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THE LIFE

JUDGE JEFFREYS,

CHIEF JUSTICE OF THE KING'S BENCH UNDER CHARLES II.,

lv d r ft I i g ji £ Ij n n r r 1 1 n r a f <£ - n g 1 n it h

DURING

THE REIGN OF JAMES II. HUMPHREY W. WOOLRYCH.

PHILADELPHIA: LINDSAY AND BLAKISTON.

1852.

19

WM. S. YOUNG, PRINTER.

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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 be.st ; 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^rme^a^d>*e,ai^ ^Yr^ej^^^e^^h^inigjiljlj^

front 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, insteadof the excellent and patient judge who presides thereS^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

it? **~<aj ?*

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 Caesar ? 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 Caesar to be more dear to you than your own soul; it is not right, whilst Caesar is safe, to repine at fortune."1

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 praedices cariorem tibi spiritu tuo Caesarem esse, fas tibi non est, salvo Caesare, de fortuna queri.

1 *

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 VII., 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 Caesar," continues he, "was, and ever will be, reputed a wise and 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.

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."

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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 love of 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 Chifnnch, 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 Town 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 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 of the 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. . . Page 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 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

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 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 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 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 of the 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 of the 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. . . 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-

Xll 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, %vhom 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 — Fable supposed to have been written by him — He espouses a daughter of the earl of Pembroke— Conclusion.

Page 273

LIFE

OF

JUDGE JEFFREYS

CHAPTER I.

Birth and parentage of Jeffreys — His love of splendour — Anecdote — Goes to school at Shrewsbury, Sr. Paul's free-school, and to West- minster—Recollection of Bushy — 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.

George Jeffreys was the sixth son of John Jefferys, Esq. of Acton,1 near Wrexham, in the county of Denbigh, by Margaret, daughter of Sir Thomas Ireland,2 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-

1 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.

a 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,1 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 of the 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 JEFFREV;

with hopes of success. 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;1 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.2 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

1 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 nolvy Xwrrog,* and under him, young Jeffreys probably received his education. St. Paul's school was burnt in his time.

2 There was another George Jeffreys, a lawyer, who was bom at Weldori, in Northamptonshire, and who went to that school. He died in 1755, at the age of 77.

Many-tongued.

LIFE OP JEFFREYS. 17

down that as a positive rule, that the relative must refer to the next antecedent."1

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

1 T^he 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 '■they'' relate?"

O*

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 cither 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, 1G63 ; 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 relative1 in coming into Sir GeofTry Palmer's2 chambers, which were very commodious; having a gallery, and at the end a closet, with a little garden. Here Sir Francis North

a

1 The Lord Keeper.

3 GeofTry 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 GeofTry, that the Lord Keeper North owed an introduction to the family of that great pleader, and much of his subsequent good fortune.

20 LIFE OF 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 difficult 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 OP 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, arc calculated to give the man who ventures on them an enlarged acquaintance with 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."

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 aa in- dulgence in unrestrained pleasure was familiar with the career which he proposed forjiimself. 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 account ; 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 which, unconnected as he was, he might expect for some time to be involved.

But this was not all: the difficulties of his pecuniary means1 were ever present with him; and what scruples

1 His must have been at this time a perpetual "pecuniary crisis."*

*The cant word during the great commercial panic of 1823 and lc26.

LIFE 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.

2-1 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 Chiffinch, 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 be- 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 of the 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 ; 1 and he never spared any

1 The following testimony to his loud voice took 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.1 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 George, 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,1 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 " musitioners " 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."

Hudibras.

28 LIFE OP JEFFREYS.

Jeffreys's client: "You there, with your law terras 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 nodclee."

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 him, 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 have 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;1 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 1701, died at Roehampton in 1709, and was buried at St. Andrew Undershaft.

One of these, probably Robert, was called, by way of distinction (x*t' f^X'l1')) "'he great smoker."

LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 31

although it does not seem to he 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 which he was con- cerned by virtue of his office,1 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

1 See Bohun's Privilegia Londini, 1723, p. 329, 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,1 was spoken of as likely to

1 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.1

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, whatever 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 writer2 attributes this result to a successful ambition on the part of Jef- freys for advancement ; another3 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

1 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 Wall. (Nell Gwyn.)

Midsummer Moon.

2 The author of his Life and Character, 1725.

3 The author of the Bloody Assizes.

LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 35

regarding this affair.1 After introducing the celebrated royal page, Chiffinch,2 as a complete court spy, and a

1 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 office, 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 king 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. — 8vo. ed. vol. ii. pp. 98, 99.

a 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 Tope than with the followers o[ 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 ceuvres. Sept. 14, 1G77, he was

LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 37

knighted ; and on the resignation of Sir William Dolben,1 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 of the 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 of the Sheriff's Court ; Mr. Turner, of Gray's Inn ; and Mr. Roger Belwood,2 a barrister of the Middle Temple ; and Nicholls, in his His- tory of Leicestershire, has furnished a note extracted from the city records, from whence it appears that Sir George was "freely and unanimously elected by scrutiny."

1 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.

Q 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 Month, or 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 of the 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 unwilling to unite attachment with interest. He, accordingly, made his advances to the widow of a Montgomeryshire gentle- man,2 a daughter of Sir Thomas* Bludworth,3 who had

1 She was buried on the eighteenth, in the vault of Aldermanbury church. 3 Mr. Jones.

* An account of this knight is given in a subsequent page.

LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 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.1

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 pretty 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."2

We cannot forbear to. insert here that very curious copy of verses, called —

1 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.

a There were reasons, therefore, for Jeffreys's second marriage so soon after the death of his wife.

40 LIFE OF JEFFREYS.

A WESTMINSTER WEDDING, OR THE TOWN MOUTH; ALIAS, THE f OF LONDON AND HIS LADY: FEB. 17, 1G79.

'Tis said when George did dragon slay,

He saved a maid from cruel fray :

But this Sir George, whom knaves do brag on,

Mist of the 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.'

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 of the 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 Trevor1 left him, who knows what) A teeming lady wife * *

But one thing more I can't let pass,

When George with Clodpate2 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;

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 of the King's Bench.

" Benjamin Harris, the book-seller — Note 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 judge: 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 knoAVS 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 of the day; the announcement of his fate bging- 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 OF 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 Avere vehement, and when nearly all judges1 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.2

1 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.

a 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^riight have been the asperity of Jeffreys, it certainly was not excee^d'jty that of Rainsford, Scroggs, Pemberton, or Sanders ; and we must tnefefore 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,1 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 Oates 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

1 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."

4G 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 specimen 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 cte-

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. Cellier. 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- mond1 went to learn the opinions of the judges there. It probably came from that great lawyer, Lord Chief Justice

1 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 1732, 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's1

' 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 16S3,^having survived his wife, a daughter of Matthew' Blucke, Esq., some time. This judge was a great 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 knight- hood-fees, and must therefore be taken cum grano. f Some say he died in Essex-street, but surely this must 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 by the wits of the day than this turn- coat chief justice. Beneath are extracts from some of the 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-DOOR.

Here lives the Wolf Justice, a butcherly knave,

Likes protestants' goods, but the papists' do's save, &c.

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 Gr. 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*

LIFE OF JEFFREYS.

Observing upon this, says Lord Camden, " Can the twelve judges extrajudicially 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.

thus acted might be laid open to the public gaze. But

in vain : —

Non vultus instantis tyranni Mente quatit solida.

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 firm 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 fine 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 some 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

5(3 LIFE OF JEFFKEYS.

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:1 and became a Welsh judge about that time, when his brother preached an assize-sermon before him. On the 30th 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 Gorl; 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."1 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 II., the old judge had his quietus in Westminster-hall, and was restored to his much-loved station in the principality.2

Some time before this, Sir George had gained a firmer

1 North's Lives.

2 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, by 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,1 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-

1 15 Car. 2, chap. 14.

