JEFFREY JEFFRIES. 



221 



of the blandest, and most liberal hospitality. Such, in- 

 deed, was the extent to which calls upon it were made, 

 by foreigners as well as Americans, that the closing 

 year of his life was imbittered by distressing pecu- 

 niary embarrassments. He was forced to ask per- 

 mission of the Virginia legislature to sell his estate 

 by lottery, which was granted. Shortly after Mr 

 Jefferson's return to Monticello, it having been pro- 

 posed to form a college in his neighbourhood, he 

 addressed a letter to the trustees, in which he sketched 

 a plan for the establishment of a general system of 

 education in Virginia. This appears to have led the 

 way to an act of the legislature, in the year 1818, by 

 which commisioners were appointed with authority 

 to select a site, and form a plan for a university, on 

 a large scale. Of these commissioners, Mr Jefferson 

 was unanimously chosen the chairman, and, August 

 4, 1818, he framed a report, embracing the princi- 

 ples on which it was proposed the institution should 

 be formed. The situation selected for it was at 

 Charlottesville, a town at the foot of the mountain on 

 which Mr Jefferson resided. He lived to see the 

 university the child of his old age in prosperous 

 operation, and giving promise of extensive usefulness. 

 He fulfilled the duties of its rector until a short 

 period before his death, which occurred on the 4th of 

 July, 1826, the fiftieth anniversary of the declaration 

 of independence, and within the hour in which he had 

 signed it. 



In person, Mr Jefferson was tall and well formed ; 

 his countenance was bland and expressive ; his con- 

 versation fluent, imaginative, various, and eloquent. 

 Few men equalled him in the faculty of pleasing in 

 personal intercourse, and acquiring ascendency in 

 political connexion. He was the acknowledged head 

 of the republican party, from the period of its orga- 

 nization down to that of his retirement from public 

 life. The unbounded praise and blame which he 

 received as a politician, must be left for the judgment 

 of the historian and posterity. In the four volumes 

 of his posthumous works, edited by his grandson, 

 Thomas Jefferson Randolph, there are abundant ma- 

 terials to guide the literary or historical critic in 

 forming an estimate of his powers, acquirements, 

 feelings, and opinions. His name is one of the 

 brightest in the revolutionary galaxy. Mr Jefferson 

 was a zealous cultivator of literature and science. As 

 early as 1781, he was favourably known as an author, 

 by Ins notes on Virginia. He published, also, various 

 essays on political and philosophical subjects, and a 

 Manual of Parliamentary practice, for the use of the 

 Senate of the United States. In the year 1800, the 

 French national institute chose him one of their 

 foreign members. The volumes of posthumous works, 

 in addition to an autobiography of the author to the 

 year 1790, consist principally of letters from the year 

 1775 to the time of his death, and embrace a great 

 variety of subjects. 



JEFFREY OF MONMOUTH. See Geoffrey. 



JEFFREYS, GEORGE, lord baron Wem, commonly 

 known by the name of Judge Jeffreys, was born 

 towards the beginning of the seventeenth century. 

 He was entered at the Middle Temple, and, by at- 

 tending an assize during the plague, when few barris- 

 ters could be met with, he was allowed to plead, 

 although not formally admitted, and continued to 

 practise unrestrained until he attained the highest 

 employments in the law. Soon after commencing 

 his professional career, he was chosen recorder of 

 London ; and to this advancement, and the influence 

 it procured him, may be attributed his introduction 

 at court, and appointment of solicitor to the duke of 

 York. A willing instrument of all sorts of measures, 

 his farther promotion, at such a period, was rapid, 

 ii:ul he was appointed, successively, a Welsh judge 



and chief-justice of Chester, and created a baronet. 

 When parliament began to prosecute the aWwrrere 

 (or church and court party, so called from their 

 address to the king, Charles II., expressing their 

 abhorrence of those who endeavoured to encroach on 

 the royal prerogative), he resigned the recordership, 

 and was appointed chief-justice of the king's bench. 

 On the accession of James II., he was one of the 

 advisers and promoters of all the oppressive and 

 arbitrary measures of his reign ; and, for his san- 

 guinary and inhuman proceedings against the adhe- 

 rents of Monmouth, was rewarded with the post of 

 lord high chancellor (1685). He usually, however, 

 showed himself an able and impartial judge, where 

 political purposes were not to be answered. His 

 deportment on the 'bench was, in the highest degree, 

 discreditable at all times, and he indulged in scurrility 

 and abuse of the most degrading description. On 

 the arrival of the prince ot Orange, the chancellor, 

 who had disguised himself as a seaman, in order to 

 get on board a ship unknown, was detected in a low 

 public house in Wapping, by an attorney whom he 

 had insulted in open court. The latter making his 

 discovery known, Jeffreys was immediately seized by 

 the populace, and carried before the lord mayor, who 

 sent him to the lords in council, by whom he was 

 committed to the Tower, where he died April 18, 

 1689. 



JEFFRIES, JOHN, M. D., was born at Boston, in 

 America, Feb. 5, 1744, and, after graduating at the 

 university of Cambridge, commenced the study of 

 medicine. After completing his preparatory studies, 

 and being admitted to practise, he went to London, 

 and sedulously attended the instructions of the most 

 distinguished lecturers. June 1, 1769, the university 

 of Aberdeen conferred on him the degree of doctor 

 of physic, he being, as it is believed, the first native 

 of the American provinces who obtained that honour. 

 In the same year, he returned to Boston, where he 

 recommenced his labours, and continued to practise, 

 with great success, until the evacuation of that city 

 by the British garrison. He then accompanied gene- 

 ral Howe to Halifax. That commander made him 

 surgeon-general to the forces in Nova Scotia, in 1776. 

 In March, 1779, he went again to England, where lie 

 was made surgeon-major to the forces in America. 

 In the spring of 1779, he entered upon the duties of 

 this office in Savannah, then in the possession of the 

 British. He did not, however, retain it very long, 

 for, in December, 1780, he was again in London, 

 having resigned, and proceeded thither in conse- 

 quence of a severe domestic affliction. In London, 

 he practised with considerable success, and occupied 

 himself much with scientific research, having declined 

 the offer of the lucrative post of surgeon general to 

 the forces in India. To ascertain the correctness of 

 certain preconceived hypotheses relative to atmo- 

 spheric temperature, and the practicability of some 

 aerostatic improvements which had suggested them- 

 selves to his mind, he undertook two aerial voyages. 

 The second one was made Jan. 7, 1785, from the 

 cliffs of Dover, across the British channel, into the 

 forest of Guinnes, in the province of Artois, in France, 

 and was the only successful attempt to cross the sea 

 in a balloon. The reputation accruing from these 

 expeditions gained him the notice and civilities ot 

 some of the most distinguished personages of the 

 day, procured for him an introduction to all the 

 learned and scientific societies of Paris, and facilitated 

 his access to the medical and anatomical schools of 

 that metropolis. He drew up a paper, detailing the 

 result of his various experiments, which was read 

 before the royal society of London with much appro- 

 bation. In the summer of 1789, he repaired to Bos- 

 ton where he soon acquired eminence. It is said that 



