Salty Sam’s Fun Blog for Children
Number 487
Judge Jeffreys
Hello Everyone
The children were playing in Auntie Alice’s garden the other day and Bob accidentally broke one of Bill’s toys.
Bill was very upset, and let forth, in no uncertain terms, a whole list of terrible punishments that should befall Bob for what he had done.
Bob was very upset too because he had not meant to break the toy.
Auntie Alice intervened in the argument and decided that before she would get out her glue gun and try to make repairs to the toy, she should give the children some lunch – because she knew that grumpy boys were very often hungry boys.
As they went inside Bill, was still furious and complaining, and Auntie Alice said that he sounded like Judge Jeffreys.
The children did not know who he was, so Auntie Alice told them the story over lunch.
Judge Jeffreys was a notoriously harsh judge who meted out severe punishments to those brought before him.
He is now often called ‘the Hanging Judge’.
George Jeffreys became famous during the reign of King James ll and rose to the position of Lord Chancellor at a young age.
Judge Jeffreys was a prosecutor in many famous court cases such as in the case of the Rye House Plot and the Popish Plot.
The Rye House Plot was an attempt to kill King Charles ll. The judge found Algernon Sidney guilty of being involved.
The Popish Plot was a story made up by a man called Titus Oates. His lies and accusations lead to the execution of 15 men. Oates was later convicted of perjury, which means telling lies in court. Jeffreys was not allowed by law to execute him for this, so he had him whipped instead. But the whipping was so severe Oates nearly died from it.
George Jeffreys was born at Acton Hall near Wrexham in Wales on 15th May 1648 during the English Civil War, to a leading aristocratic family. He had a comfortable childhood on the Acton Estates.
His grandfather had been a judge called a Chief Justice of the Anglesey circuit. Anglesey is an island off the north coast of Wales.
His father John was a Royalist during the English Civil War (Blog Post 453) but served as High Sheriff of Denbighshire in Wales working for the Commonwealth (the new administration) in 1655, after the Royalist had lost the war.
George had a good education, and proved himself to be a bright student; first in Shrewsbury over the border in England, then in London. Eventually he went to Cambridge University. Although he left Cambridge after a year he still continued his education by entering the lnner Temple in London in 1663 to study Law. He was called to the bar (became a lawyer) and entered Gray’s lnn (a society that trains Barristers).
ln 1667, he married Sarah Needham in London and they went on to have 7 children together.
He started working as a lawyer in 1676, and later became Solicitor General to the younger brother of Charles ll, who was Duke of York at the time; but later became James ll.
Jeffreys was knighted in 1677.
The king later laid favour on Jeffreys by making him a Baron.
Jeffrey’s wife died in 1678, and in the following year he married a lady called Anne who was the daughter of an ex-Lord Mayor of London. lt was said that she was who George really wanted to marry before he married Sarah, but Anne’s father had put a stop to it.
Anne was a widow at only 29 years old, and was said to have a hot temper, which scared George, people joked that she was the only person he was ever afraid of. They laughed at this because he was known to be such a bully when he was in a court room.
George’s career continued to go well, and by 1683 he was Lord Chief Justice of the King’s Bench (a group of top judges who worked in Westminster Hall next to Parliament [bench is a collective noun for a group of judges, it is not an item of furniture in this case]) and the Privy Council (advisers to the monarch) at the age of only 33 years old.
During this time, he gained a reputation for being a forceful judge, willing to stridently gain convictions. The king recognised his loyalty.
Jeffreys was given important legal appointments in the years that followed, and handed down many further harsh sentences with great glee, whether it was execution by hanging or beheading, whipping or being buried alive.
The more people pleaded for mercy, the more he felt powerful when he pronounced them guilty.
Many people he sent for punishment were innocent.
Jeffreys was sent to the West Country in 1685 (in the south-west of England) on an important mission, and took up residence in Dorchester in the county of Dorset.
He was sent there to conduct trials of people accused of treason after a rebellion (known as the Monmouth Rebellion or the Pitchfork Rebellion) was suppressed at the Battle of Sedgemore by the king’s soldiers.
Treason meant crimes against the King (now it means crimes against the state).
James ll was a Catholic, and some Protestants wanted to overthrow him and put James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth in his place as king. The Duke of Monmouth had a lot of support in the West Country, and it was there that he raised an army to support his rebellion.
