to Bulstrode for this
purpose ; but all business being delayed by the default of
some absentees, the chancellor was determined to amuse
his friend. This is the note in the Diary: ' "I went in
his calash with him. He talked very freely to me of all
affairs ; called the judges a thousand fools and knaves ;
that chief justice Wright was a beast: he said, the King
and Queen were to dine with him on Thursday next ; that
he had still great hopes the King would be moderate,
when the parliament met. When we came to Dr. Hick
man's, my lord was inclined to be merry ; saying, he had
papists and spies among his own servants, and therefore
must be cautious at home."

248 LIFE OP JEFFREYS.

We have a picture of the chancellor's self-lote from
the author of his "Life and Character," which exhibits a
most inordinate vanity. It would seem that he affected
this acquaintance with learned men from a pure feeling
of conceit, which his flatterers had found it their interest
to foster even in its utmost extravagancies : so that he
would discourse of religion, philosophy, indeed of any
subject which he had been complimented on knowing, and
would even delight in pointing out errors in the principal
works of art whioh appeared in his time ; though it often
turned out that his opinions were not classical, and his
conclusions inaccurately drawn. It is related, that the
grossest adulation, such as would disgust and affront
another man, was the sweetest homage which could be
paid him; whether it came from the press in "fustian"
dedications, or from the lips of those who would "fool
him to the top of the bent " for their dinner and wine. —
These worthies, like all base-born parasites, repaid him
with a silent laugh at his vanity ; whilst men of taste and
learning, who heard his solutions of philosophical and
mathematical problems at second-hand (for he dared not
adventure them in the face of science,) were amazed,
when they discovered his want of skill. One would have
thought that the following specimen of dedication had
been a mere mockery and sarcasm, but for his reported
love of the most fulsome harangues. It is prefixed to the
"History of Oracles, and the Cheats ofthe Pagan Priests,"
published in 1688.
" Nor can the unthinking and most malicious of your
enemies reproach your lordship with self-interest in any
of your services, since all the world knows, when they
were thought criminal, nay even punishable, (for such

LIFE OF JEFFREYS.

249

miserable times we have seen) when it was enough to have
forfeited your fortune, and almost your life ; then, I say,
there was found in your lordship that undaunted bravery,
that spirit and fire of loyalty, that true concern for the
royal cause, that you were the first destin'd victim for
the slaughter, the first to be sacrificed to the association
rage, even when you had nothing left you but honour,
justice, and innocence, for your guard."
This character for bravery was sadly at variance with
the spectacle of Mr. Recorder on his knees before the
parliament ; and his justice or innocence might have been
bitterly contrasted with the western horrors.
Jeffreys was considered a good judge of music ; and
during the rivalship of those two famous organ-builders.
Father Smith and Harris, he was one of the umpires
chosen to decide on their respective merits. An organ
was placed by each artist in the Temple church ; one at the
east, the other at the west end : Blow and Purcell played
for Smith, and LuUy, Queen Catherine's organist, for
Harris. Then Harris challenged Smith to make within
a given time the additional stop of the vox humana ; the
cremona, or viol stop ; the double courtel, or bass flute,
&c. The challenge was accepted, and each party laboured
to the utmost. Jeffreys decided for Smith, and Harris's
organ was withdrawn. Smith, or Schmidt, was a native
of Germany ; Harris came from France.'
Some time after his elevation to the chancellorship,
Jeffreys bethought himself to visit his father; it is to be
hoped through a desire of seeing his parent once more.

' See Granger's Biographical History of England, by Noble, Vol. ii.
p. 363.

250 LIFE OF JEFFREYS.
and not for the purpose of displaying his new glories in
the neighbourhood of his birth, whence he had been so
cavalierly dismissed before by the old gentleman. How
ever this may be, Mr. Jeffreys of Acton, conscious how
odious his son's character had become in the nation, was
so much ashamed, that he refused to see him. This re
spectable man survived all his sons; and Mr. Yorke speaks
of a picture at Acton which represents the father in
mourning for his seventh and youngest, the canon of Can
terbury. But it is time that we should turn for a while to the
fortunes of Sir John Trevor, who was so long intimately
connected with Jeffreys. He was also allied by blood to
his patron, being a cousin,' and like him arose from the
smallest beginnings. A clerk to Arthur Trevor, another
kinsman, and a lawyer in the Temple, — he was allowed
to learn, as his relation said, "the knavish part of the
law," in chambers. After this he courted the society of
gamesters ; and brought his knowledge of law to bear well
with them, so that he was their point d'appui, when they
had involved themselves in any gambling difficulties,
solving their doubts, and playing the judge much to their
satisfaction. Whether Jeffreys interested himself for
this lawyer by reason of his relationship, or because he
was resolved that the acquaintance between his wife and
Trevor should appear reasonable, by introducing him as
his own personal friend, we need not inquire (both grounds
would entitle the young man to a favourable considera
tion:) it is certain, that a silk gown, and the mastership,
of the Rolls, on the decease of Sir John Churchill, were
' Descended from Tudor Trevor, earl of Hereford.

LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 251

the rewards or the advantages of this friendship : and in
July, 1688, he was sworn of the privy-council. Henry,
earl of Clarendon, remarks upon it thus : — " July 6, 1688.
Sir John Trevor, master of the Rolls, Colonel Tytus, and
Mr. Vane, Sir Henry Yane's son, were sworn of the
privy-council. Good God bless us ! What will the world
come to?"
He had certainly supplanted the chancellor, according
to Roger North, if King James's dominion had lived
longer, for he never held his superior in much awe ; and
in Cornish's case, he had the fearlessness to say, " That
if he [Jeffreys] pursued that unfortunate man to execu
tion, it would be no better than murder." Matters, truly,
had gone so far in dispute between them, as to produce
mutual scoldings and upbraidings at Whitehall. The ef
fort to unseat his master,-if true, appears to be ingrati
tude of a sufficiently black description on the part of
Trevor ; but a writer informs us, that Jeffreys, most pro
bably through jealousy of his newly-raised favourite, per
petually reversed his decrees, and discharged his most
common orders. Nay more, he set up officers of his
own appointment to affront the master by questioning
his authority, and insulting him publicly on his seat,
without learning or credit to sustain their objections.'
Sir John boldly maintained his ground, and baffled the
attempts which were made to humble him ; but it is by
no means so clear that he would have succeeded to the
seals. There was more than one anxious aspirant to this
dignity so soon as it was known that Jeffreys' attachment

, ' Yet on consulting Vernon's Reports, many of Sir John Trevor's de
crees will be found to have been confirmed by the lord chancellor.

252 LIFE OF JEFFREYS.

to the Protestant religion had diminished his influence at
court ; and but for the firmness of a British jury, it is
probable that Mr. Solicitor-general Williams would have
had them for his zealous service against the seven bishops.'
However, the good plangt of Sir John Trevor did not
set at the Revolution ; for he was chosen speaker of the
House of Commons in 1690, having filled that high situa
tion before in King James's parliament. He was consti
tuted first commissioner of the great seal in the same
year, and presided in Chancery till the elevation of Lord
Somers. He met, indeed, with some reverses; which
must occasionally happen to every "bold and dexterous
man," as Burnet calls him.
The mastership of the Rolls, for example, was given
to Henry Powle on the accession of William ; but Trevor
recovered that place in a few years on the demise of the
master, and continued to dispense equity to the day of
his death. This dignity was restored to him while
speaker, and first commissioner in Chancery. But the
worst difficulty he ever fell into was the discovery of a
bribe which he took from the city of London, for patro
nizing a bill to satisfy the orphanage debts : no master
of the Rolls ever ran nearer a lee-shore for lOOOZ. After
hearing a variety of personal reproaches for six hours,
he was actually necessitated to put the question against

' Philip Yorke, in his " Royal Tribes of Wales," tells this story, which
he heard from Lord Hardwicke : — " When Jeffreys, who was sitting in
the court of Chancery, heard the immense shouting for the bishops' ac
quittal, he was seen to smile, and hide his face in his nosegay. This
was as good as — 'Mr. Solicitor, I keep my seal;' for he knew that Wil
liams had been promised it, if he could get a verdict against the hie
rarchy."

LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 253

himself; and, conformably with the sense of the House,
having made the comfortable declaration, that "Sir John
Trevor was guilty of corrupt bribery, by receiving," &c.
he departed ; and, sending the mace, did not care to ob
trude himself again as speaker. In a few days he was
expelled, but no impeachment followed to deprive him of
his legal rank, so that the wags cried out; "Justice is
blind, but Bribery only squints." He squinted abomi
nably. And he was not troubled with any qualms of po
litical integrity; but the absence of these, indeed, has
shown a strong digestion in very many of his fraternity
since, and in others, too, as well. Burnet says, that he
began the practice of buying off men ; a circumstance which
would alone demonstrate the virtue of a national debt,
and the righteous appropriation of loans; and, being a
tory himself, he was of course deemed the fittest to manage
that party in parliament.
Not to be too hard upon him, he certainly was a man
of great acuteness who could so well recommend himself
to every government, and enjoy an office which requires
a singular purity in its administration, himself under the
galling imputation of bribery, and the sad punishment of
being turned out from a post of the highest worth.^" He
died at his house in Clement 's-lane. May 20, 1717; and
was buried- in the Rolls' chapel."'

' Collins' Peerage. Trevor was once the victim of a repartee from
Tillotson, who was in general sparing of his wit. Soon after the arch
bishop's great promotion, and Sir John's unlucky adventure of the 1000/.,
the latter meeting the churchman near the House of Lords, muttered
loud enough to be overheard, " I hate a fanatic in lawn-sleeves." — "And
I hate a knave in any sleeves," returned the doctor.
The bribery spoken of was quite in keeping with his character. He
22

254 LIFE OF JEFFREYS.

Except in Granger, it is difficult to say, where George,
(Jeffreys) Earl of Flint, Viscount Weikham, is mentioned.
The reverend biographer once thought that this titlewas a

was a decided economist. One day he dined alone at the Rolls, and was
taking his wine, when his cousin, Roderic Lloyd, was ushered in from
a side-door. — "You rascal," said Trevor to his servant, "and you have
brought my cousin, Roderic Lloyd, Esq., prothonotary of North Wales,
marshal to Baron Price, and so forth, and so forth, up my bach stairs.
Take my cousin, Roderic Lloyd, Esq., prothonotary of North Wales,
marshal to 3aron Price, and so forth, and so forth; take him instantly
back, down my bach stairs, and bring him up my front stairs." Roderic
kicked against this excessive exhibition of respect, probably anticipating
the plot; for while he was being conveyed away down one, and up ano
ther flight of stairs, his Honour removed the bottle and glass. This
same Roderic was once dreadfully frightened in Chancery-lane. Coming
home rather fresh from his club one night, he ran against the pump there.
Thinking he had received a blow, he whipped out his sword, made a
lunge, and passed it into the spout. The pump being somewhat crazy,
fell down. Roderic concluded the worst, left his weapon sticking, and
made off to Sir John's house in the Rolls under the dreadful apprehension
of having killed a man. There he was kept close by the servants for
the remainder of the night. In the morning, a faithful valet, who had
been sent to learn the condition of the fallen, made his report ; and forth
came the judge to deliver his kinsman from his horrors and confinement
in the coal-hole. The above anecdotes are from " Yorke's Royal Tribes
of Wales."
There were two other judges of the same family. All three owed
their immediate descent to Edward ap David, who died in 1448. John,
of whom we have been speaking, had the eldest son of this Edward for
his ancestor ; while Thomas, whom we shall now introduce, was derived
ffom the third, (Richard,) whose fifth son he was. Thomas was born
July 6, 1586: he was observed to smile as soon as he was born, (an
augury as well applicable to a tailor as a judge;) went to the Inner
Temple, and became serjeant-at-law. Collins informs us, that he was
successively judge of the Common Pleas and lord chief baron ; but from
the authorized law reports of the period in which he lived, it appears
that he was made a baron of the Exchequer in the early part of King
Charles' reign ; and we find from history, that he continued in that sta-

LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 255

"ridiculous sarcasm," till he was shown a book entitled,
" Dissertatio Lithologica, auctore Joanne Groenevelt,
Transisalano, Daventriensi, M. D. E Col. Med. Lond.

tion till the death of his master, when, in common with five others, he
refused to act under the new commission. He was impeached during
the troubles of 1641 ; and though he escaped the vengeance which fell
upon his contemporary Berkley, who was fairly taken off the bench, ha
was obliged to pay 10,000/. After this, he was, at one time, the only
judge who sat upon the Exchequer bench, when certain messengers de
livered the King's writ to him and Judge Reve, for an adjournment of
the term from London to Oxford : he caused the person who served him
to be apprehended, and so did his fellow judge. One of these men was
hanged as a spy. He married, first. Prudence, daughter of Henry Bo-
teler, Esq.; and secondly, Frances, daughter and heir of Daniel Blenner
hasset, of Norfolk. By his first wife he had Thomas, who was made a
baronet, but died without issue male, in Charles II. 's reign. The judge
himself died December 21, 1656, aged 83 ; and was buried in Leaming
ton Hastang, in Warwickshire.
Thomas Trevor, the first Lord Trevor, and ancestor of the Viscounts
Hampden, was nephew of Baron Trevor. His father was Sir John, of
Trevallin, Flintshire; and his eldest brother was Sir John, principal se
cretary of state to King Charles II. This gentleman studied the law
with such effect, that he became solicitor-general in 1692, and attorney
soon afterwards. When Treby died, he was advanced to be chief jus
tice of the Common Pleas, and in 1711 was made a peer. He was a
tory at this time, and so met with little mercy-at the Hanover succes
sion ; for he was compelled to quit his place in favour of Sir Peter King.
Had the question, whether the judges were removable on the demise
ofthe Crown been new, Trevor would have tried it, on the principle of
his being appointed during good behaviour; but Holt had been alarmed
on the accession of Queen Anne, and had procured a new commission;
and Sir John Trevor, the master of the Rolls, had followed his example.
Archer had attempted the same thing, in the reign of Charles II. ; and
so had the Chief Baron Walter, in the preceding reign. Yet Sir Joseph
Jekyll, chief justice of Chester at the death of King William, boldly set
the court at defiance ; and though he was threatened with a prosecution,
and great interest made for the place by Mr. Conyers, he prevailed.
Lord Trevor had started a whig, and had been attorney some years be-

