Memoir of Mr. Alexander Jeffrey, by George Hilson. 473 



was clever in making up a report of a meeting, he got a 

 good deal of employment in this way. There being a great 

 demand for reporters, owing to the numerous meetings that 

 were then held, he was induced to enter the service of the 

 proprietors of the Kelso Mail, the local Conservative organ. 

 This was held as a desertion of principle, and was never 

 forgotten or forgiven by the Reformers. In this capa- 

 city, he attended all the public meetings that were held 

 in the counties of Roxburgh, Berwick, and Selkirk, during 

 the election contests of 1832 and 1834 ; and the Courts then 

 held by the Sheriffs, for the registration of voters. In this 

 way he came much in contact with the leading men of the 

 Conservative party, by whom he was much liked, as he was 

 a good story-teller, and had a great store of miscellaneous 

 knowledge. In later years, with congenial friends, and 

 when he was in the tift, many an amusing story he told, of 

 what he had seen and heard on these occasions. Jedburgh, 

 about that time became his chief quarters, and having still 

 a hankering after the law, he applied and was admitted a 

 practitioner before the Burgh Court of Jedburgh, where 

 there was then considerable practice. The late Mr Samuel 

 Wood.then town clerk of Jedburgh, had a great liking for him, 

 and he employed him as managing clerk in his office. 

 Through Mr Wood's strong personal influence, the opposi- 

 tion that had existed and been so unworthily kept up, to 

 his being admitted a practitioner before the Sheriff Court of 

 Roxburghshire, was at last overcome in 1838. He then de- 

 voted himself with great assiduity to the practice of his 

 profession, taking up every sort of case that offered him 

 practice and knowledge of law. He worked up his cases 

 with care and perseverance, and generally with a great 

 amount of success. Through the influence of Mr Wood, 

 he was appointed in 1840, political agent for the Conservative 

 party in the town of Jedburgh. The duties he discharged 

 with great zeal and activity, but about 20 years ago, he 

 retired altogether from this branch of his business. 



The case that decidedly established his position as a prac- 

 titioner of ability, was the celebrated one relating to the 

 thirlage of the Jedburgh Town Mills. It excited great local 

 attention, and its progress was watched with great interest, 

 as the exaction was held to be oppressive and injurious to 

 the interests of the community. The magistrates and council 

 — as proprietors of the mills for far above a hundred years — 