At a trial based at Taunton, in the county of Somerset, around 160 or more people were sentenced to death for treason and were executed by hanging. Some of Monmouth’s followers were hung, drawn and quartered and over 800 were sentenced to transportation; which meant they were sent abroad to the colonies to do hard labour – in this case it was the West lndies in the Caribbean.
Other accused men died in gaol from the insanitary (dirty and unhealthy) conditions there.
Monmouth was executed for treason on 15th July 1685.
Judge Jeffreys had to enforce the law of the land at the time. After the trials, the king had no appetite for pardoning the men – which he could have done; but chose not to.
The blame for the punishments was on Jeffreys in the eyes of the people, and the trials left him with the reputation for being cruel.
ln court, he had the habit of shouting and laughing at his victims. This seemed an excessive and unprofessional way of behaving; especially as the men accused felt that they were being, above all, true to their religious beliefs rather than being a murderous mob.
lt was usual at that time, for the death sentence to be given to only leaders of uprisings and not so many of the followers.
The bodies of the executed were displayed for public view all around Somerset in front of those who had known and loved them. So many of the captured rebels were executed; that Judge Jeffrey’s became known henceforth as the ‘hanging judge’.
The series of trials of the followers of Monmouth overseen by five judges in all, one of whom being Jeffreys, became known as the Bloody Assizes.
They were held in Taunton Castle, which still stands today as the Museum of Somerset, and also other towns in the West Country (south west England).
After the trials, the king gave further recognition for Jeffrey’s loyalty to him.
Jeffreys became Lord Chancellor in 1685.
He became Baron Jeffrys of Wem in 1685 too.
Courts outside of big cities in those days were set up from time to time in a public building, very often a public house (pub) and presided over by judges who travelled around England and Wales.
These courts were known as the Courts of Assizes.
They were abolished (stopped) in 1971, and permanently replaced by what we now call a Crown Court. A Crown Court usually has a judge and jury. A jury is a body of 12 members of the public selected at random by a computer.
Judge Jeffreys was a judge especially dreaded if he visited. He thought that he was doing good favours to society by ridding it of criminals, and also showing loyalty to his king, but the people who were tried were notoriously shown no mercy by him.
They were executed for what today would seem minor crimes.
The condemned were sometimes hanged on gallows at a public hanging.
These hangings were forms of entertainment of the day. They also served as a warning to others that criminals would be punished – and hopefully deter the people watching from committing crimes.
People were sometimes hanged in the stairwell of the building where they were tried. Scuff marks on the beams, and stair cases can still be seen today in some old pubs. You can see where the rope was secured on a beam and where the miscreants thrashed about at the end of it kicking against the stair rails and banisters. At this time the condemned were strangled by the thick rope and it took up to fifteen minutes to die.
The judge would not have done the job, but handed it over to someone else.
Sometimes, a prisoner was pardoned if he took on the job of hanging other prisoners who were condemned to death. He would not have known how to do this properly and the job was often bungled (messed up).
One of the crimes people were often accused of was stealing animals. Horses, cattle and sheep were very necessary and valuable to people at the time and if stolen from anyone, it was a big grievance to them.
This is where the saying ‘l might as well be hanged for a sheep as a lamb’, came from.
This means that if you are going to take a risk or suffer punishment, you may as well take a big one with a large reward.
King James ll was eventually deposed in 1688 and fled the country.
Jeffreys stayed in London.
He did try to escape and follow James into exile disguising himself as a sailor. He was captured in a tavern (pub) in Wapping near the docks in East London. Although disguised, as fate would have it, he was identified by someone he had once sentenced in one of his courts, and he was captured.
He was put in the Tower of London where he was safe from the people calling for him to be punished for everything he had unfairly done to others. Jeffreys pleaded with his captors to save him from this angry mob.
He died of kidney disease in 1689 on 18th April at only 44 and was buried in the chapel at the Tower. They say that Jeffrey’s bad temper and violent outbursts were partly fuelled by pain he suffered from illnesses that he endured much of his adult life.
ln 1692, his body was moved to St Mary’s Church in Aldermanbury in London.
During repairs to the church in 1810, the coffin was uncovered for a while and the public queued up to see the remains of the infamous (famous for being bad) judge.
Later, however, the tomb was completely destroyed during the Blitz in WWll when a bomb hit the church.
