George Jeffreys

Engelsk dommer og statsmand. Spillede en fremtrædende rolle i efterspillet til Monmouths opstand mod James II, Han står som en af de mest modbydelige skikkelser i engelsk historie, en brutal bøddel af den værste slags. Dette billede ændres ikke af de forsøæg, som i den senere tid er gjort for at stille ham i et mindre ufordelagtigt lys, ved at bevise at hans misgerninger ikke havde det omfang man hidtl har ment. denne sadist fk betroet at lede undersøgelserne mod dem, der var mistænkt for delagtighed i Monmouths oprør. Jeffreys foretog en berygtet rejse til de vestlige provinser, hvor rejsningen havde fundet sted, og her fór han frem på den grummeste måde. Den moderne forskning mener at kunne fastslå, at omkring 320 mennesker blev henrettet, medens 800 deporteredes til de vestindiske øer Trinidad og Barbados. Senere udnævnt til lordkansler og præsident for en kirkelig højesteret. Da James II var ude af billedet i 1688 blev Jeffreys arresteret. Han flygtede imidlertid, emn blev fanget igen og sat ind i Tower, hvor han døde året efter. (GB11)

• Sedgemoor, 1685

George Jeffreys was born at Acton Park in 1648, the son of John Jeffreys and Margaret Ireland. His grandfather was a judge in North Wales and George eventually decided on a career in law much to his parents disapproval. Educated at Shrewsbury and St Pauls Westminster and Cambridge. He began his studies in the Inner Temple in 1663 and was acting as an advocate before he was officially called to the bar. He entered Gray's Inn.
He was appointed Solicitor General to the Duke of York later James II and was knighted in 1677. He became recorder of London in 1678. At the age of 33 he became Lord Chief Justice of England and a privy counsellor and two years later Lord Chancellor. In 1683 he was created Baron Jeffreys of Wem. He is known as Hanging Judge Jeffreys because of the punishment he handed out at the trials of the supporters of the Duke of Monmouth. In 1688 when James II fled the country, Jeffreys was placed in the Tower of London for his own safety. He died there the following year aged 44 of kidney disease.