Jeffreys of Wem, George Jeffreys, 1st Baron definition of Jeffreys of Wem, George Jeffreys, 1st Baron in the Free Online Encyclopedia.

Jeffreys of Wem, George Jeffreys, 1st Baron, 1645?–1689, English judge under Charles II and James II James II, 1633–1701, king of England, Scotland, and Ireland (1685–88); second son of Charles I, brother and successor of Charles II .

Early Life

..... Click the link for more information. . A notoriously cruel judge, he presided over many of the trials connected with the Popish Plot (see Oates, Titus Oates, Titus, 1649–1705, English conspirator. An Anglican priest whose whole career was marked with intrigue and scandal, he joined forces with one Israel Tonge to invent the story of the Popish Plot of 1678.
..... Click the link for more information. ) and was responsible for the judicial murder of Algernon Sidney Sidney or Sydney, Algernon, 1622–83, English politician; son of Robert Sidney, earl of Leicester.
..... Click the link for more information. and for the brutal trials of Richard Baxter Baxter, Richard, 1615–91, English nonconformist clergyman. Ordained in 1638, he began his ministry at Kidderminster in 1641. He sided with Parliament when the civil war broke out and served (1645–47) as a chaplain in Cromwell's army, where he urged
..... Click the link for more information. and many others. He was created baron in 1685 and was soon sent to W England to punish those concerned in the rebellion of the duke of Monmouth Monmouth, James Scott, duke of (mŏn`məth)
..... Click the link for more information. . In the resulting Bloody Assizes he caused nearly 200 persons to be hanged, some 800 transported, and many more imprisoned or whipped. James II made him lord chancellor later that year. When James fled the country in 1688, Jeffreys was imprisoned and died in the Tower of London.

Bibliography

See biography by P. J. Helm (1967); study by G. W. Keeton (1966).