Although Acton Hall was demolished in the 1950s; in Dorchester many of Jeffrey’s old haunts remain, his lodgings and courtroom are tourist sites, and a chair he used to sit in as he handed out death sentences can be seen in the Dorset County Museum.
Some say that he haunts the Dorset County Museum (and this is not the only building he is said to haunt)!
So if you are ever in the area…
The death penalty for murder by hanging was abolished over 60 years ago and the death penalty for treason was abolished just before this new century began. lt was not replaced with any other form of death penalty.
But you might still occasionally hear someone use the phrase ‘l’ll swing for you’; meaning ‘l’m going to kill you and then take the punishment of being hanged’ – probably said in jest!
Anyway, after such a long story Bill had calmed down and Auntie Alice went to get her glue gun.
lf you like my blog, please support it by telling all your friends and followers about it.
Thank you!
And see you again next Fun Friday!
Love and kisses
Salty Sam
www.christina-sinclair.com
Bill and Bob’s Joke of the Week
Bill: What did the prisoner say before he was taken to court?
Bob: l don’t know. What did the prisoner say before he was taken to court?
Bill: No noose is good noose!
Salty Sam © Christina Sinclair 2015
Unauthorized use and/or duplication of material from this blog without express and written permission from this blog’s author and owner is strictly prohibited.
Links may be used to www.christina-sinclair.com
Picture Gallery
Judge Jeffreys
A hanging site at the side of the River Thames in London
Gallows with a hangman’s rope
The loop is called a noose
THE SALTY SAM NEWS DESK
This week, Miss Pringle gave her class some words and phrases written on slips of paper and asked them to sort the pieces of paper into two groups.
Can you group the ones together that have similar meanings?
Arrogant
Restrained
Not keen on doing something
Timid
Lack of backbone
Backward in coming forward
To have a cocky attitude
To be cock-sure
Cowardly
To have bravado
To be gung ho
Shy
To have a cavalier attitude
Nonchalant
Brash
Reticent
Yellow
Careless
Overly-confident
Spineless
To hide one’s light under a bushel
To blow one’s own trumpet
To brag
To hide/waste your talents
*********************
TO ADVERTISE ON THIS BLOG
PLEASE CONTACT:
christina.sinclair.ads@aol.co.uk
*********************
Quick Quiz
What is the difference between the word hanged and the word hung?
lt’s the Weekend!
HOW TO MAKE A SHARK FlNGER PUPPET
This little shark can lurk about on your finger and swim about all over the place.
SHARK BODY (KNIT ONE)
Using 4mm knitting needles and grey dk yarn cast on 6 stitches
Knit 2 rows of stocking stitch
Increase 1 stitch at the beginning of the next 6 rows of stocking stitch
Knit 10 rows of stocking stitch
Knit 2 rows of garter stitch
Cast off
FIN (KNIT ONE)
Using 4mm knitting needles and grey dk yarn cast on 10 stitches
Knit 2 rows of garter stitch
Decrease 1 stitch at the beginning of every row until 2 stitches remain
Knit 2 stitches together
Cast off
TO MAKE UP
- Sew black French knot eyes onto the face by winding the black yarn around your yarn needle twice
- Using over-sew stitching and with right sides together sew bottom seam of head and body
- Turn right sides out
- Fold the fin in half and sew along the edge using over-sew stitching and wrong sides together
- Sew the fin onto the top of the body
Please note that the material on this blog is for personal use and for use in classrooms only.
It is a copyright infringement and, therefore, illegal under international law to sell items made with these patterns.
Use of the toys and projects is at your own risk.
©Christina Sinclair Designs 2015
Answers to the News Desk Quiz
To have a cocky attitude
To be cock-sure
Arrogant
To have bravado
To be gung ho
To have a cavalier attitude
Nonchalant
Brash
Careless
Overly-confident
To blow one’s own trumpet
To brag
Timid
Cowardly
Shy
Spineless
Backward in coming forward
Not keen on doing something
Reticent
Yellow
To hide/waste your talents
Restrained
Lack of backbone
To hide one’s light under a bushel
(From the Bible: Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick) = don’t waste your talents or resources
A cavalier
Quick Quiz Answers
They are both past simple tense of to hang
Hanged – when a person is killed by a hangman’s noose
Hung for everything else:-
A coat
Washing
A notice board
A picture
Wall paper
And so on…
And hung, drawn and quartered because the person hung up was taken down before they were dead
Embroidery Stitches
