FAC-SIMILE OF A LETTER FROM LORD JEFFREYS TO THE EARL OF

SUNDERLAND, SEPTEMBER 5, 1685 .

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Appendix III.

I

THE BOYHOOD OF JEFFREYS

1648-1663

AT Acton Park, in a beautiful green corner of the county of Denbighshire, near the town of Wrexham, George Jeffreys was born in the year 1648. Acton Park had been the family seat for a considerable period. Descended from a long line of distinguished ancestors, the house of Jeffreys could claim to be one of the oldest families among the gentry of Wales. But its historical importance had passed away with Tudor Trevor, Earl of Hereford, and other heroes of the national history; and the Jeffreys had settled down as quiet country gentlemen, living in dignified ease, and sharing those responsibilities that usually fall to people in their station of life. The name of Jeffreys had attained local prominence in the persons of High Sheriffs and Welsh Judges, but its fame had not yet passed beyond the limits of its county.

The father whose son was destined to dissipate so rudely the unpretentious merit of the family achievement was Mr. John Jeffreys. He had proved no alien to the honourable traditions of his house; and, at the age of eighty-four, when "Judge Jeffreys" had ceased to be anything but a hated name, this sturdy old gentleman felt justified in blessing God" that he had always studied the welfare and happiness of his children, and had never been guilty of an unkind or unjust act to any of

them." 1 He had chosen a fitting wife in Margaret Ireland. This lady was the daughter of Sir Thomas Ireland, a Lancashire gentleman, erstwhile a Serjeant-atlaw and learned editor of Coke's Reports. Mrs. Jeffreys was a pious good woman, if we are to believe the testimony of her friend Philip Henry, the eminent Dissenter, and one who did her best to bring up her children in a godly fashion. There is some reason for believing that Jeffreys' parents were themselves Dissenters, and it may well be that George's bringing up was unpleasantly austere to a child of his temperament. At any rate, it is admissible to suggest that in his early training and the religious tone of his father's household, Jeffreys found a primary cause for the lively hatred he evinced in later years towards the Nonconformists. It must not also be forgotten that Jeffreys' earliest years, 1648-1660, were passed during the period of Puritan ascendency, a period no doubt trying in many respects to vivacious children.

Of such estimable parents came "Judge Jeffreys." George was the fourth son. Three of his brothers grew to manhood, and, as far as we know, perpetuated the modest virtues of their parents, leading honourable if uneventful lives, and dying under circumstances that left nothing to be desired. John, the eldest, was a respectable High Sheriff, Thomas an amiable Consul, and James, the youngest, a very sufficient Prebendary. There is no reflection of either the abilities or the energy of the Judge in any of his immediate relatives. If his qualities are a reproduction of some remote ancestor, they cannot be traced at this distance of time. From his maternal grandfather he may have inherited some of his legal talents, and his paternal grandfather was a Welsh Judge. An unconvincing attempt has been made to establish the existence of a maternal grandmother with ambitious designs, but it remains unconvincing. It must not be

1 Letter of Mr. John Jeffreys to the widow of his son, Dr. James Jeffreys, Prebendary of Canterbury, Jan. 18, 1690, in the possession of M. P. Jeffreys, Esq.

forgotten that "Judge Jeffreys" was a Welshman. Matthew Arnold has described wit, vivacity, an audacious love of excitement, a want of measure and steadfastness and sanity, as prevailing characteristics of the Celtic nature. Lord Justice Vaughan Williams has added disregard of personal liberty. These qualities have been for some time associated in the public mind with "Judge Jeffreys." Amidst the Teutonic moderation of his immediate relatives, it may not be unreasonable to regard George as a wilful protest on the part of the Celtic element in the family character against threatened extinction.

The memory of the Judge has not escaped that misrepresentation which is the everlasting portion of unpopular characters. There is a prevalent impression that he was a man of obscure and ignoble origin, an uneducated declaimer, violent and ignorant, whose shortcomings may be comfortably attributed to the mysterious consequences of want of breeding. Insinuations of this kind are very fatal to character, and, if there is any hope of mercy for Jeffreys, should be immediately corrected. It is impossible to calculate the enormous damage which the reputation of Scroggs (Jeffreys' only peer in judicial infamy) has suffered from the assertion of his enemies that he was a butcher's son, and the unfortunate support that questionable statement has derived from his cacophonous name. All that can be said with certainty of Jeffreys' boyhood amounts to this-he was considered by those who knew him a lad of exceptional talents, and, for that reason, received at the hands of his parents the best education possible to a gentleman of that period. Philip Henry examined the boy's learning at his mother's request, and found him remarkably proficient. He was first sent to Shrewsbury School, then the preparatory school for the gentry of the neighbourhood. Lord Campbell unmercifully accuses Jeffreys, even at this tender age, of cheating his schoolfellows at marbles and leapfrog; but adds that, in spite of these failings, he contrived to get himself elected Master of the Revels by