JEFFREYS, GEORGE, Lord, 1648-1689; an English lawyer, who rose to high position on the bench, but disgraced the ermine and rendered his name infamous forever by his needless cruelties and the unparalleled brutality of his manners. He was the son of a squire of small means, who, however, contrived to give him an education, which only rendered his evil propensities stronger. Macaulay said of his intellect, that "across labyrinths of sophistry, or through masses of immaterial fact, it would go straight to the true point." Such manners as he possessed were marked by a brutal ferocity which was never equaled by the worst ruffians or infamous characters among those whom he condemned. The very name of lord Jeffreys, even after the lapse of centuries, is synonymous with cruelty. He commenced practice at the Old Bailey, and was first com mon sergeant and then recorder of London, and, being a willing slave of the court, rose in his profession, until, in 1683, be became chief-justice of the king's bench. It was in this
capacity that lie traversed the western circuit, when the severity of the sentences which he passed upon all who had taken part in Monmouth's fatal rebellion gained for it the name of the " Bloody Assizes;" lie is said to have condemned 700 of these offenders to the scaffold, and boasted of his action. He was made lord high chancellor by James II., but on the outbreak of the revolution and the downfall of his patron, James II., fearing the treatment which he had reason to•expeet from William III., he attempted to leave the country in the dress of a common sailor; but was recognized in spite of his disguise and taken to the Tower, where he died. He was created a peer by James II., with the title of baron Jeffreys of Went, but, although be bad 12 children, the family became extinct in a comparatively short time, and the title lapsed,