256 LIFE OF JEFFREYS,
Editio secunda. Londini, 1687, 8vo." It had this de
dication; — " Honoratissimo domino, D. Georgio, Comiti
Flintensi, Vicecomiti de Weikham, baroni de Weim, su
premo Anglise cancellario, et serenissimo Jacobo Secundo,
Regi Anglise, a secretioribus consiliis."^

fore he deserted his party; he then gradually withdrew himself, and sig
nally dissented from them, by voting against Sir John Fenwick's at
tainder. However, he came back to them, and in 1726 was made lord
privy seal, one of the lords justices in 1727, and president of the council
in 1730. " He was," says Onslow, " the only man almost that I ever
knew, who changed his party as he had done, that preserved so general
an esteem with all parties as he did." We learn from the same autho
rity, that he loved being at court, but was very awkward there, having
been a most "reserved, grave, and austere judge." Yet the speaker
gives him a character for ability and uprightness as chief justice; and
adds, that he had found him sufliciently communicative in conversation.
Holt was accustomed to "disparage his law." He died, aged 71, June
19, 1730. He was a fellow of the Royal Society, and a governor of the
Charter-house. He was twice married. Three of his sons became suc
cessively Lords Trevor : and another was made Bishop of St. David's
and translated to Durham. The eldest son bythe second wife, who also
inherited the barony of Trevor, was the first Viscount Hampden.
' There would be no room for astonishment on finding that King James
had gratified his minister with an earldom; but why was the advanced
rank abandoned by his son ? The creation could hardly have been made
for life only : possibly it might have been fully intended, but never exe
cuted ; or, which is most probable, the patent might never have been
sued out (Nichols says it never was,) and the young lord was clearly in
a bad condition to ask for aggrandizement. A correspondent in the Gen
tleman's Magazine seems to -treat the promotion altogether as a fiction;
and, referring to the picture by Sir Godfrey Kneller, which represents
the judge in his baron's robes, asks, if the painter would have drawn him
twice.? But though the portrait by Sir Godfrey was executed in 1687,
why should not the title have been granted later in that year, and tbe
dedication by Groenevelt made in anticipation of it ? Here is a book
which bears the intended honour upon the face of it, and a print to con
firm its authority.

LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 257
" But let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest
he fall." Just at the moment when our chancellor's
prosperity seemed to have attained an eminence which
men might look up to with wonder, there was a danger at
hand, of that fatal description which ever awaits such as
stand too confidently upon their imagined influence. We
have come to the month of December, 1687; and although
it was not mentioned in due course, it is sufficient for us
to allude to the well-known historical fact of Lord Castle
maine going ambassador to Pope Innocent, some two or
three years before. With the opportune fits of cough
ing which afflicted his Holiness as soon as business was
mentioned, with the strict requisitions of ceremonials
which troubled the diplomatist, his failure in the main ob
ject of his mission, and the doubts thrown upon Wel
wood's narrative, by such as have said that the pope
never coughed at all, we have no concern ; our object
being to reveal the combustibles in this mine which was
to be sprung. In the midst of this it is to be observed,
that Castlemaine's journey to Rome was high-treason;
and that Jeffreys was alarmed at it beyond measure, it
being his duty, as a cabinet minister, to entertain an
opinion upon the subject, to advise the King, and be
ready to answer for the consequences. His lukewarm
ness was detected by the sharp-sighted priests with a fa
cility very natural to them ; and they followed up this
imputation against him throughout the reign. Father
Petre, Sunderland's tool and vehicle, had moreover
discovered, that in the proceedings against Magdalen
College, a moderation, quite obnoxious to the papists, had
been recommended by the chancellor to his sovereign.
Now the received maxim was, that "all court merit con-
90*

258 LIFE OF JEFFREYS.

sisted in promoting the Catholic cause," and the King
was well-pleased with the application of it. Jeffreys
would not promote the cause, therefore Jeffreys must be
sacrificed. The matter stood thus: Tyrconnel, deputy
of Ireland, was fearful he should be obliged to yield his
place to my Lord Castlemaine; Petre was his friend, and
at this father's hands he asked for assistance and con
tinuance in his office. Castlemaine was attached to the
pope, and had a promise of great interference from him,
which went so far, through the nuncio, as to gain over
the monarch in his favour. If the Lords Powis, Bellasis,
and Dover, then lords of the Treasury, could be made
lords commissioners of the great seal,' Castlemaine might
be lord treasurer, and so Tyrconnel remain in Ireland,
both lording it over the "dirty roads of power." The
Protestant keeper of the seals was thus in a fair way of
returning the purse and mace; for, on the 17th of De
cember, it was resolved in the cabinet, that this altera
tion was feasible, and should be made. However, just at
the time there broke out a quarrel between the French
King and the Pope : Tyrconnel, Petre, and Jeffreys, were
of the French faction; and Castlemaine followed his
Holiness. Father Petre, now able to save Tyrconnel,
dared not alter the balance of the court by introducing
Lord Castlemaine; and so Jeffreys profited by the turn
of luck, and was thoroughly re-established.^
' Horace Walpole tells us, in his Catalogue of Royal and Noble Au
thors, of a report, that Jeffreys was nearly superseded by the Earl of
Anglesey, in 1686 ; but adds, he could hardly suppose that the minister
would be so easily unseated. The event was nearer at hand in 1687.
' Oldmixon says, that his restoration was effected by Sunderland and
the Queen,

LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 259

As far as appearances went, the chancellor showed the
most manifest eagerness to deserve his continued favour,
though it may be shrewdly suspected (and the momen
tous case of the seven bishops' affords a remarkable ex
ample of this,) that he never persecuted the establish
ment but with an aching and disapproving heart. In
deed, at that trying crisis, he was actually in great trou
ble, and spoke freely of the apprehensions he entertained
that their public trial would be of ill consequence to the
King. "It will be found," said he, "that I have done
the part of an honest man; as for the judges, they are
most of them rogues." And at another time he said,
that the King had once resolved to let the business fall,
but that some people would hurry him to his destruction.
And after the trial he declared, that the King himself
'was vexed at it ; that he was in a milder temper ; and,
"now," said he, "honest men, both lords and others,
(though the King have used them hardly,) should appear
often at court: I am sure it would do good." All this
smoothness, however, was behind the curtain: we give
his public conduct beneath.
The bishops, after having incensed the monarch by their
famous petition, (when he declared, as he did oftentimes
afterwards, that he would be obeyed,) were summoned
before the privy council, where the great examinant and
interrogator was present. The point was soon arrived
at. " Do you own the petition ?" said Jeffreys. It is to
be noticed that hitherto no evidence of libel had been ac
quired on the part of the crown ; these dignified persons

¦ William Sancroft, archbishop of Canterbury ; William Lloyd, bishop
of St. Asaph ; Francis Turner, bishop of Ely ; Thomas Kenn, bishop of
Bath and Wells; John Lake, bishop of Chichester; Thomas White,
bishop of Peterborough; Sir Jonathan Trelawney, bishop of Bristol.

260 LIFE OF JEFFREYS.
must, therefore, be condemned by their own admissions,
drawn warily forth by the wily judge. But not so easily:
they evaded at first ; and at length, out of mere shame
at the fear of acknowledging their own, the archbishop
said that he wrote it, the bishops that they had signed
and delivered it. But this was only half the campaign.
"Did you publish it?" continued the chancellor. This
they flatly denied ; they had no knowledge of the publi
cation. Then a lecture was commenced upon the wicked
ness of their disobedience; the disturbance of the gene
ral peace ; and many menaces were interspersed to alarm
the bishops for their safety. Finding that he was wast
ing his breath, Jeffreys demanded their recognizance to
appear before the Court of King's Bench, and answer
the high misdemeanor. Upon this, they insisted on the
privilege of their peerage, which rather terrified the coun
cil, the rights of nobility being serious stumbling-blocks
to all innovators ; but the lord chancellor soon reheved
these apprehensions by threatening to commit the defen
dants to the Tower, as public delinquents. They were
ready to go, they answered, whithersoever His Majes
ty was pleased to send them. They hoped the King
of Kings would be their Protector and their Judge.
They feared nothing from men ; and having acted ac
cording to law and their consciences, no punishment
should ever be able to shake their resolutions. This
being felt as a struggle for victory on the one side or the
other, a warrant was drawn and signed by Jeffreys, and
handed round to the board, who all subscribed, save Petre,
and he was exempted by the royal order.' The acquittal

' Kennet and Echard declare that some of the judges declined to sign
it. The account we have given is according to Burnet and Ralph.

LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 261

of these great men is familiar to every school-boy ; but
the difficulty of proving the publication of the libel is not
so well known. It is one thing to write a libel ; another
to make it public : it is again one thing to publish a li
bel, another to obtain evidence of that publication ac
cording to the forms of justice.
In the bishops' case it became necessary to show a
publication in Middlesex. It was proved that they had
owned the writing of the petition ; but their open tender
of it was by delivering it into the King's hands. And
here was the defect. One witness said that he did not
remember what the bishops owned respecting the de
livery; another halted upon his opinion; and a third
thought that they had confessed the pubhcation to the
lord chancellor, of which opinions and conjectures not a
tittle was good testimony, while great shouts were set up in
the hall. "Here's wonderful rejoicing that truth cannot
prevail!" cries Mr. Solicitor. At length, after prodi
gious pauses, came my lord president of the council,' and
he declared that the bishops had told him on the day in
question, that they were about to deliver a petition to
the King, and that they offered him the paper; and he
added, that they then went into the King's chamber.
Upon this the court said that after such proof, it lay
upon the bishops to show that the paper so supposed to
be delivered was not that charged in the information.
The whole matter was subsequently left to the considera
tion of the jury; who, much to the mortification of Sir
William Williams,^ then hungering for the great seal,
pronounced the defendants not guilty, having sat up all
night without fire or candle.
' Sunderland. ' Solicitor-General.

^62 LIFE OF JEFFREYS.

And now we come to a very royal scene, at which the
chancellor was present in his official capacity, and in a
very advanced post. -This was the birth of the Preten
der, otherwise called King James III. On the day of
the bishops' committal, the Queen intimated her inten
tion of removing from Whitehall to St. James's, for the
purpose of lying-in, and the next morning was the first
of the Chevalier's existence.
The entree was not quite so indiscriminate as at the
French ceremonial,' but there were men in the room suf
ficient to distress a woman in that situation, whether de
licate or robust. At eight o'clock His Majesty was sent
for, and on his arrival, he summoned the Queen dowager
and all the council.
The satirist describes the grandees thus : —
Then comes great George of England, chancellour.
Who was with expedition call'd to th' labour :
Lord P  dent^ comes next, that's now cashier'd;
' Madame Campan gives a lively description of the motley assembly
at an accouchement of Marie Antoinette. All the royal family, princes
of the blood, and great officers of state, passed the night in a neighbour
ing chamber; but on the instant of the midwife's exclamation, "La
Reine va s'accoucher," the etiquette of general admission was so lite
rally observed, that had it not been for some tapestry screens, corded, by
the King's foresight, near Her Majesty's bed, the torrent of persons
would have fallen upon her. Two Savoyards mounted the furniture
that they might have a full view of their mistress. In fact, it was like
a place of public amusement. At length, the Queen fainted from disap
pointment, the softer sex of the infant being discovered to her, and the
accoucheur bawled out for air and warm water, and for the chief surgeon
to bleed her in the foot. The joy on her revival was so great that the
utmost confusion followed; and the valets-de-chambre took the opportu
nity of removing divers persons from the room by the collar. This was
the last ofthe legitimately indiscriminate etiquettes.
° Sunderland.

LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 263

Then A  del' of W — dour, privy seal ;
Then comes my lord' All pride with modesty;
with a great many more, some of whom were not of the
council, besides many ladies of quality.
" The feet curtains of the bed, and the two sides were
open." The Queen was in great pain, and the King
called for Jeffreys, who " came up to the bedside to show
he was there," upon which the rest of the privy counsel
lors did the same.
Her Majesty was exceedingly annoyed at this, for all
the nobles were close to the bed, and the chancellor
upon the step. She begged her consort to hide her face
with his head and periwig, for she declared, "she could
not be brought to bed and have so many men look on her."^
However, the affair then took place, the child was taken
into an adjoining chamber, followed by the council, who
having been advised in dumb show by the midwife's sign,
that it was a son, retreated.
A writer of the last century, no doubt a violent whig,
who thought no reproach too bitter, and no imputation
too severe, declares, that however ill qualified he might
have been for his high office, Jeffreys well understood
the value of it. Very anxious to attain riches and an
estate, he is charged with selling places at a rate the
most extravagant, so that art and dexterity were called
very considerably in aid to gain purchasers. To pro
mote the traffic, which his demands had rendered diffi
cult, he enlarged the perquisites ; and while he was dis-

Lord Arundel of Wardour.
Earl of Mulgrave. State Poems, vol. 3, p. 263.
See Appendix to Sir John Dalrymple, part 1, p. 308.

