CHAP. XCVII. His early and early death. Charlotte Lindsey, still survives, the grace and ornament of her sex, in the reign of Queen Victoria. The title of Guilford is now enjoyed by Francis, the sixth Earl.* When we estimate what the Lord Keeper achieved, we promotions should bear in mind that he died at forty-eight, an age considerably more advanced than that reached by his immediate successor; yet under that at which other Lord Chancellors and Lord Keepers began to look for promotion. Although I have brought him into existence three years sooner than former biographers, he was in truth Solicitor General at thirty-four, Attorney General at thirty-seven, Chief Justice of the Common Pleas at thirty-eight, and Lord Keeper and a Peer at forty-five. It is probably well for his memory that his career was not prolonged. He might have made a respectable Judge when the constitution was settled; but he was wholly unfit for the times in which he lived. Merits of I ought not to conclude this memoir without acknowNorth as a ledging my obligations to "Roger North's Life of the Lord biographer. Keeper;" which, like "Boswell's Life of Johnson," interests us highly, without giving us a very exalted notion of the author. Notwithstanding its extravagant praise of the hero of the tale, its inaccuracies, and its want of method, it is a most valuable piece of biography, and with Roger's Lives of his brothers" Dudley and John," and his " Examen," ought to be studied by every one who wishes to understand the history and the manners of the reign of Charles II. * Grandeur of the Law, p. 64. CHAPTER XCVIII. * LIFE OF LORD CHANCELLOR JEFFREYS FROM HIS BIRTH TILL HE CHAP. XCVIII. IT is hardly known to the multitude that this infamous person ever held the Great Seal of England; as, from the almost exclusive recollection of his presiding on criminal trials, “Judge he has been execrated under the designation of "JUDGE Jeffreys." JEFFREYS," which is as familiar in our mouths as household words. Yet was he Chancellor a considerably longer time than Chief Justice,—and in the former capacity, as well as the latter, he did many things to astonish and horrify mankind. Jeffreys has not suffi abused? He has been so much abused, that I began my critical Q whether examination of his history in the hope and belief that I been too should find that his misdeeds had been exaggerated, and that much, or I might be able to rescue his memory from some portion of ciently, the obloquy under which it labours; but I am sorry to say, that, in my matured opinion, although he appears to have been a man of high talents, of singularly agreeable manners, and entirely free from hypocrisy, his cruelty and his political profligacy have not been sufficiently exposed or reprobated; and that he was not redeemed from his vices by one single solid virtue. George Jeffreys was a younger son of John Jeffreys, Esq., His parentof Acton, near Wrexham, in Denbighshire, a gentleman of age. a respectable Welsh family, and of small fortune. His mother was a daughter of Sir Thomas Ireland, Knight, of the County Palatine of Lancaster. Never was child so unlike parents; for they were both quiet, sedate, thrifty, unambitious persons, who aspired not higher than to be well The name is spelt no fewer than eight different ways:-" Jeffries," "Jefferies,” “ Jefferys," "Jeffereys," "Jefferyes,” “Jeffrys," "Jeffryes,” and “Jeffreys,” and he himself spelt it differently at different times of his life; but the last spelling is that which is found in his patent of peerage, and which he always XCVIII. presenti CHAP. reputed in the parish in which they lived, and decently to rear their numerous offspring. Some imputed to the father a niggardly and covetous disposition; but he appears only to have exercised a becoming economy, and to have lived at home with his consort in peace and happiness, till he was made more anxious than pleased by the irregular advanceHis father's ment of his boy George. It is said he had an early presentiment that this son would come to a violent end; and was particularly desirous that he should be brought up to some steady trade, in which he might be secured from temptation and peril. The old gentleman lived till he heard, after the landing of the Prince of Orange, of the Lord Chancellor being taken up at Wapping disguised as a sailor, being assaulted by the mob, being carried before the Lord Mayor, and dying miserably in the Tower of London.* ment as to his end. A. D. 1648. His birth. A.D. 1656. At school at Shrewsbury. He, of whom such tales were to be told, was born in his father's lowly dwelling at Acton in the year 1648. † He showed, from early infancy, the lively parts, the active temperament, the outward good humour, and the overbearing disposition which distinguished him through life. He acquired an ascendency among his companions in his native village by coaxing some and intimidating others, and making those most opposed to each other believe that he favoured both. At marbles and leap-frog he was known to take undue advantages; and nevertheless he contrived, notwithstanding secret murmurs, to be acknowledged as "Master of the Revels." While still very young he was sent to the free school at the town of Shrewsbury, which was then considered a sort of metropolis for North Wales. Here he continued for two or three years: but we have no account how he demeaned him * Pennant saw a likeness of this old