Judge. Born at Acton Park, Wrexham, Wales, the son of Margaret Ireland and John Jeffreys. He was educated at Shrewsbury, St Paul's, Westminster, and Cambridge before reading for the bar in 1663. He was appointed Solicitor General to James, Duke of York, before being knighted in 1677. By 1681, he became Chief Justice of the King's Bench and a member of the Privy Council. In 1683, James II named him Baron Jeffreys of Wem; he presided over many of the trials connected with the so-called Popish Plot, and was responsible for what is now regarded as the judicial murder of Algernon Sidney, who had been implicated in the Rye House Plot. After the Monmouth Rebellion of 1685, he was dispatched to Taunton Castle to preside over trials of the accused. In what became known as the Bloody Assizes, he ordered the transportation of 800 men to the West Indies to serve there as convict labor, and condemned 320 more to death, including the Duke of Monmouth, the illegitimate son of Charles II. 74 of these sentences were carried out, the condemned men were hanged, drawn, and quartered, and their heads were then displayed on pikes, earning Jeffrys the appellation, The Hanging Judge. He was named Lord Chancellor by the king, but when James II was deposed three years later, Jeffreys, whose career was tied inextricably to the king, attempted to flee the country. He was arrested and confined to the Tower of London where he died of kidney disease the following year at age forty-four. He was originally buried in the Chapel of Saint Peter-ad-Vincule but was moved to St Mary Aldermanbury in 1692.
Judge. Born at Acton Park, Wrexham, Wales, the son of Margaret Ireland and John Jeffreys. He was educated at Shrewsbury, St Paul's, Westminster, and Cambridge before reading for the bar in 1663. He was appointed Solicitor General to James, Duke of York, before being knighted in 1677. By 1681, he became Chief Justice of the King's Bench and a member of the Privy Council. In 1683, James II named him Baron Jeffreys of Wem; he presided over many of the trials connected with the so-called Popish Plot, and was responsible for what is now regarded as the judicial murder of Algernon Sidney, who had been implicated in the Rye House Plot. After the Monmouth Rebellion of 1685, he was dispatched to Taunton Castle to preside over trials of the accused. In what became known as the Bloody Assizes, he ordered the transportation of 800 men to the West Indies to serve there as convict labor, and condemned 320 more to death, including the Duke of Monmouth, the illegitimate son of Charles II. 74 of these sentences were carried out, the condemned men were hanged, drawn, and quartered, and their heads were then displayed on pikes, earning Jeffrys the appellation, The Hanging Judge. He was named Lord Chancellor by the king, but when James II was deposed three years later, Jeffreys, whose career was tied inextricably to the king, attempted to flee the country. He was arrested and confined to the Tower of London where he died of kidney disease the following year at age forty-four. He was originally buried in the Chapel of Saint Peter-ad-Vincule but was moved to St Mary Aldermanbury in 1692.
Bio by: Iola
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