264 LIFE OF JEFFREYS.

posing of a situation at five times the usual price, his
courtesy and kindness were dispensed with unusual libe
rality. Although there is such a belabouring in the
pamphlet, as must inevitably remind us of the ass who
kicked the dead lion, it must be owned, that the acquisi
tion of fortune was a very main object with this noble
man; though, where the author attributes his exactions
to avarice, we should lay them to the pressing necessi
ties which must have so closely waited on his careless
habits and lavish expenditure.
A circumstance occurred while he filled the equity
bench, which amply proves the calumny of satirists, and
the prejudices of a multitude. There was a cause before
him, which involved a large sum of money to be paid, as
his lordship's judgment might be given, to Lord Pem
broke's creditors, or to his heiress. The opinion of the
court was against the creditors, and John Jeffreys, the
chancellor's son, was married to the lady very speedily
after the decree. " Loud and deep reflections were made
upon the judge's honesty and honour," says the martyr
ologist, and the greedy ear of slander could have been
scarce ever satiated with such a goodly tale :
Old Tyburn must groan.
For Jeffreys is known
To have perjur'd his conscience to marry his son :
says the Pindar of the day; but the outcry was quite un
fair, the decree being founded on the most equitable and
approved principles, sanctioned by cases, and by several
judges in open court.' Nay, which is more, an appeal
' Lord Pembroke, on his marriage, demised lands to trustees for ninety-
nine years, who redemised them to him for ninety-eight years and eleven

LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 265

was brought after the Revolution, and heard before the
lords commissioners;' when "every thing," says the author
of the "Life and Character," "was heard greedily that
tended to impeach the chancellor's integrity," and all
the influence of the Pembroke family was used against
the judgment ; but it stood its ground, being sustained by
the force of just principle, and the authority of precedents.
The appeal was carried still farther, even unto the last
tribunal, the House of Lords, but shared the same fate,
for that high assembly did not think fit to reverse it.
Nevertheless, no acuteness was wanting to make the bar
gain sure, for the lady being a Roman catholic, the
marriage was solemnized two ways ; first by a priest, and
next by a divine of the establishment.
It may be stated, without fear of contradiction, that
this was not the only appeal against a judgment of Jef
freys, which failed of success upon consideration, nor was
months, he agreeing that a peppercorn should be paid during his life ;
after his death, a jointure for his wife's life; and at her death, a pepper
corn for the rest of the term. This term, being raised for a particular
purpose, was holden not liable to any debts which would not affect the
inheritance, as bond debts, &c., and, therefore, not capable of being
charged with simple contract debts. And this was determined by the
lord chancellor, Sir John Trevor, M.R., Mr. Justice Luitwich, and Mr.
Baron Powell, and Mr. Justice Thomas Powel was known to be of the
same opinion. After the second hearing, the decree -was, to pay all the
bond creditors of Lord Pembroke with the proceeds of the sale of these
terms, and to apply the goods, &c., to the liquidation of simple contract
debts, not barred by the statute of limitations. The bond debts were
9000/., the book debts and debts by simple contract 18,200/. The inde
pendent personal estate was 6000/., but the terms in question were granted,
to secure 1800/. a year. — See Vernon's Reports, in Svo., Vol. 2, part 1,
pp. 52 and 213.
' Sir John Trevor, Mr. Keck, Serjeant Rawlinson.
23

266 LIFE OF JEFFREYS.

it a solitary case upon which he might have arrived at a
just conclusion, through the interest which he possessed
in its result : for though many of his decisions, after the
Revolution more particularly, came a second time to be
canvassed, they had so strongly the virtue of good law
to uphold them, that few, if any, were overturned ; and
if we consult the able annotator of Vernon,' it seems, that
most of those determinations would be admitted as autho
rities at this day, except the state of equity practice were
inconsistent with them.
The perception of the chancellor was especially vivid,
and his opinion moulded in an instant: if succeeding
lawyers, then, have acknowledged the ability of his im
pressions, and courts of review the righteousness of his
judgments, we need no more evidence to prove that he
was an admirable judge of equity. Nor is this commen
dation a mere result of our opinion ; for, were it so, it
would be expressed with much more modesty ; it is the
unanimous testimony of judges and lawyers, at least of
such as lived sufficiently distant from his day to be free
from prejudice.
Burnet declares, that "he was not learned in his pro
fession;" but Speaker Onslow says, on the contrary, "I
have heard Sir Joseph JekylP say otherwise." The
Speaker goes on: — "He had likewise great parts, and
made a great chancellor in the business of that court.
In more private matters he was thought an able and up
right judge wherever he sat; but where the crown or his
party were concerned, he was as he is here represented,^

1 The late Mr. Raithby.
= Master of the Rolls.
' That is, by Burnet, as very violent.

LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 267

generally at least."' "He was a very ill chancellor,"
says an author, who must have had a Chancery-suit de
cided against him by the judge; since he commits every
kind of malediction upon the memory of that considera
ble person. It is next to impossible that an unskilful
jurist should have been able to unite so much accuracy
with so great a share of quickness. — Semper ad eventum
festinat, might have been well said of him. There was,
moreover, a sense of justice in his propositions, so striking,
as almost to induce a wish that he had lived in these days
to contribute his share of improvement to that fund of
alteration which has been so ably collected by the Chan
cery commissioners.^ Almost as soon as he mounted the
bench, he awarded a defendant such costs as he should
swear he was out of pocket on the plaintiff dismissing his
own bill, instead of the customary but inadequate allow-
' In the great case of the attorney-general against Vernon, a patent of
lands granted by the crown was set aside, as obtained for a very inade
quate consideration, and under colourable proposals. The lord chief
justice Jones, and the lord chief baron Montague, men of acknowledged
integrity, assisted the chancellor in the inquiry, and gave their judg
ments in accordance with his.
" We give an instance of his zeal for just improvement. People ac
quainted with the affairs of Chancery are aware that there is some con
siderable difiiculty in drawing up the minutes of the judge's decree; that
such minutes are liable to be varied; and that no settled time is fixed for
applications for that purpose, whereby delay and vexation are created.
Jeffreys, in 1687, observing the evil which was prevalent then also,
promulged an order, by which the suitors were bidden to pay strict at
tention to the reading of his judgments, in order that the ofiicers of the
court might not be complained of in future for mistakes ; and he ordained,
that no petition or motion should be entertained on the subject, unless it
were thought right to alter the decree. And not many years afterwards,
the time for objecting to the decree was fixed; but this good economy of
business hours seems of late to have been much neglected.

268 LIFE OF JEFFREYS.

ance of twenty shillings. — "I will do all I can," said he,
on another occasion, " to help an heir that is disinherited."
And he sternly resisted the vice of gambling. Sir Basil
Firebrass, a citizen, had lost three thousand four hundred
and fifty guineas at play with one Brett, at the same sit
ting; but being satisfied that he had been cheated, he
and his servant retook two thousand guineas from the
winner by force. The successful gamester brought an
action of trespass, and Sir Basil went into Chancery to
stop him, and to have the residue of the losings, being
one thousand four hundred and fifty guineas more. He
declared in his bill, that a chain of fraud had been used
to inveigle him ; that the defendant Brett had mixed his
own wine with water, while he plied his antagonist, the
unlucky plaintiff in Chancery, most abundantly ; that Mr.
Brett had not above ten guineas in his packet to begin
the contest ; and, in fact, that he, the plaintiff, was quite
unconscious of his own actions. Jeffreys said, that, as
far as he was able, he would discourage such extravagant
gaming ; that the sum of money lost was enormous for
persons of their rank; and that the lord chief justice Hale
had checked a horse-race wager, by threatening to allow
the defendant, the loser, to put off the cause from time
to time.' This alarmed Brett ; and he agreed to a com
promise, swearing that he took but eight hundred and
sixteen guineas away with him. So it was arranged, that
each party should keep the money he had got, and give
general releases of all actions, suits, and demands.
It is no small testimony to the legal acumen of this
judge, that he was considered to be the writer of Ver-

' By perpetual imparlances.

LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 269

non's Reports, authorities which have ever borne a very
high estimation ; but it is said, that his unpopularity was
so overwhelming, as to exclude all hopes of their being
justly appreciated, if his then obnoxious name had ap
peared as the author. So sadly true is it, that a man's
slippery character or uncourteous demeanour will mar the
deepest knowledge and the finest talents.
The year 1688 was now passing away, but great events
were in store for the people of England before its close.
The acquittal of the bishops had served to show the inde
pendence of the country, and their prosecution the ob
stinacy of James. Finding that his obdurate resolution
of forcing a religion upon his subjects was not to be
shaken, the public looked earnestly for a deliverer, and
the Prince of Orange soon planned his wonderfully suc
cessful expedition to ensure their wishes. But the Sove
reign was not without a counsellor of ability: Jeffreys,
who had secretly striven most anxiously to moderate the
royal temper, now urged the calling of a parliament, and
penned a declaration to allay all jealousies before the
meeting. The King was really struck, but his good
feeling did not last.
' On the 22d of September, Lord Clarendon met the
chancellor at the levee, and heard that the declaration had
been altered at the privy-council board; that the Lord
Godolphin had "broke loose from him, and endeavoured
to trim in the new wording some clauses ;" but that King
James had sent for the archbishop of Canterbury, and
some of his old friends, to confer upon the posture of
affairs. In less than a week the chancellor was in de
spair ; some rogues, as he expressed himself, had changed
the King's mind, who would not yield a point to the bi-
23*

270 LIFE OF JEFFREYS.

shops : the Virgin Mary was to do all : so that the day
was lost.
There was a great fluctuation, notwithstanding, in the
royal chnmbers, as two parties were very earnestly con
tending for the balance ; the priests on the one side, the
bishops on the other. The monarch would not act deci
sively : he issued a general pardon, but he put off the
parliament. And now it fell to the lot of the poor crest
fallen chancellor to go within the city gates again, and in
most humble mood to yield up the spoils of his triumph.
It was resolved at court, that the charter should be re
stored: yet it is fair to assert, that he was the adviser of
that honest proceeding; and why may we not conclude,
that, for the evil he had done, he was now seeking the
most effectual atonement, though he might value himself
upon his infiuence over the royal mind? It was with
great satisfaction that he told the Earl of Clarendon on
the 2d of October, how several of the old aldermen were
to be carried to court on that evening, and to be present
ed by their old recorder ; indeed, he did not doubt but
that he should bring more good things to pass.
The magistrates came ; they received a promise that
their charter should be returned, and the corporation
placed in the same situation as when the depriving judg
ment was given. When we hear, then, that the King
commanded his chancellor to yield up the city writings
in his own person, we must give the penitent minister
credit for his good counsel, while we attribute the hu
mility which accompanied the restoration to his just ap
prehensions. James, indeed, who knew that the bishops were on the
point of importuning him for this act of justice, professed

LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 271
to make a great merit of his concession. He told the
mayor and aldermen that he was mightily concerned for
the welfare of their body ; and that at a time when inva
sion menaced the kingdom, his gracious boon was a mark
of the confidence he entertained of their loyalty. Ac
cordingly, on the day following this courtly reception,
Jeffreys proceeded to the Guildhall, in great pomp, and
delivered the instrument which put the corporation in
possession of their privileges ; long and loud were the
acclamations which welcomed the deed ; though the author
was saluted with a reception which his gorgeous entry
had been calculated to evade. "The sight ofthe man,"
says Dalrymple,' " took away the merit of the concession."
He had witnessed, in fact, an earnest of that strong feel
ing which the populace held against him, which they were
ready to let loose upon him at the earliest moment of
impunity. He met with treatment as severe as could
then be shown him ; conduct, which, while it evinced a
sense of his former tyranny, no less revealed a ripening
contempt for the weak government. Treby was made
recorder; and Sir John Shorter, a churchman, lord mayor
in the room of Eyles, who was an anabaptist. A simul
taneous retribution was ordered in favour of other corpo
rations about the same time.
The fall of the great minister may be dated from this
time : he seems, indeed, to have been very sensible of his
approaching fate, and, in the recent city transactions, he

' Dalrymple declares, that Sunderland prompted these measures of
grace. They were all cowards together, except the monarch, who,
whatever might have been his devoted bigotry, can never be suspected
of personal fear.

272 LIFE OF JEFFREYS.
appeared far less florid or frolicsome than he was wont
to be ; which, for tim, was considered a very bad omen.
Soon after this a petition was proposed by some of the
bishops, and other lords : it was to implore the King, that
he would save the shedding of blood, as the Prince of
Orange had landed. Lord Halifax was asked to sign it ;
but he inquired of Lord Clarendon, whether it was fit that
the chancellor's name should be put to it : that noble earl
answered, that, whether Jeffreys signed or not, it was no
concern to him, he should not decline on that account to
become a party to it. — "Then," said Lord Halifax, "I
will not join with any who have sat in the ecclesiastical
commission. "
The last official act, which fell to the chancellor's lot,
was the calling of a parliament. This was agreed on,
in the King's dinner-room, towards the close of Novem
ber, and the writs were issued on the next day. Lord
Clarendon spoke with great freedom at the meeting of
the council, where this was determined, laying open the
principal miscarriages which had embroiled the kingdom;
but the King was displeased at his candour. The earl
called soon afterwards upon Jeffreys at his chamber in
Whitehall, when he was made acquainted with the royal
displeasure ; but the chancellor added, that he hoped,
now the writs were out. His Majesty would be reconciled
to his old friends.
The alarm, however, had become general, every one
was shifting for himself; and after this all was confusion,
till the assembling of the convention parliament, and the
accession of William.

LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 273

CHAPTER VIII.
Flight of James II. — The lord chancellor is ill spoken of by the fiigitive
monarch — The great seal is consigned to the Thames, and is found by
a fisherman — Jeffreys conceals himself on board a collier — A scrivener,
whom the chancellor had brow-beat at a former time, discovers the
fallen judge — He is seized and carried before Sir John Chapman, lord
mayor — He is sent to the Tower, on a charge of treason — Petition of
the widows and orphans in the west of England against him— Four
questions propounded by the peers to the ex-chancellor — Death of
Jeffreys.— Causes of his demise — His place of sepulture — Anecdotes —
Curious writings in vituperation of the fallen chancellor at the time
of his imprisonment — His good and ill qualities — His splendid talents
— Attainder of Jeffreys and his heirs attempted — His landed posses
sions — His portrait by Sir Godfrey Kneller — Some account of his son,
John, Lord Jeffreys — Fable supposed to have been written by him —
He espouses a daughter of the earl of Pembroke — Conclusion.
It was now no secret, that sauve qui peut was the
ruling principle that prevailed at court. Indeed, it was
in operation every where, save in the camp of the in
vader. James, who held the Roman faith dearer than his do
minions, hastened to escape from the land of pro.testant-
ism, and to exchange his forlorn state for the splendid
asylum which his brother of France had proffered. Yet,
deserted by his children and friends, abandoned by the
nobles, and disliked by the multitude, he had not expe
rienced these reverses, till he had himself forgotten the
remembrance of past services. When Duke of York, he
had a solicitor who advanced his interests, and counselled
him in the hour of necessity: when he mounted the

274

LIFE OF JEFFREYS.

throne, he had the same man for a chief justice, who put
down rebellion by his order, though at the expense of
deep popular odium; and when the seals were to be dis
posed of, there was still the same judge for his minister,
whose advice, if followed, would have ensured the sceptre
to his posterity. Jeffreys was not remembered in the
day of danger ; for when the monarch left his throne, he
also left a faithful, and to the crowd an obnoxious chan
cellor. But that the King's undoubted courage is of uni
versal acknowledgment, it might be that personal anxiety
would be offered in excuse for such conduct; yet, even
then, time enough had elapsed in which the minister
might have been warned of his fate, and assured of a safe
shelter. No such intention was held at court ; for there
it seemed to have been well understood that a victim was
to be sacrificed, and that the unfortunate Jeffreys was
marked for the atoning scape-goat. When James was
seized at Feversham, he acted most consistently with this
policy. He called for his landlord, and asked his name.
On inquiry, this man turned out to be one who had been
fined at the chancellor's instance. Finding this, the crafty
prince bade the host draw a discharge as effectually as
he chose; and he then signed it with this Jesuitical ad
dress: "I am sensible that my lord chancellor hath been
a very ill man, and hath done very ill things." That
nobleman was in the Tower when this happened; so that
he was not only betrayed, but even reproached by his
master for services, in the execution of which he had been
too complying.
The royal fugitive departed from Whitehall on the 11th
of December ; and it is remarkable, that he gave Father
Petre and Lord Mellfort notice of his flight, leaving his

LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 275

keeper of the seals, to share those miseries of which he
had in part been the instrument. Yet there was, in truth,
no keeper of his conscience at this time ; for the great
seal had been taken from Jeffreys some days before ; and
far from appointing another, the monarch ordered that
the insignia should be thrown into the river:' they were
discovered by a fisherman, and brought to London : which
gives Sir John Dalrymple occasion to observe, that
" Heaven seemed by this accident to declare, that the
laws, the constitution, and the sovereignty of Britain,
were not to depend upon the frailty of man." Had Sir
John witnessed our unprejudiced days, he might have
heard of a great seal being defaced, and a new one made,
without the least apprehension for our great charters.
During the short interval which passed between the
escape of James and his capture, the populace took their
opportunity, and rose, as all mobs do, for the sake of
plunder and pillage.^ Their fury was mainly bent against
the papists : they committed every feasible outrage on the
priests, whom they held in abomination; and "they rifled
the houses of several popish ambassadors."
Indeed, the King owed his arrest to the hatred which
prevailed against these Romish confessors ; for some
fishermen had been out "priest-codding," as they called
it, that is, endeavouring to intercept the flying clergy,
and so got sight of His Majesty, while the ballast was
getting ready for his bark.
And there was one other person whose face the mob
most earnestly desired to see: they had a most awful
' Reresby says, that Jeffreys took the broad seal along with him.
' Order was given by the lords at Whitehall to fire on them with bul
let, in case of necessity.

276 LIFE OF JEFFREYS.
longing for the great terrorist, and used every exertion
to get the late chancellor into their power. Need the
reader be told, that of all men he was at this time the
most execrated ? that of stories the most absurd concern
ing him, there was not one which would not have met the
greediest credit; that he was, in a word, the very same
devil whom they burnt in effigy in the reign of Charles
IL?' Equally clear it is, that the persecuted nobleman was
fully conscious of the mercy he should experience from
such a multitude ; that he knew well the justice of hang
ing him first, and examining his conduct afterwards, or,
perhaps, not considering it at all ; and that Whitehall was
of all places the leat safe for one so notorious. And, in
deed, the public feeling was high in favour of James for
leaving such a signal victim to the general fury : for the
duke of Buckingham relates, that this act was held to be
generous, and that the king was for ever compassionating
his subjects who had died in the west. However, the duke
freely says, that this "mysterious absconding" cost the
minister his life.
The crowd had but a slender hope of laying their hands
upon this principal malefactor, as he was reputed; for
perceiving how the tide had turned, he left his lodging,
and hid himself at a little house at Wapping, whence he
' The following is an admirable specimen of mob cowardice : —
Now may you hear the people as they scoure
Along, not fear to damn the chancellor :
Then women too, and all the tender crew.
That us'd to pity all, now laugh at you.
The very boys, how they do grin and prate,
And giggle at the bills upon your gate!

LIFE OP JEFFREYS. 277

might escape beyond sea ; upon which it was very natu
rally rumoured, that he had gone with the King.
And now " George Jeffreys, who boasted his face was
of brass," was compelled to clothe himself in the best
disguise that he could. He was not merely running from
the mob, thoUgh that had been wise enough, but from
the Prince of Orange, and the lords of the council : he
had an equal dread of all the factions. When a courtier
asked him, soon after his expedition to the city, what the
heads of the Prince's declaration were, he answered, " He
was sure his was one, whatever the rest were."
The person now marked out for destruction was rather
above the middling stature; his complexion inclining to
fair, and of a comely appearance. His face showed
briskness, but mixed with an air which might breed a
suspicion- of some little lurking malice and unpleasant
ness. He had a piercing eye, and a brow most com
manding, in the management of which he showed a
great accomplishment, whether it pleased him to terrify
or to conciliate. Some say, that he was bloated by in
temperance ; and if so, he required a most wary conceal
ment, and a faithful guide upon an emergency like the
present. However, he had the sense to cut off his fierce
eyebrows, and to wrap himself in the garb of a sailor, or
a collier : as the poet sings concerning him : —
He took a collier's coat to sea to go ;
Was ever chancellour arrayed so ?
and again : — Jeffreys was prepar'd for sailing.
In his long tarpaulin gown.'
3.
' James, in his Memoirs, merely says, that my lord chancellor was seized
in the confusion, and being committed to the Tower, died soon afterwards.
24

278 LIFE OF JEFFREYS.

His plan was to go to Hamburgh by a coal-barge, which
pretended to be bound for Newcastle, spies being ordered
at all the ports by Admiral Herbert. However, the mate
of this vessel was a man of treachery, and gave private
information of his retreat : upon which some people ap
plied to a magistrate for a warrant, which the justice re
fused. Baffled in this, they went to the council-board,
and told their story to the lords, who forthwith gave them
the authority they desired. Off they went to search the
collier ; but Jeffreys had some doubt of his security
there, and on that night he thought proper to lie in an
other ship which was near at hand, by which means he
escaped the execution of the warrant for a few hours : yet
he had the extreme indiscretion to make his appearance
the next morning at a little ale-house, with the sign of
the Red Cow, in Anchor and Hope Alley, near King Ed
ward's Stairs, and there he had a pot of ale. He was
in his sailing accoutrements, with a seaman's cap on; and
he put his head through the window to look out. Most
unhappily, there passed by at that instant the same mi
serable scrivener who had been so struck with his face
when he came to be relieved from the "Bummery " bond.
¦ — " I shall never forget the terrors of that man's face
while I live," said he, at that time, to his friend, and now
he started at the ominous recollection. This scrivener,
and the clerk in Chancery mentioned by Kennet, may be
fairly considered the same person. Nichols tells us, that
the attorney came in to look for a client ; and Kennet,
that the clerk caught the peeping chancellor at the window.
Most probably, having noticed the remarkable visage,
Mr. Trimmer' came in, under pretence of business, that
' This was the name which made Jeffreys call for him in open court.

LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 279

he might satisfy himself. Jeffreys seems to have known
the scared lawyer as well ; for he feigned a cough, and
turned to the wall with his beer in his hand. But, alas
for the poor ex-chancellor ! his hour was come ; the in
exorable trimmer proclaimed him aloud, and the rabble
burst in upon him. The occasion of this sad disaster is
said to be, that he waited too long for the tide.' That
the discovery was not instantly crowned with murder ; in
effect, that the fugitive was not torn in pieces, limb by
limb, — must be attributed to a kind Providence which in
terfered to give him a few months' respite ; for (and we
cannot be astonished,) the mobile, as he would call them
when chief justice, was disposed very summarily to whip
and hang him. A few doggerel verses written at the time
very sufficiently explain the meaning of the crowd: —
The mobile and rout, with clubs and staves.
Swore that his carcass ne'er should lie in graves ;
They'd eat him up alive within an hour ;
Their teeth should tear his flesh, and him devour ;
Limb him they would, as boys at Shrovetide do :
Some cried, I am for a wing, an arm; for what are you ?
I am for his head, says one; for his brains, says t'other;
And I am for his nose ; his ears another :
Oh, cries a third, I am for his buttocks brave.
Nine pounds of steaks from them I mean to have :

and express the desire he had to see a trimmer, which frightened him so
seriously. ' There is still another account in the London Courant: that Mr.
Gaunt, whose wife was executed for high-treason, two or three years be
fore, caused the judge to be apprehended, as having passed sentence upon
her ; but, unluckily for this statement. Chief Justice Jones was the judge
who gave the sentence upon that occasion. Mr. Burnham was the name
of the solicitor; and the master of the house was Mr. Porter, the master
of a Newcastle sloop. — See Nichols's Leicestershire.

280 LIFE OF JEFFREYS.
I know the rogue is fleshy, says a fourth.
The sweetbreads, lungs, and heart, then nothing worth;
Y'es, quoth another, but not good to eat ;
A heart of steel wHl ne're prove tender meat.
Considering the desperate treatment which Cinna met
with from the Roman vulgar when mistaken for the con
spirator of that name, and the instant punishment which
fell upon the unfortunate Dr. Lamb ' in the days of Charles
I., it is rather beyond mere hypochondriacal wonder, that
this man was not mutilated on the spot. Nevertheless,
it was determined to carry him before the lord mayor,
which, as we shall see, occasioned another tragedy. He
was conveyed in his blue jacket, with his hat fiapped
down upon his face, in a coach guarded by several blun
derbusses. When he came to the mayor's house, the
crowd became immense, and their vociferating cries of
"Vengeance! Justice! Justice!" were so numerous, as
to create some apprehension. The chief magistrate came
out into his balcony with his hat in his tand, and begged
that the people would retire ; he said, justice should be
done them, and that their prisoner should be secured till
the lords of the council should determine upon his destiny.
But the mayor lost his life through this event. He was
Sir John Chapman, whom we have already mentioned;
and who had a tolerably amicable understanding with
Jeffreys. When the hat was lifted up which concealed
that minister's face, and he beheld a countenance which
was wont to inspire terror into all beholders, — the shock
was so great as to occasion a fainting or convulsion fit;
' A creature of the Duke of Buckingham, who was murdered by the
mob in 1628. The rabble declared, that if his master, the duke, had
been there, they would have given him as much.

LIFE OF .JEFFREYS. 281

and the next day so many fits came on, as to end his life
by palsy very soon afterwards.' Ralph writes thus, al
luding to the time of Jeffreys's capture: "Every face
that he saw was the face of a fury : every grasp he felt,
he had reason to think was that of the demon that waited
for him : every voice that he could distinguish in so wild
an uproar, overwhelmed him with reproaches; and his
conscience echo'd within him, that he deserved them all.
In this miserable plight, in these merciless hands, with
these distracted thoughts, and with the horror and de
spair in his own ghastly face, that was the natural result
of all, he was goaded on to the lord mayor." Notwith
standing this impressive charge of cowardice, it is by no
means so certain that this high individual was bereft of
a due presence of mind. Fancy will frequently depict
the most melancholy appearances, which are but- shadows,
merely because the occasion seems to call for them. When
the seizure was made, he was asked if he were not the
chancellor. He said, "I am the man." He begged that
he might be kept from the enraged populace, and thus
came protected by a strong guard. This account varies
- He died March 17, 1689: some say he died of apoplexy. It is sup
posed that the panic with which this worthy citizen was afllicted had so
great an effect as to deprive him of all reason and resolution; so that
Jeffreys was actually obliged to assist in drawing the warrant for his
own commitment. This was the first warrant. Truly, the lord mayors
do not seem to have figured much in those days ! Sir Thomas Bludworth,
for example, who was so dreadfully scared at the great fire of London !
At the tumultuous assemblies for the election of sheriffs in the latter
part of Charles the Second's reign, the chief magistrate had screwed
his nerves up most painfully before he could do any thing, and was even
thenbacked upof necessity by Jeffreys in all his terrors : and in 1780, living
memory can testify that the riots in the city astonished the very worthy
man who presided there.
24*

282 LIFE OF JEFFREYS.

in no way from the former, except that it omits the co
loured interpretations of a rabble.
It was dinner-time when the extraordinary guest was
announced at the Mansion-house ; but the hospitalities
of the city were not wanting, for the lord mayor begged
his old acquaintance to sit at the upper end of the table,
where he received a very honourable entertainment. —
Still the people pressed from without ; and it was sug
gested, that the peer might be dismissed by a back-way ;
but a gentleman made his way into the room, declaring
that the chancellor was the mayor's prisoner, and that
the magistrate must answer his forthcoming with his own
blood.' Upon this two regiments of the train-bands were
sent for to move him to the Tower ; a body most neces
sary to ward off the increasing violence of the mob. —
The Lord Lucas received him on his request ; for such an
imprisonment was a deliverance from instant death ; and
soon afterwards, a legitimate order was received from the
lords to commit him on a charge of high treason.^ There
was, however, considerable difficulty in rescuing the state
prisoner, even with so powerful a guard, so sternly did

• Which he certainly did, if he died of apoplexy.
° Before the warrant, the following words were ordered to be insert
ed:  "Whereas the Lord Jeffreys was seized and brought to the house
of the lord mayor, and was there in great danger by the insults of the
people : to secure him, therefore, from the said violence, and at his de
sire to the Lord Lucas to remove him to the Tower, the following order
was made," &c. Then the warrant. After the warrant, these words
followed : — " The lords appointed to examine the Lord Jeffreys, were
desired by the Lord Jeffreys to return to the lords his humble tlianks for
their care in preserving him from violence." The lords appointed to
examine Lord Jeffreys were. Lord North and Grey, Lord Chandos, and
Lord Ossulston,

LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 283

the people press against him, at the peril of their very
lives. Jeffreys was so sensible of the danger which me
naced him on all sides, that he held up his hands, some
times on one side of the coach, sometimes on the other ;
and observing the open-mouthed wolves, who were push
ing on all sides with whips and halters, exclaimed, "For
the Lord's sake keep them off!" — "For the Lord's sake
keep them off !'" Oldmixon, who tells us of his own habits
of compassion for malefactors in general, declares that
he saw these agonizing alarms without pity. Surely many
a brave man would prefer to be blown from the mouth of
a cannon, to the fate of being swallowed up, or dissected
alive, by his own countrymen. As soon as it became well
known that their old enemy was safely caged in the Tower,
the good people of the west, the women in particular, be
gan to murmur loudly for redress. The same multitude
who were too terrified to join the Prince for some days,
lest the Judge with his hangings of scarlet cloth^ should
come suddenly down upon them, were now transported with
rage, and demanded that he should be brought down help
less and unarmed to have vengeance wreaked upon him.
We give " The humble Petition of the widows and
fatherless children in the west of England.
" We, to the number of a thousand and more, widows
and fatherless children, of the counties of Dorset, So
merset, and Devon ; our dear husbands and tender fathers
' This fury was not confined to the rabble; for we find Mr. Harbord,
a member of the House of Commons, moving, that two of the judges
who approved the King's dispensing power should be hanged, by way of
example, at Westminster-hall gate.
^ Jeffreys decorated the walls of the courts with scarlet, during part
of the western assize.