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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 tho 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.1 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.2 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-office, 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. Williamson was allowed an annuity during life, ecpial to what his private establishment yielded.

* An advertisement on the behalf of William Dockra, merchant, con- cerning the penny-post.

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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.1

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 Weston2 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

1 He had a small pension at last. He is praised for the ingenuity of his discovery, in the State Poems, vol. iii. p. 246.

2 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, the judicium pari/em, and his lawful challenges — in fact, to dispute every inch of ground. But the prosecution was dropped. He died March 23, 1681.

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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

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of his principle or behaviour : l 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-

1 This savours very much of "I thank God I am not as other men sre," &r.

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chester cathedral ; l 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 deposits sunt reliquiae Jacobi Jefferies S. T. P. hujus ecclesiae canonici, qui obiit 4 Septembris, Anno Domini 1689. ^Etatis suae 40.

Thomas, another brother, was knighted at Windsor Castle, July 11, 1680. He was a knight of Alcantara,3 and resided much among the Spaniards, who greatly ad- mired his ancestry,3 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

1 John Castilion, canon of Canterbury, was dean from 1676 till Oc- tober 21, 1688; and Simon Lowth from December, 1688, till the Revo- lution.

2 A religious order, instituted in 1170 by Fernan Gorrns under tha pontificate of Alexander III.

3 From Tudor Trevor, earl of Hereford, who was himself descendsd from Kynric ap Rhiwellon.

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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,1 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, abhorrcr, 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

1 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 JEFFREY.?. 05

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*

QQ 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,1 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.

Sablati, 13° die Novemlris, 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.

"Besolved, 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.

1 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 JEFFREY?. 0*7

" 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 of the 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

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liis 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 Jeffreys 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 will 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, having recovered from a very dangerous indisposition, was greeted on his going abroad by an address of con-

1 King Charles seems to have been parliament-proof. He sold Dun- kirk to the French when he thought his Commons parsimonious; he de- manded a repeal of the triennial act; shut up the exchequer against the hankers 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 thej 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

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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,1 of the Middle 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 22& 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 of the city."2

1 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.

2 Elkanah Settle, who composed a panegyric in verse upon Jeffreys, ascribes his removal from the recordership to the influence of Shaftes- bury.

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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,1 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 ;2 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.

a 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.

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for in custody of the serjeant-at-arms. ButVerdon 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 surrender 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;"1 so that when the former got uppermost, he prosecuted his quondam lecturer.

1 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."

LIFE 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 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.

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, lie would probably have stooped to any sacrifice. 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 OP JEFFREYS.

his new enemies. He would allow no dissenters to serve on the grand jury, and ordered the under-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 whom1 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. lie 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 be 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 of the 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.1 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 anything:" — 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." He 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: Bosivell — "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." BosweWs Johnson, 4to. vol. ii. p. 491.

80 LIFE OP 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."1 A day of re- tribution was at hand for Oates, and Jeffreys was his judge.

It is not a little amusing 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

1 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 I>r. Oates and Mr. Savage talk very pleasantly of two great questions in divinity — the being of God and the immortality of the soul V

LIFE OF 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 Werk, 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,1 who

1 " Nor was it without cause that the news of his heing chosen mayor was entertained with so much joy and triumph at Holyrood housej 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 1000Z. 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 OF 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,1 and the floor of the Guildhall was soon crowded. After an immensity of wrangling, the livery refused to confirm North's appointment;2 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

1 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 th§m that the Duke of York said to him, "You have been against me, Sir Robert; you was a member of the green ribbon club." — Somerville's Political Trans actions , p. 101, and lb. 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 Examcn, p. 005.

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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 Crispe, 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."1

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 appeared 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

1 See "The Rights of the City further unfolded, and the manifold Mis- carriages of my Lord Mayor, &c. displayed and laid open," 1682.

