OBITUARY NOTICES. 209 



of the "Nautical Almanac," and one of the observers of the 

 transit of Yenus in 1769 at the Eoyal Observatory. Mr. JefEery 

 always referred with enthusiastic respect to these well-known 

 mathematical members of his family. 



The early years of Mr. Jeffery were, for the most part, 

 passed at his father's home at Grwennap. At the age of seven 

 he was sent to the Falmouth grammar school, where he remained 

 as a pupil during the following seven years. On leaving this 

 school at the age of fourteen, young Jeffery exhibited signs of 

 considerable mathematical and classical ability ; so much so, that 

 he considered himself qualified to offer himself as a tutor in 

 elementary mathematics and classics. There is no doubt that he 

 was, at this time, a most intelligent youth of more than usual 

 precocity. By the advice of some friends, it was, however, 

 resolved to continue his education, and he was sent in 1841 to 

 the Grammar School at Sedbergh, Yorkshire, then under the 

 control of the Eev. J. H. Evans, a Fellow of St. John's College, 

 Cambridge ; here he remained till 1845. In October of that 

 year he became an undergraduate at St. John's College, 

 Cambridge ; but he migrated in the following year to St. 

 Catherine's College. In 1849, he graduated asB.A, in the high 

 position of sixth wrangler in the mathematical tripos, and in the 

 second class of the classical tripos. His private tutor, the late 

 Dr. Harvey Groodwin, Bishop of Carlisle, thought highly of his 

 mathematical ability. He remarked that Jeffery was one of the 

 hardest headed mathematicians with whom he had any dealings 

 in Cambridge, and it has been recently stated to the writer by 

 one who is acquainted with his university career, that his position 

 in the tripos, high as it was, scarcely represented his great 

 original mathematical attainments. In 1852, he proceeded to the 

 degree of M.A., and in the same year was adjudged the dis- 

 tinction of first Tyrwhitt Hebrew scholar, which ' ' he gained 

 mainly by his skill in composition, to which his previous classical 

 training (entirely abandoned after his first year of residence) 

 had adapted him." 



Soon after taking his degree, Mr. JefEery accepted in 1850 

 the post of lecturer at the College of Civil Engineers, Putney, 

 of which the present Dean of Exeter, Dr. B. M. Cowie, was the 

 Principal. In October, 1851, he received the appointment of 



