OCR Text |
Show 266 ATROCIOUS JUDGES. lA. D. 1G83. His Reports are entertaining a" well as instructive.* Notwithstanding hi carcles ness about money, he left considerable property behind hin1. * The editions of these Reports by the late Se1jeant "\Villiams, and .by the present most )earned judges, 1\tlr. Justice Patteson an~ Mr. Justice Vaughan 'Villiams, illustrated by a<lmirable notes, may be sa1<l to embody the whole common law of England, scattered about, I must confess, rather immethodically. CHAPTER XV. GEORGE JEFFREYS.~ GEORGE JEFFREY was a younger ._on of John Jeffreys, Esq., of Acton, near "\Vrexhan1, in Dcnbjgh hire, a gentleman of a respectable '\Vel 'lt family, anu of small fortun e. IIi'> mother was a daughter of ir 'l'homa:· Ireland, Irnight, of the County Palatine of Laucaster. NeYer was ehild I o unlike parents ; for they were both quiet, I euate, thrifty, unan1bitiou person , who a pi red not higllCr than to be well reputed in ihe parish in which they lived, anu Jr.c ntly to rear their numerous offspring. Son1e imputed to the fatl1er a niggardly and covetous di position; but he appear,' only to hare cxcrci~ed a becoming economy, and to have 1i vcd at home with his consort in peace and happiness till he was nutclo more anxiou:-; than pleased by the irregular advancement of his boy George. It is said that he had an early pre ~cutiment that ihi . on would come to a violent end; and w~s partieularly de~;irou. that he should be brought up to . ome tcady trade, in which he might l>e secured frorn tcm ptation anc1 peril. He was born in his father'::; Jowly dwelling at Acton jn the year 1648. lie howed, fr01n early jnfnncy, the lively parts, the active temperarncnt, the outward goocl hurnor, and tl1e * The name is spclt no fewer than eight different ways-" Jeffries,'' " Jeff'c n·c s, " ' ' J c rr·c rys," "Jeffereys," "Jcfi·c ryes,"' ' J r O'1 · ys, " "Jefl'r·)·es '. " ~nd "J cfircys," and he himself spclt it differently at difl'ercnt times of hls hfe; but the last spelling is that which i9 found in hio patent of peerage, and which he always u~ed afterwards. (2G7) |