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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, (Maynard1 among the rest,) and had certain

1 This very considerable man was the eldest son of Alexander Maynard, Esq. of Tavistock, Devon, and was born about 1602. 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 of the 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 more 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 1647, 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 conducted himself in the famous case of Conys

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 devil1 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 grossilretes 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 6oon 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." 1 An eminent counsel who settles pleadings for government.

* This refutes what is somewhere sneeringly said, that Maynurd contrived to be mads King'g serjeant at the Restoration, but could get no further.

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for the defendants were pressing their challenge: "Pray tell me, Robin Hood upon Greendale stood," quoth the seijeant, "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 on 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, aedificat, mutat.

There was in truth a northern, as well as a western campaign. Having plotted, thatt jtJie King should (- give him some token of acceptance iij/r-espect ©f tft'ese 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 walls of Jericho,"1 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*

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"in a rubor of countenance set off by his gray hairs." He 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 tim6, 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,1 that, when the chief justice Jones2 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.

2 He was choleric, but, on the whole, a very tolerable judge for those times. The greatest stain 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.

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" Sir Thomas Bludworth, the father of Lady Jeffreys, 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 II. '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.1 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,2 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.3

1 Diary, vol. i. p. 425.

2 That houses should be pulled down.

3 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

92 LIFE OF JEFFREYS.

Something that came out on Rosewell's trial, which we shall mention by and by, seems 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 toldthat 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 arid 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, Alders- 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 myself to be what I here assure you I am, Sir, your most entirely

Affectionate friend and servant,

Jeffreys, C.

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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.1 The judge was

1 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 Povvis. 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 office he held 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 qtio warranto against the city of London.

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Pembcrton, 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, the chief justice was compelled to interfere, with a declaration, that a great part of the evidence was such as the chief witness, Lord Howard,

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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 writer1 tells us, that this speech had

The Bloody Assizes, p. 10.

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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.1

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

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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 9

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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,1 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.

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matters." The deep blemish upon this trial was, that the unfortunate colonel was found guilty upon inadmissible evidence, and a 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 have 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, and 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

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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 him 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

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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 nil nisi bonum, has never been of the least advantage to poor Jeffreys, whose 9*

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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:1 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 which Sir George displayed on the bench, the indecency which he yielded to on his post ; and abuses his eloquence

1 Evelyn says, "Sir George Jefferies was advanced, reputed the most ;norant, but most daring."

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fis "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.1

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 bat- 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-

1 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.

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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 tAvo, 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. 10^

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 of the 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 50001. 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

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any tiling." 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 dreamt 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-

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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,1 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

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

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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 flowers, to take the people 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,1 and Mr. Wal- lop, came in for a full share of this punishment.

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

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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- ings."— 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- sel, 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 munificent lord of Wales, is his great- graridson.

10

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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. Bo you ask 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."1

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 be? for the attorney-general was not there, and the chief justice was clearly against the defendants.

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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 tAventy 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 Avho 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; ho 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

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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 tell us 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. Ill

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.1

We come now to September, 1G84, 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

1 The whole of the very long examination of this man is well worth ip reading. It is to be found in the State Trials, fol. vol. iv. pp. 10is -122.

10*

11-1 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 the 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 t^ese 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.1

* North's Lives.

11G 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 chan- 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 Dairy mple 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 Beaulieu1 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

1 This divine was born in France, and educated at the university of Saumur. He came over to England, where he was naturalized, and lie- came a student at Oxford for the sake of the public library. He was rector of Whitchurch, Oxon, in the year }GSr>.

LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 117

very usefully. Another of his chaplains was Thomas Spark.1 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 it2) 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 still more his secret regard for protestantism.3 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

1 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.

2 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.

3 This will be related hereafter.

118 LIFE OF JEFFREYS.

having succeeded in obtaining his priest, confessed, and died a true Catholic.1

In November, 1684, Mr. Rosewell, a dissenting mi- nister, a gentleman of sufficient consequence to be pa- negyrized by a funeral sermon,2 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 1 1 oped 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,

1 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, 1G'J2.

Al'ier the hattlc of Worcester.

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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.1 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 Itosewell 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