284 LIFE OF JEFFREYS.
having been so tyrannously butcher'd, and some trans
ported ; our estates sold from us, and our inheritance cut
off, by the severe and harsh sentence of George, Lord
Jeffreys, now, we understand, in the Tower of London, a
prisoner ; who has lately, we hear, endeavoured to excuse
himself from those tyrannical and illegal sentences, by
laying it on information by some gentlemen, who are
known to us to be good Christians, true Protestants, and
Englishmen. We, your poor petitioners, many hundreds
of us, on our knees have begg'd mercy for our dear hus
bands and tender parents from his cruel hands, but his
thirst for blood was so great, and his barbarism so cruel,
that instead of granting mercy for some, which were made
appear to be innocent, and petitioned for by the flower
of the gentry of the said counties, he immediately execu
ted ; and so barbarously, that a very good gentlewoman
at Dorchester, begging on her knees the life of a worthy
gentleman to marry him, and make him her husband ;
this vile wretch, having not common civility with him,
and laying aside that honour and respect due to a person
of her worth, told her, ' Come, I know your meaning ;
some part of your petition I will grant, which shall be,
that after he is hanged and quartered, * * * =•=
and so I will give orders to the sheriff.' These, with
many hundred more tyrannical acts, are ready to be
made appear in the said counties, by honest and credi
table persons ; and therefore your petitioners desire, that
the said George Jeffreys, late lord chancellor, the vilest
of men, may be brought down to the counties aforesaid,
where we, the good women in the west, shall be glad to
see him, and give him another manner of welcome than

LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 285

he had there three years since. And your petitioners shall
ever pray," &c.
These furious women irresistibly remind us of the pois-
sardes, who were by far the most active of the Parisian
rabble at the Revolution ; and, like them, they would have
delighted in immolating a victim. And in London the
people were in full expectation of a public execution ; nay,
according to a poetical letter to the lord chancellor, they
continued as intent as ever upon his speedy fate. Having
recommended the nobleman to cut his throat, the writer
ends his epistle thus : —
"I am your lordship's, in any thing of this nature. —
From the little house over against Tyburn, where the
people are almost dead with expectation of you." From
such assemblages the composer of the " New Protestant
Litany" should have said. Libera nos, Domine ! as well
as from godfather pope, and gunpowder bonfires.
Jeffreys was taken on the 12th of December, and His
Majesty was conveyed back to London soon afterwards ;
but it does not appear, that between the times of this
unlucky attempt and the final embarkation of the mo
narch for France, there was any favourable notice of his
ancient favourite. Glad to emancipate himself from a
kingdom where the heretic flag was triumphant, James
looked forward to no greater pleasure than the solaces of
priestcraft, and lifting up of the crucifix. He had bidden
a farewell' to old England, and to most of his friends
i THE FAREWELL.

Farewel Petre, farewel Cross ;
Farewel Chester, farewel Ass ;*

* Jeffreys.

George Jeffreys who boasted his face was of hraps.
Is now nietamorphos'd into a V\^elsh ass, &c.

286 LIFE OF JEFFREYS.

who were not of the Roman communion, leaving behind
him a character which would to God the people of this
land would hold deeply in their memories ! — a prince of
bravery, of virtue, and of kindness, where no priest or
Jesuit interfered ; but one whom no tie, moral or political,
could restrain, when a zeal for his religion came in
question. It was thought fit to examine Jeffreys on the day after
his commitment ; and for this purpose a deputation of
lords was appointed. Four questions were agreed on to
be asked of him. First, What he had done with the great
seal of England? To this he answered, that he had de
livered it to the King on the Saturday before at Mr.
Cheffnell's, no person being present, and never saw it
since. He was next asked. Whether he had sealed all
the writs for the parliament, and what he had done with
them ? To the best of his remembrance, he said, the
writs were all sealed and delivered to the King. Thirdly,

Farewel Peterborough, farewel Tool ;
Farewel Sun  land, farewel Fool.
Farewel Milford, farewel Scot ;
Farewel Butler, farewel Sot ;
Farewel Roger, farewel Trimmer;
Farewel Dryden, farewel Rhymer.
Farewel Brent, farewel Villain ;
Farewel Wright, worse than Tresilian ;
Farewel Chancellor, farewel Mace ;
Farewel Prince, farewel Race.
Farewel Queen, and farewel Passion ;
Farewel King, farewel Nation ;
Farewel Priests, and farewel Pope ;
Farewel all deserve a rope.

LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 287

Had he sealed the several patents for the then ensuing
year ? He declared that he had sealed several patents
for the new sheriffs, but that he could not charge his me
mory with the particulars. It was, lastly, inquired.
Whether he had a license to go out of the Idngdom ? —
And to this he replied, that he had several to go beyond
sea, which were all delivered to Sir John Friend, &c. —
He subscribed these answers thus : — "I affirm all this to
be true upon my honour. — Jeffreys."
An order came on the 22d for keeping him in a closer
restraint; but he had, nevertheless, the courage to de
mand his habeas corpus, in order to his being bailed, but
was not successful.
After he had been in confinement for a few days, he
was most cruelly tantalized by the arrival of a barrel as
a present, which appeared to contain oysters:' seeing
this, he said to the bearer, " Well, then, I see I have some
friends left still," and opened the barrel. The gift was
a good able halter.
And now we have arrived at the consummation of this
great man's destiny, his lingering struggles in the Tower
being little regarded amidst the din of warfare which was
sounding without. For James was about to land at Kin-
sale with the French supplies, when Jeffreys died. It is
curious to note the various causes assigned by historians
for his decease. Some kill him in his own way, by ex
cessive and intemperate drinking ; but his commonly bi-
bacious habits might have given an easy foundation for
this opinion, as it is most difficult and most unwise too,
for any lover of the bottle to descend suddenly into the
' Some refine upon this, and say, " the best Colchester oysters."

288 LIFE OF JEFFREYS.

vale of abstemiousness. Others will have it, that the
chiefs of the mobility did him great injury, and that ter
ror, lest he should fall into their hands, completed the
shock he had received. Then again, we hear of his dying
furiously and wildly like a raving beast ; a report which
must have greatly gratified the superstitious vulgar, who
were probably the creators of it, and doubtless conjured
up his unquiet spirit as a bugbear for a quarter of a cen
tury afterwards. A much more sensible conjecture would
be, that from an unusual imprisonment he had aggravated
an ill habit of body, and heightened his chronic disorders.
Accordingly there appears to be great fidelity in the ac
count which states that fits of the stone came on with
such violence as to baffle the skill of his physician. Dr.
Lower,' an ingenious man, attended hipi; but although
his patient was but forty-one years of age, he found na
ture exhausted beyond the reach of medical skill. — "It
is generally reported," says Echard, "that he shortened
his days, and in a manner daspatched himself, by drink
ing of the most spirituous liquors ; but I have been as-
sur'd to the contrary by a very credible person,^ who was
often with him in his confinement, who said, that the
stone was the only bodily distemper that killed him."
Anguish of mind and disappointment are also among
the probable bitternesses which harassed him; so that he
is said, in some milder relations, to have perished by a
broken heart. And far from leaving the stage in a state
of frenzied impiety, there are premises fron? which we
' Richard Lower. Probably the ingenious medical writer who wrote
the "Universal Medicine," which was published in France and Sweden.
He was also the author of many other treatises.
° Probably Dr. Scott, of whom we shall speak presently.

LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 289

may conclude that he died repentant, and under a due
sense of religion. For it is said on the authority of Sir
Joseph Jekyll, that Dr. John Scott' visited the fallen
judge in his prison, who promised to profit by the exhor
tations of his minister, and review his past life as a sea
sonable improvement of the situation he had come into.
Jeffreys expressed great concern for his past errors ; but
for one, and that too the greatest of his alleged misdeeds,
he could never be induced to yield an unqualified regret.
However cruel his western proceedings might have been
thought, whatever the censures which had been heaped
upon that part of his administration, he solemnly adhered,
in these almost his dying hours, to this text, that the se
verities had fallen short of the King's demand, and that
he had extremely displeased the monarch by his forbear
ance. It is not to be combated, that the men who fell
by the sentence of Jeffreys died by law; and that cir
cumstance makes the distinction between his executions
and those of Kirk. Kindness to the human race was
scarcely better understood in those times, even by per
sons of reputation, than mercy to dumb animals^ in these,
till the rise of Martin. Forbearance was then esteemed
a crime, as rigorous justice would be at this day. And
truly, it is to be hoped that posterity will kindly invent
some excuse for us, when those who succeed us shall blot

' Author of " The Christian Life." Sir Joseph heard this from the
mouth of the doctor.
° Indeed, it is but of late that we have learned to treat our own chil
dren with kindness, and to be persuaded that however agreeable hard
ships might have been to the sons of giants, who wore coats of mail, we
of this generation shall be much wiser in fostering the little strength
which is imparted to this winter of the world.
25

290 LIFE OF JEFFREYS.

out our capital punishments from the statute-book, and
wonder, as we now do, at the harshness of those who
have gone past.
The noble penitent, moreover, complained that he had
been urged on by one ofthe reverend bench,' to enforce
the rigours of the ecclesiastical commission far beyond
his inclination ; and his approved steadfastness in favour
of the established church must strongly call upon us to be
lieve that this palliation also has some weight. Indeed,
to say that the chancellor had no religion in the days of
his prosperity, would be an outrage upon history ; since
we know that he stood firmly by the Protestant standard,
and that the threatened loss of his place had no power
to wean him from his native creed. To assert then that
he died a reprobate, is a gratuitous slander of his whig
enemies, containing as much truth, perhaps, as the pages
of those speculative voyagers, whose adventurous travels
bave been concocted and accomplished by their own fire
sides. "God knows how often all of us have taken* the
great name of God in vain," said Jeffreys one day, in all
the plenitude of his chief justiceship ; "or have said more.
than becomes us, and talked of things we should not do."
Yet some of the good-natured booksellers, in a few reigns
afterwards, seem to have decided his ultimate destiny
very unfavourably, placing him in a situation far worse
than purgatory. There was published, about the year
1714, "A Letter from Hell, from Lord Ch — r Jeffreys,
to L — C — B — W  d, relating to James Taylor's
standing in the pillory, 4to."
Although this unfortunate nobleman was thus em-
' Most likely Crew, bishop of Durham.

LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 291

ployed in meditating on his past mistakes, he certainly
was not quite so far lost to the world as to abandon all
hopes, of a better fortune. He, therefore, made offers of
political disclosures to government ; which, it seems, were
entertained, and even courted by the parties who were
applied to : so that had the Lord Jeffreys lived, he might
not have been so near "a place of execution" as his ene
mies desired ; and, in fact, it would not be hazarding a
strange opinion to say at once, that he would have
escaped with impunity, owing to the turbulent and un
certain spirit of the parliament. Having so long had the
arcana imperii at his command, it is not to be wondered
at that his information would be deemed worthy of notice
in such critical times. Illness, however, and death su
pervened. — The great man died on the 19th of April,
1689, at 35 minutes past four in the morning.
Doubts have prevailed as to the place of his burial ; for
there is a tradition that he was laid at Enfield,' which
seems to be utterly incorrect. Mr. Bayley gives the
most satisfactory account of the last rites which were
rendered upon this occasion. He was first interred in
the Tower privately, and his remains rested there in
peace for three years, when his friends, finding that the
hot day of persecution was over, begged that they might
be allowed to remove the coffin. They had no mind, it
seems, to risk much mention of the subject before, as the
disgrace of Ireton and other Cromwellians was by no
means erased from living memory; and whose bones so

' At the east end of the south aisle, in a vault belonging to the manor
of Durance. His eldest daughter married the son and heir of Judge
Stringer, who was lord of the manor.