gentleman at Acton House, taken in 1690, in the 82d year of his age. See Pennant's Tour in Wales, i. 296. This is generally given as the year of his birth, but I have in vain tried to have it authenticated. There is no entry of his baptism, nor of the baptism of his brothers, in the register of Wrexham, the parish in which he was born, nor in the adjoining parish of Gresford, in which part of the family property lies. I have had accurate searches made in these registers by the kindness of my learned friend Mr. Serjeant Atcherly, who has estates in the neighbourhood. It is not improbable that, in spite of the Chancellor's great horror of dissenters, he may have been baptized by "a dissenting teacher." XCVIII. A. D. 1659. self. At the end of this time his father thought of binding CHAP. him apprentice, but, by way of finishing his education, sent him for a short time to St. Paul's School, in the City of London. The sight of the metropolis had a most extraordi- At St. nary effect upon the mind of this ardent youth, and exceed- Paul's. ingly disgusted him with the notion of returning into Denbighshire, to pass his life in a small provincial town as a mercer. On the first Sunday in every term he saw the Judges and the Serjeants come in grand procession to St. Paul's Cathedral, and afterwards go to dine with the Lord Mayor, -appearing little inferior to this great King of the City in power and splendour. He heard that some of them had been His scheme poor boys like himself, who had pushed themselves on with- of becomout fortune or friends; and though he was not so pre- lawyer. sumptuous as to hope, like another Whittington, to rise to be Lord Mayor, he was resolved that he would be Lord Chief Justice or Lord Chancellor. ing a great this scheme to his father, who wishes to to a shop Now was the time when he acquired whatever general Discloses learning he possessed. The Master of St. Paul's School, at this time, was Samuel Cromleholme, or Crumlum, who, for his skill in languages, obtained the name of IloλvyλwTTоs, and bind him under him Jeffreys applied with considerable diligence to apprentice Greek and Latin, though occasionally flogged for idleness keeper. and insolence. He at last ventured to disclose his scheme of becoming a great lawyer to his father, who violently opposed it, as wild and romantic and impossible, and who inwardly dreaded that, from involving him in want and distress, it might lead to some fatal catastrophe. He wrote back to his. son, pointing out the inability of the family to give him a University education, or to maintain him at the Inns of Court till he should have a chance of getting into practice,—his utter want of connections in London, and the hopelessness of his entering into a contest in an overstocked profession with so many who had the advantage of superior education, wealth, and patronage. Although the aspirant professed himself unconvinced by these arguments, and still tried to show the certainty of his success at the bar,—he must have stood a cropeared apprentice behind a counter in Denbigh, Ruthyn, or Flint, if it had not been for his maternal grandmother, who CHAP. XCVIII. mother as sists him. was pleased to see the blood of the Irelands break out, and who, having a small jointure, offered to contribute a part His grand- of it for his support. The University was still beyond their means; but it was thought this might be better dispensed with if he should be for some time at one of our great schools of royal foundation, where he might form acquaintances afterwards to be useful to him. The father reluctantly consented, in the hope that his son would soon return to his sober senses, and that the project would be abandoned with the general concurrence of the family. Meanwhile young George was transferred to Westminster School, then under the rule of the celebrated Busby. Jeffreys at Westminster School under Busby, A. D. 1661. His recol Busby. There is reason to fear that the zeal for improvement which he had exhibited at St. Paul's soon left him, and that he here began to acquire those habits of intemperance which afterwards proved so fatal to him. His father hearing of these had all his fears revived, and when the boy was at Acton during the holydays, again tried in vain to induce him to become a tradesman. But finding all dissuasions unavailing, the old gentleman withdrew his opposition, giving him a gentle pat on the back, accompanied by these words,-" Ah, George, George, I fear thou wilt die with thy shoes and stockings on!" Yet the wayward youth while at Westminster had fits of lections of application, and carried away from thence a sufficient stock of learning to prevent him from appearing in after-life grossly deficient when any question of grammar arose. He was fond of reminding the world of the great master under whom he had studied. On the trial before him as Chief Justice, in the year 1684, of Rosewell, the dissenting minister, for high treason in a sermon delivered from the pulpit, an objection was taken to the sufficiency of the indictment, in which it was alleged that the defendant had said, "We have had two wicked kings together, who have permitted Popery to enter in under their noses, whom we can resemble to no other person but to most wicked Jeroboam; and 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." The counsel insisting that it was not sufficiently averred who were thus to overturn the |