Judge Jeffreys Shows His Savagery - 1685
Introduction
George Jeffreys was a harsh judge, the tool of King James II of England, whose royal policy he enforced. He was notorious for tongue-lashing prisoners. His outbursts may have been aggravated by alcohol, for he drank to dull the pain he suffered from kidney disease. On this day, 18 May, 1685, Puritan Richard Baxter’s legal counsel appeared before the “hanging judge”—as Jeffreys was nicknamed—and pleaded that Baxter be allowed to postpone a court date because of illness. Jeffereys’ response was in character, according to Baxter and his friends, for he cried out in a passion:
Quote
“I will not give him a minute’s time more, to save his life. We have had to do with other sorts of persons, but now we have a saint to deal with and I know how to deal with saints as well as sinners. Yonder, stands Oates in the pillory…[as he actually did at that very moment in the new Palace Yard]…and he says he suffers for the truth, and so says Baxter; but if Baxter did but stand on the other side of the pillory with him, I would say, two of the greatest rogues and rascals in the kingdom stood there.”
The Life of Rev. Richard Baxter: chiefly compiled from his own writings. American Tract Society.