292 LIFE OF JEFFREYS.

likely to be dug up and gibbeted as those of Jeffreys, if
the people fancied that they would have it so ? Indeed,
to gratify the multitude, the government might not have
scrupled more in this instance than the successful con
querors of 1746, who elevated the noble heads of the re
bellion upon the height of Temple-bar. Johnson, walk
ing near that impregnable city gate some years after
wards with Goldsmith, slily observed, in allusion to their
politics at that time of day, —
Forsitan et nostrum nomen miscebitur istis.
A warrant was given, dated the 30th of September,
1692, signed by the Queen, and directed to the governor
of the tower, "for his delivering the body of George, late
Lord Jefferies, to his friends and relations, to bury him
as they think fit."
He was accordingly disinterred, and buried a second
time in a vault under the communion-table of St. Mary
Aldermanbury, on the 2d of November, 1693. There
was a story very current there, that the apprentices of
the parish tumultuously assisted in this removal; but
Malcolm, in his account of London, treats this as merely
fabulous; adding, however, that the apprentices might
have run riot upon the occasion, as such conduct was by
no means uncommon in those reigns.
One would have thought that the judge's bones might
now be considered as undisturbed ; and whether his final
lot were hallowed or accursed, his remains would at least
be suffered to dwindle away in peace : yet curiosity has
been more than once gratified with a sight of them, and
the leaden coffin has been very recently found in a state
of perfect preservation. Malcolm was told by the sex-

LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 298
toness, in 1803, that she had seen it entire in its rich
clothing of crimson velvet with gilt furniture.
Some years afterwards, in 1810, certain workmen em
ployed to repair the church discovered the place of in
terment, by removing a large flat stone near the commu
nion-table. The coffin, which appeared to have suffered
little from decay, was closed, and there was a plate with
the name of Chancellor Jeffreys inscribed. When the
public had been satisfied with a view of these remarkable
remains, a gaze which some would brand as unhallowed,
the coffin was replaced in the vault, and the stone fas
tened over it. But the body was not seen ; for although
a sight of it would have highly pleased the ambition of
the curious, no one adventured to lay violent hands upon
the case which contained it.
When the great Johnson died, many small wits and
hungry pens were at work on the instant, to depreciate
or to ridicule him. The possessors of these little wea
pons cared not whether they took aim at his personal de
ficiencies, or supposed literary errors, provided they had
the intense satisfaction of sending forth their poor puffs
as speedily as might be. But one circumstance struck
all his friends and admirers, and amongst others the late
Dr. Parr, whose indignation was kindled at it ; — and this
was, that many of these critics dared not to have attacked
the doctor in his life-time. Some one made a slighting
remark on him in Parr's presence, — "Ay," quoth the
blunt clergyman, " now the old lion is dead, every ass
thinks he may kick at him." And it really falls to the
lot of most great men to be served very much in the same
way. No sooner was that man in his grave, whom all
feared alike as counsel, chief justice, chancellor, — than
25*

294 LIFE OF JEFFREYS.
there sprang up satires and reflections upon his memory,
which are vastly at variance with history, and which he
could have sufficiently answered, but for the stroke of
disease or death. And it is observable, that the scrib
bling rabble commenced their operations against him as
soon as he went to the Tower, doubtless conceiving them
selves secure from his vengeance.
The two remarkable papers which we insert, will be
found to contain charges of hypocrisy; of which, at least
of many, Jeffreys can hardly be deemed guilty : —
The first of these is entitled, " The Chancellor's Exa
mination and Preparation for a Trial." It was printed
for W. Cademan, in 1689, and runs as follows : —
"As the long imprisonment of George, Lord Jefferies,
the high chancellor of England, has given him ample lei
sure for a full and serious consideration of his state, his
examination of his fatal circumstances, and prepara
tion for his trial, with all other necessary and due refiec
tions, previous as well to the appearance, not only before
so great a tribunal here, but also a greater and more ter
rible one to come, have induced him to this timely provi
sion of his last will and testament.
" In the name of Ambition, the only god of our setting-
up and worshipping, together with Cruelty, Treachery,
Perjury, Pride, Insolence, &c. his ever adored angels and
archangels, cloven-footed, or otherwise, Amen. I, George,
sometimes lord, but always Jefferies, being in entire bo
dily health, (my once great heart, at present dwindled to
the diminutive dimensions of a French bean, only ex
cepted,) and in sound and perfect memory of high-com
missions,, quo warrantos, regulations, dispensations, pil-
lorizations, floggations, gibbetations, barbarity, butchery.

LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 295

tyranny, together with the bonds and ties of right, jus
tice, equity, law, and gospel; as also those of liberty,
property. Magna Charta, &c. ; not only at divers and
sundry, but at all times, by me religiously broken : and
being reminded by a halter before me, and my sins be
hind me, do make my last will and testament in manner
and form following :
" Imprimis. — Because it has always been the modish
departure of great men, and greater sinners, to leave
some legacy to pious uses, I give and bequeath one thou
sand pounds towards the building of a shrine and a cha
pel to St. Coleman, for the particular devotion of a late
very great English zealot ; for whose glory I farther or
der my executors to bear half charges in inserting and
registering the sacred papers and memoirs of the said
saint, in those divine legends, ' The Lives of the Saints,'
by the hand of his reverend, and no less industrious suc
cessor. Father Peters : that so the never-dying renown of
the long-sworn meritorious, though unfortunate vengeance
against the northern heresy, (in which once hopeful vine
yard I have been no small labourer,) may be transmitted
to posterity by so pious a recorder.
" Item. — As a legacy to her late consort-majesty of
Great Britain (my some time royal patroness,) I do be
queath two thousand crowns to holy mother church, &c.
'¦'¦Item. — In tenderness and hearty good-will to my
some time friends and allies on the other side the herring-
pond, I think fit, as a small mite to the great cause, to
order my executors, out of my late son-in-law's estate
(saved by my own Chancery decree from the Salisbury cre
ditors,) as much money to be remitted over to the true
and trusty Tyrconnel, as will purchase new liveries of

296 LIFE OF JEFFREYS.

the best Irish frize, completely to rig a whole regiment
of his newly-raised Teagues ; as also the like quantity
for the rigging of another regiment of French dragoons,
now sending over to his excellency's succour ; his Gallic
majesty having long since ordered the edict of Nantz,
and all other the parliamentary heretic-records of France,
to be given them gratis, to make them tailors' measures
of, in imitation of the English Magna Oharta, some time
since designed for the same use.
"But, above all, to take care for my own decent fu
neral, lest my executors, to save the charges of Christian
burial, should drop me under ground as slovenly as my
old great master at Westminster, — I think fit to order
the rites and ceremonies of my obsequies as follows :
" lonpri^nis. — I desire that my funeral anthems be all
set to the tune of ' Old Lilliburlero,' that never-to-be-for
gotten Irish Shibboleth; in commemoration not only of
two hundred thousand heretics that formerly danced off
to the said musical notes, but also of the second part to
the same tune, lately designing, setting, and composing
by a great master of mine, and myself. The said anthem
to be sung by a train of seven or eight hundred of my
own making in the west ; who, in their native rags, (a
livery likewise of my own donation, as a dress fittest for
the sad cavalcade,) will, I am assured, be no way want
ing in their readiest and ablest melody, suitable to the
Occasion. "Item.. — I order two hundred Jacobuses to be laid out
in myrrh, frankincense, and other necessary perfumes
to be burnt at my funeral; to sweeten if possible *
*******
'^Item. — I order an ell and a half of fine cambric to

LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 297

be cut out into handkerchiefs, for drying up all the wet
eyes at my funeral ; together with half a pint of burnt
claret for all the mourners in the kingdom.
"Item. — For the more decent interment of my re
mains, I will and require, for the re-cementing of my
own unhappy politic head to my shoulders again, (pro
vided alwliys I have the honour of the axe, as it is much
questioned,) that a present of a diamond ring be made
to Madame Labadie, for the use of the same needle, and
a skain of the same thread, once used on a very import
ant occasion, for the quilting of a certain notable cushion
of famous memory.
" To conclude : for avoiding all Chancery -suits about
the disposal of my aforesaid legacies, that the contents
of this my last will may be made public, I order my exe
cutors to take care that this may be printed."
The second paper is, " The Lord Chancellor's Discovery
and Confession, made in the time of his Sickness in the
Tower;" from which, by the way, we shall only give ex
tracts. "As for that damned town of London; not Cataline
against old Rome was half so sworn a foe, as I against
that insolent proud city. Really and sincerely, I would
willingly and heartily, out of my own pocket, (though I
sold my last rag in the world,) have been myself at the
charge of a new monument, so I had had but the pleasure
of a second same occasion of building it. Nay, verily, I
envied the fate of the old Erostratus, and that more
modern worthy, Hubart; and could have wished my own
name, though at the price of his destiny, engraven in the
room of that wisely rased-out inscription, on so glorious
an occasion.

298 LIFE OF JEFFREYS.
" It was" then, alas ! edged and enraged with a mortal
hate, and an avowed vengeance against that accursed and
detested city, and more detested parliament : with two
such meritorious qualifications, I applied myself to the
once great Coleman's greater master, at that time an
early, and indeed almost governing pilot at the helm;
both infallible recommendations to entitle me to the
highest hopes of the most exalted honours. In short, I
entered, listed, and swore myself engineer-general under
that leading hero's banners ; and how hugged, and how
embraced, my succeeding almost deluge of good fortune,
glories, and preferments, will sufficiently testify.
"And, though the world has sometimes wondered at so
sudden a rise, as in little more than seven years, to mount
from a Finsbury pettyfogger to a lord high chancellor of
England ; from bawling at a hedge-court bar for a five
shillings' fee, to sit equity-driver with ten thousand pounds
per annum, besides presents and bribes unaccountable,
honestly gotten. But, alas ! to rectify the mistakes of
mankind, and suppress their astonishment at so unprece
dented an advance, I must assure them, that as no his
tory affords a parallel of such a crown favourite as my
self, so no age ever yielded such a true crown drudge
neither, to deserve those favours. Alas ! my darling
fortunes moved not half so rapid as my dearer counsels
drove ; and all the caresses of my glory were thought but
the poorest meed and reward of those services that gained
them. But to recite my fatal particulars: upon my first
entrance (as I was saying) of engineer-general, our first
great attack was against the charter of London ; and, to
the honour of my premier effort, what by our terrible
dead-doing quo-warrantos, my own invented battering-

LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 290

ram, planted against them at Westminster, and the Tower-
hill guns removed and mounted against them on the
Tower-battlements, we soon reduced that imperious town
to almost as entire a subjection and vassalage, as our own
hearts, and our Roman friends could wish.
"Next, for those prorogation-crampers, those check
mates of crowns, called parliaments, there our triumph
was absolute : we prorogued or dissolved, and danced them
from pillar to post, from Westminster to Oxford, &c. at
pleasure, and (Heaven knows) with timely, prudent, and
wise care, to hush their too impudently inquisitive cu
riosity into our Coleman's packets, our Le Chaise and
Lewis intrigues, and the rest of our popish plots and
cabals, and all, (God knows) little enough to keep our
cloven-foot undiscovered.
" Who, alas ! but I, with so much unrelenting and piti
less barbarity, triumphed in the blood of those poor
miserable western wretches, and sanguined my very er
mines in their gore?" — "Yes, and I acted by the com
missioning vengeance that sent me thither to inform the
heretick enemies of Rome, how much their blood tickles
when it streams ; and to let them know by the sample of
my hand, how keen is a popish edge-tool.
"Was it not I too, that with so much cunning and
artifice, and by so many rhetorical high-treason fiourishes,
wheedled poor Cornish to a gibbet, and Russel to a scaf
fold ? Yes ; and it was a master-piece ! To give the
trembling world a timely warning what Protestant zeal
must trust to, when popish malice is pleased to be angry;
and to convince how easily can a Jesuitical engine wire
draw guilt, when popish rancour is resolved to destroy.
"Who dissolved all the charters, and new-garbelled all

300 LIFE OF JEFFREYS.
the corporations, but Jefferies ? And why ; but to pre
pare them to understand that, (what with our quo-war
rantos and the rest of our modelling tools,) we were re
solved, at last, to have parliaments a la mode de Paris,
and their dragoon reformers too soon after ? Who in
vented that ensnaring command to the bishops, of reading
the declaration, and put their refusal to the stretch of
high-misdemeanor, if not high-treason, — but the chan
cellor ? And why, think you, but to satisfy them what
Roman eye-sores are the Protestant lawn-sleeves ; and
that they shall want neither justles nor stumbling-blocks
to trip their heels up, and their heads off too, when they
stand in our way? Who but the great Jefferies, (in de
fiance of the very fundamentals of human society, the
original laws of human nature, and of the face of Magna
Charta itself,) got the bishop of London silenced and
suspended, without so much as that universal and com
mon right, sacred even amongst heathens and infidels, —
viz. the privilege of making either plea or defence ; con
demned, untried, and unheard ? Yes, I did it ; to instruct
the world what feeble cobweb-lawn are the bonds of jus
tice, law, liberty, common right, &c. in the hands of an
imperial popish Samson Agonistes ?
" Was it not I too, by my ecclesiastic, high-commission
supremacy, (not only against the statutes and customs
of the university, but the positive laws of the land,)
turned Maudlin College into a seminary of Jesuits ; and
in spite of that bulwark of the church of England, the
Act of Uniformity, converted a collegiate chapel into a
mass-house ? And by the same justice, might not every
collegiate, cathedral, and parochial church have had the
same conversion, and both the fountains of religion and

LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 301
learning, the mother universities, been deprived of all
her Protestant sons, and re-peopled with the whole race
of St. Omer and Salamanca?
"Who did all this? The chancellor! Yes; and he
saved the church of England, and the whole English
liberty by it. The nation was lulled into so profound a
sleep, that they wanted such thunder-claps, and such a
Boanerges, to awaken them from their lethargy. With
these serious reflections, that these rapid and violent
motions of the Roman cause are and have been the de
struction of it ; who has been the Protestant's champion — •
but I? Who has pulled off the vizor from the scarlet
whore, and exposed the painted Babylon prostitute — but
I ? And if I drive like Jehu, it was only to the confusion
of a Jezebel. Who called in the deliverer of our church
and laws, that second Hannibal, that mighty Nassau —
but Jefferies? Who has remounted the sinking glory of
our temples, till their pinnacles shall kiss Heaven, — but
Jefferies? Who has united two such formidable Protes
tant neighbours with that eternal link of interest, as
shall render us once more the arbiters of Europe, and
terror of the world — ^who, but Jefferies ? And Jefferies's
conduct has joined those naval forces, those floating walls,
that shall one day mew up the French anti-christian
monster, till in despite and despair, he bursts his soul
out **=!=*!
"In fine, who has cut off the very entail of popery
and slavery from three happy kingdoms — but Jefferies ?
Three kingdoms did I say ? Yes, possibly has laid that
foundation to the Protestant cause, as perhaps shall one
day make her overtop the seven proud hills, and strike
her dagger into the very gates of Rome."
26

302 LIFE OF JEFFREYS.

A'll the tirade which would seem to connect the object
of these maledictions with papal intrigues are gratuitous,
and the offspring of a malevolence which is so frequently
mixed up with the prejudices of passing times.
Little indeed need be said touching the character of a
man whose actions have been so repeatedly canvassed,
and whom to applaud would be deemed a political, if not
a moral crime. But his bright, sterling talents must be
acknowledged; that intuitive perception which led him to
penetrate in a moment the thin veil of hypocrisy, and
show things as they were, must have its meed. Like
Thurlow, he had the especial gift of fastening on the true
genius of the cause, eliciting its nice point, and forming
a prompt decision on the right bases of equity and justice.
And he read too at odd unsuspected times ; after a debauch
of wine, perhaps, when the share which would have stupe
fied a man of ordinary intellect, only served to give a
zest to his ambition, and stimulate the powers of his un
derstanding. That he must have read, appears from the
learning displayed in his judgments : that he must have
read thus, from the even tenor of his bacchanalian hours ;
and that due credit was attached to his abilities, is evi
dent from the works which were attributed to him by his
contemporaries.' He was sufficiently kind to his friends
and dependents, consistent with that acute insight into
the ways of men which he possessed, which made him
restless in the society of dunces, and impatient of intru
ding ignorance. Had he lived a century and a half later.

