JEFFREYS, SIR GEORGE, Baron Wem, commonly called Judge Jeffreys, was the sixth son of Mr John Jeffreys, of Acton, in Denbighshire; and was educated at Westminster School, whence he removed to the Inner Temple, where he applied himself to the study of the law. Alderman Jeffreys, who was probably related to him, introduced him among the citizens of London; and being a merry bottle companion, he soon came into great business, and was chosen their recorder. He was afterwards chosen solicitor to the Duke of York; and in 1680 he was knighted, and made chief justice of Chester. At length, resigning the recordership, he obtained the post of chief
justice of the king's bench, and, soon after the accession of James II. the great seal. During the reign of King Charles II. he showed himself a bitter enemy to those dissenting ministers who, in that time of persecution, were tried by him. He was one of the principal advisers and promoters of all the oppressions and arbitrary measures carried on in the reign of James II.; and his sanguinary and inhuman proceedings against Monmouth's unhappy adherents in the west will for ever render his name infamous. Whenever the prisoner was of a different party, or whenever he could please the court by condemning him, instead of appearing, according to the duty of his office, as his counsel, he would scarcely allow him to speak for himself, but would load him with the grossest and most vulgar abuse, browbeat, insult, and turn to ridicule the witnesses that spoke in his behalf, and even threaten the jury with fines and imprisonment if they made the least hesitation about bringing in the prisoner guilty. Yet it is said, that when he was in temper, and matters perfectly indifferent came before him, no one became a seat of justice better. Nay, it even appears, that when he was under no state influence, he was sometimes inclined to protect the natural and civil rights of mankind, of which the following instance has been recorded. The mayor and aldermen of Bristol had been used to transport convicted criminals to the American plantations, and sell them by way of trade. This turning to good account, when any pillers or petty rogues were brought before them, they threatened them with hanging, and then some officers who attended earnestly persuaded the ignorant, intimidated creatures to beg for transportation, as the only way to save their lives; and in general the advice was followed. Then, without more form, each alderman in course took one, and sold him for his own benefit; and sometimes warm disputes arose between them about the next turn. This infamous trade, which had been carried on for many years, coming to the knowledge of the lord chief justice, he made the mayor descend from the bench, and stand at the bar in his scarlet and fur, with his guilty brethren the aldermen, and plead as common criminals. He then obliged them to give securities to answer informations; but the proceedings were stopped by the Revolution. However, the brutality which Jeffreys commonly showed on the bench, where his voice and visage were equally terrible, at length exposed him to a severe mortification. A scrivener of Wapping having a cause before him, one of the opponent's council said he was a strange fellow, and sometimes went to church, and sometimes to conventicles, and it was thought he was a trimmer. At this the chancellor fired. "A trimmer!" said he; "I have heard much of that monster, but never saw one. Come forth, Mr Trimmer, and let me see your shape." He then treated the poor fellow so roughly, that, on his leaving the hall, he declared he would not undergo the terrors of that man's face again to save his life, and that he should certainly retain the frightful impressions of it as long as he lived. Soon afterwards, when the Prince of Orange landed, the lord chancellor, dreading the public resentment, disguised himself in a seaman's dress in order to leave the kingdom, and was drinking in a cellar, when this scrivener, coming into the cellar, and seeing again the face which had filled him with such horror, started; upon which Jeffreys, fearing he was known, feigned a cough, and turned to the wall with his pot of beer in his hand. But Mr Trimmer going out, gave notice that he was there; and the mob rushing in, seized him, and carried him before the lord mayor, who sent him with a strong guard to the lords of the council, by whom he was committed to the Tower, where he died in 1689. It is remarkable, that the late Countess of Pomfret met with very rude insults from the populace on the western road, solely because she was grand-daughter to the inhuman Jeffreys.