' Vernon's Reports, which are allowed to be most ably drawn; " The
Magistracy and Government of England vindicated," by Sir B. Shower,
which drew forth the acrimony of Sir John Hawles's pen.

LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 303
though his promotion were retarded or forbidden by his
debaucheries, he would have held a name for good-humour
and conviviality amongst his acquaintance, which, however
unfit to be aspired after to the excess of which he was
guilty, is yet no bad recommendation to its possessor;
whilst his sanguinary temper would have lain dormant in
an age when scarce any error escapes its just scrutiny.
It is well known that he was extravagant, and therefore
always needy and borrowing ; but in accordance with the
spirit of the age, every worthy and liberal action which
he did was carefully concealed, according to Mark An
tony's seditious text: —
The evil, that men do, lives after them ;
The good is oft interred with their bones ;
So let it be with Caesar.
Some contributor to the Gentleman's Magazine ven
tured to ask, some years since, what baronet bore certain
arms, describing them, and suggested that he was proba
bly connected with Hertfordshire, or some adjacent county.
Being informed that Sir George Jeffreys claimed those
heraldic honours, the inquiring correspondent declares,
that "the historian of Hertfordshire will now have to
record the name of that well-known judge as one of the
contributors to the repair of the abbey church of St. Al
ban, in 1683." He adds, that the arms, with those of
his friend. Lord-keeper North, and fifty other persons,
are fixed against the walls of the choir, m perpetuam
rei memoriam {^ but, as we have abundantly shown, the

' On the pillar north opposite to the third pillar, Jeffreys, of Bulstrode,
Bart., and two others.— Clutterbuck.

304 LIFE OF JEFFREYS.
friendship of those two great persons must have been
very suspicious ; it might, indeed, be more correct to sub
stitute the words, "political opponent," as no two minis
ters ever differed more, whether in the cabinet, the council,
or in their domestic life.
We will now forbear any further mention of this noble
man as far as his good or ill qualities are concerned: let
such as doubt his talents examine the grounds and the
issue of his judicial decisions ; and let those who have
agreed to the general opprobrium which rests upon his
memory, look, for the mere sake of charity, to discover
some redeeming actions, and they will not be disappointed.
But although death had freed Lord Jeffreys from pub
lic ignominy or degrading conciliations, it was determined
in parliament that some open mark of reproach should
be fixed on his memory ; and it was therefore moved, on
the 16th of the following May, "that the late chancellor
and his heirs may be excepted out of the indemnity, in
order to attainder." Mr. Boscawen had suggested be
fore, that he should be " attainted, and reduced to the
sanie condition as when he began to offend; and, more
over, that his posterity should be incapable of sitting in
the Lords' House." So that evil Avas plainly gone forth
against his descendants, and their fortunes : yet, disliked
as he necessarily must have been, the simple proposition
to except him, as the great offender, was not pressed at
once. Hawles,' afterwards the solicitor-general, rested

' Hawles was born in the Close, at New Sarum, and educated at Win
chester-school. He then became a commoner at Queen's in the begin
ning of the year 1662 ; but left the college without a degree, and entered
himself a student of Lincoln's Inn. He soon rose to eminence in his

LIFE OF JEFFREYS.

on the difficulty of punishing the dead; and, said he,
"when you inquire, you will find the chancellor very little
more guilty than those who lately passed the proclama
tion, little less than the dispensing power." The debate
was adjourned;" and before the matter was finally set at
rest, the western executions, Oates's dreadful punish
ments, and mention of various bribes which had come to
the late chancellor's coffers, were brought upon the carpet,
so that the House became better prepared to carry their
threat into execution. And as several of the judges had
been excepted in the interim,' it was not likely that any
profession, and found it convenient to adopt King William's whig party
for his political friends. However, he was defeated in a contest for the
recordership of London, in 1691; but the honours of King's counsel and
His Majesty's solicitor-general atoned for the disappointment. He con
tinued in his high employment till the end of King William's reign, when
Simon Harcourt, afterwards chancellor, superseded him : yet, quite con
trary to the usual practice, he was not advanced to be attorney-general,
when Trevor was promoted to the chief justiceship ofthe Common Pleas,
Mr. Northey being promoted to that ofiice ; and the same thing had hap
pened to Trevor, who found Ward placed over his head, after he had
been solicitor-general. Sir John Hawles wrote " Remarks on the Trials
of Fitzharris and others," and "A Reply to the Magistracy and Govern
ment of England vindicated." Anthony Wood said that he was turbu
lent, and inclining to a republic : but Bishop Tanner erased this charac
ter of him from the Athene.
' Wright, Herbert, Jenner, Holloway.
Sir Richard Holloway was the son of a public notary at Oxford, who
was very active in the business of the city. Wood calls him a " a covet
ous civilian." In 1667, when the flying coach was set up from Oxford
to London, young Richard was one ofthe six passengers. They started
at six in the morning, and were set down at their inn at seven in the
evening. Ward was another passenger. It was a great thing for a coach
to perform such an immense journey in one day, and public notice of the
feat was given throughout the university. In 1677, this gentleman was
made serjeant at law, there being two other Serjeants of the same name,
26*

306 LIFE OF JEFFREYS.

further delay could arise. Sir Williain Williams, therefore,
the old Welsh antagonist, declared, on the next conside
ration of Jeffreys' penalty, " that no man deserved to be
excepted more than he ; but will you begin' with a dead
person? "^ he continued. The exception was instantly
agreed to. Nor did the affair end here, for Colonel Tip
ping soon afterwards spoke warmly upon the fates of
Armstrong and Mrs. Lisle, and finished thus strongly :
"He has raised his estate on the ruin of the law: his
estate and honour are the price of your blood. I move,
that you will attaint him." And it was resolved, that a
bill should be brought in for the forfeiture of his honour
and estate.' How this attempt failed, we have alread}'
Charles, his uncle, and Robert. A few years afterwards he became
judge of the King's Bench, whence he was ejected by King James after
the trial of the seven bishops, and he was not restored at the Revolution.
There were five Holloways living at Oxford in 1667, and the following
curious verses transpired concerning them:
" Sarjeant,* Barrister,t Necessitie,^ Notarie,§ Mercer,||
Gravely dull, IT ill spoken,*' lawless,tt c™ pwgere,tt broken. "§§
' The exceptions of the particular day's debate.
' Williams said on a subsequent occasion, when Sir Robert Sawyer
endeavoured to excuse himself from being accessary to Armstrong's
fate, that "all is put upon the dead (Jeffreys;) and the dead must an
swer for the dead, and ' the dead bury the dead.' "
" In Salop, he had the manors of Wem and Loppington, with many

* Old Charles Holloway, the uncle.
-f Richard, living again&t Blue-bore, in St. Aldave's parish.
t Young Charles, son ofthe old serjeant.
$ ( )ld Richard Holloway, the judge's father. '
II Francis, brother to old Charles and old Richard.
IT In his dotage.
-** Censorious.
ft So.called, because being a barrister and no lawyer, J^ece/isitas v.on habit Is^em
XX This is not known.
^\\ A broken mercer.

LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 307

acquainted the reader ; but such was the want of due eco
nomy, not only in the chancellor's family, but in his son's
also who succeeded to the title, that all is said to have
been spent and squandered; and some of the servants
who saw the acquisition of a property no less than
12,000Z. a year, lived long enough to hear of its total
waste and dispersion.
There are several portraits of this chancellor, which
were taken for the most part whilst he held the seals;
and Nichols, referring to some of these, says, that " he
does not appear that monster of ugliness and wickedness
we have been taught to think him." In 1687, a whole
length, by Sir Godfrey Kneller, was hung up in the Inner
other lands and tenements ; in Leicestershire, the manors of Dalby and
Broughton. He bought Dalby of the Duke of Buckingham; and after
his death it passed to Sir Charles Duncombe, and descended on Anthony
Duncombe, afterwards Lord Feversham. In Bucks, he had the manor
of Bulstrode, which he had purchased of Sir Roger Hill, in 1686 ; and
the manor of ^Fulmer, -with other tenements. He built a mansion at
Bulstrode, which came afterwards to his son-in-law Charles Dive, who
sold it, in the reign of Queen Anne, to William, Earl of Portland, in
whose family, now aggrandized by a dukedom, it still continues. And
he had an inclination at one time to have become the purchaser of ano
ther estate,* but was outwitted by one of his legal brethren. Sir Jef
frey Jeffreys, the alderman, lent his namesake considerable sums of mo
ney, and by way of security, had a mortgage on his Leicestershire estate.
When the second and last Lord Jeffreys died in 1702, Sir Jeffrey took
possession of these lands, and filed a bill of foreclosure against Lord Vis
count Windsor, who had married the widow, and others: the issue of
which was, that the noble defendant was ordered to pay the encum
brances, which amounted to upwards of 13,000?. And we have seen, that
other estates belonging to the chancellor were ordered to be sold after
his son's death. The sale took place for the satisfaction of this mort
gage and settlements -made by the first lord in 1688.
* Giinednn Park.

308 LIFE OF JEFFREYS.
Temple-hal'l. It cost fifty pounds, and was executed at
the expense of the society. This painting, however, was
not destined to remain long in its station ; for no sooner
had those reverses taken place which caused such a ge
neral commotion in all societies, than it was removed to
Mr. Holloway's chambers ; and in 1695, an order was
promulgated from the benchers to the effect —
" That Mr. Treasurer do declare to the Lord Jeffreys,
that, at his lordship's desire, the house do make a present
to his lordship of his father's picture, now in Mr. Hol
loway's chambers, who is desired to deliver the same to
his lordship, or his order." John, Lord Jeffreys, having
obtained the portrait, sent it to Acton ; where, Nichols
tells us, the Honourable Daines Barrington often saw it.
The Denbighshire estate being sold to Sir Foster Cunliffe,
this painting was again removed to Erthig, the house of
Mr. Yorke, who possessed another likeness of the judge
by J. Allen.' That considerable antiquary, Mr. Nichols,

' The following is a description of some of the portraits and engra
vings :
The Right Honourable George, Lord Jeffreys, Baron of Wem, lord
high chancellor of England, and one of the lords of His Majesty's most
honourable privy-council, 1686. Wig, laced band, habit of office, arms,*
mace, and purse. " POBD AUN ODDVW."— Ames's Catalogue of Eng
lish Heads.
Sir George Jefferies. R. White, sc. Svo. — Granger.
George, Lord Jefferies, &c. lord high chancellor, 1686. Cooper, large
4to. mezz.
George, Lord Jefferies, &c. inscribed, "The Lord Chancellor." J.
Smith, exc. large 4to. mezz.
The Lord Chancellor taken in disguise at Wapping. He is surrounded
by the mob. H. sh. — Granger.
* He bore ermine, a lion rampant, and canton, sable, with a mullet for difference on
a canton, and the arms of Ulster in an inescutcheon on the body ofthe lion.

LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 309

goes on thus in his note: — "The picture (that of the
Inner Temple) continues in tolerable preservation." Mr.
Gough was informed there was in the hall at Acton a
whole length of the chancellor's brother; and that an
original portrait of the former, removed from Guildhall
in his disgrace, and sold, is, or was a few years ago, at
Mr. Harnage's, at Belsardine, near Crossing, in Shrop
shire ; one of whose ancestors married his youngest daugh
ter. Another picture of him is said to have perished in
the fire which destroyed the manor-house of Durance,
about fifty years ago, at the Christmas audit, by putting
too much wood on the hall-fire. There were at Stoke
Pogis, in Buckinghamshire, in the possession of Lady Ju
liana Penn, his descendant, two portraits of Lord Chan
cellor Jeffreys : one a whole length in his robes, holding
the great seal ; in the other, he is in black, with a band,
and sitting at a table, on which is a letter directed to
him. The present earl of Winchelsea has also a portrait
of him ; and another is in the possession of Dr. Jeffreys,
canon residentiary of St. Paul's.
Whether the reader be curious to know the fate of
other persons who have been mentioned in this little histo
ry, or be content with the extinction of its principal cha
racter, we will offer no opinion. The great novelist of
our day has ever been willing to gratify those who have
luxuriated in his pages with such information ; but as we
are dealing with the plain, simple narrative of a great
man's life, it were far better to say, in imitation of Bos-
well's farewell, — Such was Jeffreys. Samuel Johnson,

George (Jefferies,) Earl of Flint, Viscount Weikham, Baron of Weim,
&c. G. Kneller, p. Cooper, exc. 1666, 4to. mezz. very scarce.

310 LIFE OF JEFFREYS.
however, died childless; whereas the chancellor left a
son, who inherited, not only the honour of his title, but
some of his bright parts also. A very short mention of
this young nobleman shall close the chapter.'
Under the management of so jovial a parent, it would
have been surprising if John had not fallen into all the
gaieties of the times ; and he accordingly inherited a love
for the bottle, and a propensity to extravagant habits . —
That very strange story related of him at Dryden's fune -
ral, although proved of late to have been the fabrication
of a Mrs. Elizabeth Thomas, his Corinna,^ is yet quite
congenial with his conduct and with the custom of the
age, when every young lord was bowed down to like a
phoenix. When the great poet died (at least so the story
goes,) Sprat, then bishop of Rochester and dean of West
minster, sent to Lady Elizabeth Howard, the widow, with
a proposal to make a present of the ground and all the
Abbey-fees : Lord Halifax also offered to bury him with
a gentleman's private funeral, and to bestow 5001. upon
a monument to his honour. This liberality being acceded
to by the lady and Charles Dryden, the son, the corpse
' Jeffreys was twice married. His first wife, Sarah Neesham, brough t
him four sons and two. daughters : John, of whom we are now speaking ;
Thomas, who died March 7, 1676 ; George and Robert, who died in their
infancy; Margaret, his eldest daughter, who espoused William Stringer,
of Durance, in the parish of Enfield (son and heir to Judge Stringer;)
and Sarah, the second, who married George Harnage, a captain of ma
rines. His second wife, the widow of Sir John Jones, of Funman, in
Glamorganshire, and daughter of the Lord Mayor Bludworth, gave him
two sons and four daughters, all of whom died infants, except Mary,
who became the wife of Charles Dive, Esq. — See Nichols's Leices
tershire. 2 She was in prison, and in great poverty, which might probably in-
Auce her to become " the mother of many inventions."

LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 311

was ready to move forward, attended by eighteen mourn
ing coaches; the Abbey was lighted, the choir attending,
the anthem set, and the dean waiting to bury. At this
moment came up the young lord with some wild rakes,
and having learned for whom the funeral obsequies were
performing, "What shall Dryden, the greatest honour
and ornament of the nation, be buried after this private
manner?" quoth Jeffreys: "No, gentlemen; let all that
loved Mr. Dryden, and honour his memory, alight, and
join with me in gaining my lady's consent to let me have
the honour of his interment, which shall be after another
manner than this; and I will bestow a thousand pounds
on a monument in the Abbey for him." This said, the
people in the coaches, who were ignorant of the dean's
kindness as well as of Halifax's generosity, alighted, and
attended the young man to the bed-chamber of the Lady
Howard, who was sick. All kneeled down by his desire,
and he vowed never to rise till his request should be
granted. The unfortunate woman fainted away, being
frightened, but exclaimed, "No, no!" as soon as she re
covered. "Enough, gentlemen," said Lord Jeffreys ; "my
lady is very good; she says, 'Go, go.'" Her feeble
voice was, however, drowned in joyous acclamations, and
away went all the parties, the hearsemen being bidden
to carry the corpse to one Russel, an undertaker in
Cheapside, there to be embalm^ after the royal fashion.
Next day, Mr. Charles Dryden endeavoured to excuse
his mother to the bishop and my Lord Halifax ; but they
would hear nothing in extenuation ; and when the under
taker applied to Jeffreys for a fulfilment of his promise,
he turned it off ill-naturedly, saying, that those who ob
served the orders of a drunken frolic deserved no better ;

312 LIFE OF JEFFREYS.
that he remembered nothing of it, and that he might do
what he liked with the corpse. Charles Dryden then
wrote to him, but received for answer, that he would not
be troubled about the matter. The result of this extra
ordinary matter was, that Dr. Garth, of the College of
Physicians, proposed a subscription ; and Dryden was at
length interred in the Abbey, followed by a numerous
train of coaches. But as soon as the funeral was over,
Charles sought every opportunity of fighting the man
who had so dishonoured his parents; and having chal
lenged him in vain, declared that he would watch and
fight him off-hand, though like a gentleman, and with all
the rules of honour ; and then, we are told, that Jeffreys
sneaked off out of the town, and that the meeting, though
sedulously sought for, never took place.
Mr. Malone, who took singular pains to disprove this
unhandsome tale, after exhibiting many instances of false
hood which Mrs. Thomas had allowed to go forth in print,
gives the verity of the case thus. — True it was, that Jef
freys met the procession in the street, and that, in con
junction with others, he was instrumental in changing the
private funeral intended him by Mr. Montague, after
wards Lord Halifax, into a public ceremony; but the
histories of the dean, the attendance of the choir, the
bed-chamber scene, and the challenge, were merely em
bellishments, or, to speak more to the purpose, gross fic
tions. The Earl of Dorset and Jeffreys thought that so
great a poet should be honoured with a signal solemnity ;
and having prevailed on the relations of Dryden to suffer
the removal of his corpse, it was taken from the under
taker's on the same evening to the College of Physicians,
whence it was carried with due pomp to Westminster, as

LIFE OF JEFFREYS.

we have related.' The truth, therefore, is far from being
discreditable to the young nobleman, although he might
have effected his intentions in a manner somewhat chi
valrous.^ Like his father, he had the reputation of being an au
thor, from the force of genius which he was known to
possess ; and Walpole has thought fit to place him in his
Noble Catalogue.^ The paraphrased fable, however, on
King William, is considered to have been Prior's, having
been found among his unpublished manuscripts after his
death in his own hand-writing, though Lord Jeffreys has
long had the credit of it. As it is but short,, perhaps
there will be no harm in giving it : —
A FABLE.
In .SIsop's tales an honest wretch we find.
Whose years and comforts equally declin'd ;
He in two wives had two domestick ills,
For different age they had, and different wills ;
One pluckt his black hairs out, and one his gray;
The man for quietness did both obey.
Till all his parish saw his head quite bare.
And thought he wanted brains as well as hair.

'This account is greatly confirmed by Ward, in his London Spy. He
says, he saw the procession when standing at the end of Chancery-lane,
that he heard the concert of hautboys and trumpets, and he compliments
Lord Jeffreys on his pious undertaking.
" Not unlike Richard^-
" Stay you, that bear the corse, and set it down."
And again : "Villains, set down the Corse, or, by Saint Paul,
I'll make a corse of him that disobeys."
' But it is in a kind of appendix, where Lord Orford designates hi«
supplemental geniuses as persons he had hardly thought of noticing.
27

314 LIFE OF JEFFREYS.

THE MORAL.
The parties, henpeckt W  m, are thy wives ;
The hair they pluck are thy prerogatives :
Tories thy person hate, the whigs thy power ;
Though much thou yieldest, still they try for more.
Till this poor man and thou alike are shown,
He without hair, and thou without a crown.
The burlesqued epitaph on the Duke of Gloucester
has been always understood as the legitimate production
of this nobleman. The original by Dr. Bentley is in
Latin verse.' What reason have I to complain,
Since in all times it has been plain.
That great and weighty things must soon.
Like jacks, with their own weight, go down?
And Nature, when upon her back
She lays too much, will surely crack.
So little Willy does, and cares
Neither for scepters, nor our prayers:

^ On the Death of the Duhe of Glo2icester, by Dr. Bentley.
Quid queror ? an-proprio sub pondere magna fatiscunt?
Et Natura labat dotibus ipsa suis?
Sic moreris, Gulielme, et sceptra, et vota tuorum,
Destituens, brevis, heu! Spes; diturnus Amor!
An potius terras Deus indignatus inertes
Illustres animas ad supera alta vocat ?
Nee moreris, Gulielme, volas sed vivus ad astra,
jEtheriis vectus qualis Enochus equis ;
Et positis novus exuviis roseo ore refulges,
Inter coelicolas conspiciendus avos.
Interea flendo nos frustra ducimus horas,
Viventi et cassas solvimus exequias.
Scilicet: at sine te tristi marcescere in tevo,
lUud erit nobis, bis, Gulielme, mori.

LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 315

And I shall love him long, for all
The hopes he gave us were but small.
Or rather God, who gave us birth,
Being in wrath with lazy earth.
Takes this occasion, and prefers
Illustrious souls among the stars.
If it be so, I told a lie.
And little Willy does not die;
But mounts alive, and swiftly flies.
On airy horseback thro' the skies.
'Tis, the same horse old Enoch rode.
And Asgil keeps to go to God.
Now see the youth without his clothes.
How like a new-born flow'r he shows ;
See how his rosy cheeks do shine
Among his ancestors divine ;
While we poor mortals here below
Our sighs and tears in vain bestow;
And empty obsequies are paid.
Just as if he were really dead ;
Which makes it plain that living on
A hated life, now he is gone.
Will be to us, altho' our breath
Should ne'er be stopt, a double death.
There is really some ground for Mrs. Wiseman's praise,
when, dedicating her tragedy of Antiochus to him, she
spoke of his "admirable gay humour and eternal vivacity
of wit." He received a similar mark of honour from the
author of Bonduca, another tragedy, altered from Fletch
er, which was published in 1696. Yet while he was an
'enterprising, he was doubtless an imprudent lord; and
though his death, which took place in 1703, averted the
distress which treads hard upon the spendthrift, his
estates turned out to be seriously involved and encum
bered. We have seen how he became possessed of Lord
Pembroke's daughter, in spite of all obstacles; and
whether a state of comfort or unhappiness ensued upon

316 LIFE OF JEFFREYS.

the nuptials, certain it is, that the chancellor had ad
vanced his son among the first people of the land, and
that his granddaughter allied herself to noble blood.
John, Lord Jeffreys, had two children; Herbert, who
died an infant, and Henrietta, who wedded Thomas, Earl
of Pomfret. The death of Herbert caused the extinction
of the title. Henrietta, the countess, was an amiable
and well-informed gentlewoman; she was the familiar
and affectionate correspondent of Lady Hartford,' after
wards Duchess of Somerset, whom Thomson has justly
celebrated. Both these ladies retired from public life in
1737, on the death of Queen Caroline; Lord Pomfret and
his family went to reside on the continent, while the
Lady Hartford remained in England. That nobleman^
died in 1763 ; and two years afterwards his noble collec
tion of busts and statues^ was presented to the University
of Oxford by his widow. She died in 1761, leaving a
considerable family, and was honoured with a cenotaph
by the college to which she had been so munificent a
donor.

' 0 Hartford, fitted or to shine in courts
With unaffected grace, or walk the plain  Thomson.
° He was a knight of the Bath, and master of the horse to the Queen,
and his wife was a lady of the bed-chamber.
' The Pomfret marbles, being part ofthe Arundel marbles, were bought
by Sir William Fermor, Lord Pomfret's father, and deposited at Easton
Neston, Northamptonshire, the seat of the family, whence they were re
moved to the Logic and Moral Philosophy School at Oxford.

THE END.

00916 5995

LINDSAY & BLAKISTON
PUBLISH
THE LIFE, LETTERS AND POEMS
OF
BERNARD BARTON.
EDITED BY HIS DAUGHTER.
With a Portrait.
Extract from the Preface.
In compiling the present volume, it has been the wish ofthe editor, In
?ome measure, to carry out her father's favourite but unfulfilled desigh
of an autobiography. It is with reference to this that both the letters
and poems have been selected. The great bulk of the poems are reli
gious ; but there are not wanting those of a lighter character, which will
be found to be the wholesome relaxation of a pure, good, and essentially
religious mind. These may succeed each other as gracefully and bene
ficently as April sunshine and showers over the meadow. So, indeed,
¦such moods followed in his own mind, and were so revealed in his do
mestic intercourse.

OPINIONS OF THE, PRESS.
This is a very handsome volume, enriched with a neat and graphic portrait
of the worthy quaker lyrist, and forms a valuable addition to our poetica'
literature. In the interesting Memoir and rich collection of Epistolary Re
mains, the fair editress has conferred a most acceptable favour upon the man;'
admirers of her gifted parent. Among the correspondence are letters from
Soulhey, Charles Lamb, Sir Walter Scott, and other distinguished cotempo ¦
ries. — Evening Bulletin. 
The poems of this meritorious writer, better known by the name of tho
Quaker Poet, have long been popular in England, and are much admired
in this country for their simplicity and warmth of feeling. — American an
Commercial Advertiser, Baltimore.
Barton was a Quaker, but mingled a good deal with fhe "world's people,"
at least with such as were, like himself, addicted to literary pursuits. His
correspondence with Southey and Charles Lamb, is full of interest. Many
of his poems are very beautiful ; and the present volume is worth a nJic" '
every good library. — Evening Transcript.

YALE
Bfti1'i5n~nl3TGnV -
PRESERVATION PROJECTH
SUPPORTED BY NEH
LINDSAY & BLAKISTON PUBLISH
CHARACTERISTICS OF LITERATURE,
ILLUSTRATED BY THE GENIUS OF DISTINGUISHED MEN,
BT
HENRY F. TUOKERMAN,
AUTHOR OF "THOtlSHTS ON THE POETS," " AKTIST LIFE," ETC.
A neat 12ino. volume,
CONTENTS.
The Philosopher  -  Sir Thomas Browne.
Thif Dilettante  Shenstone.
The Moralist  William Ellery Channing,
The Wit  Dean Swift.
The Philanthropist  William Roscoe.
The Humorist  Charles Lamb.
The Historian   T. Babington Macaulay.
The Idealist  John Sterling.
The Rhetorician  Edmund Burke.
The Scholar  Mark Akenside.
The Biographer  Final Memorials of Lamb and Keati.
This forms, for the traveller, the sojourner at a watering-place, or in the
country, an agreeable volume for summer reading. It is of a higher order ot
merit than the light literature of the day, while it is less diffuse than works
of a more standard character ; it will be found both instructive and enter
taining.
OPINIONS OF THE PRESS.
He has happily chosen Sir Thomas Browne as the representative of the
Philosopher; Channing, of the Moralist; Roscoe, of the Philanthropist;
Lamb, of the Humorist ; Macaulay, of the Historian, &c. A glance at its
pages, and a knowledge of the author, assures us that it will be admitted as
one of the happiest works that has proceeded from his pen — discriminating
with distinctions, with the accessary illustrations of a raan of taste and tra
vels.— Xi^erary World.
The idea is a happy one, that of delineating the various forms of literary
tharacter, by selecting sorae single specimen from each dlass, and analysing
Its peculiarities. The execution is distinguished by the good sense and good
taste which mark most of Mr. Tuckerraan's criticisms. — Evening Post.
Mr. Tuckerman never attempts anything that he does not thoroughly per
form. Equally successful, both in prose and verse, in this volume he has
thrown the graceful charm of his polished diction around the characters he
has selected for analysis. No one can take up the book without being de
lighted at every step of their progress. — Boston Atlas.
Those who like to think as they read, will find much pleasure in this de
lightful volume. — Baltimore American.
For a companion under a tree, in the present season, we could commend
few books as confidently as " The Characteristics of Literature," by Tucker
man — a gentle-thoughted, discriminating, tasteful series of analytical portruts
of distinguished men. — Home Journal.
Those who like to think as they read, will find much pleasure in this ana
lytical volume. — American,
He has given us a very entertaining volume, that cannot fail lo be popular
Transcript.