Judge Jeffries and his Formidable Wife.

George Jeffries, known as the ‘Hanging Judge’ gained a fearsome reputation as one of the English judicial system’s most cruel, unjust and heavy drinking judges. Yet despite this, he was terrified of his wife Anne who had a formidable temper. It was said that while St George may have killed a dragon saving a damsel in distress, George Jeffries missed the maiden and married the dragon by mistake.

It was on 3rd September 1685 that Judge Jeffries opened in Dorchester what became known as his ‘Bloody Assize’. It was held to try all those who were suspected of being involved in an uprising against the King.

Dorset born author, Frederick Treves wrote of Jeffries:

‘ (Jeffries) remains notorious in history as a corrupt judge, a foul-mouthed, malevolent bully and a fiend who delighted in cruelty. He was a drunkard, a man of the coarsest mind with a ready command of blasphemous expressions.’

During his life he suffered from a painful kidney complaint which may have contributed towards his behaviour. His doctors recommended alcohol to dull his pain.

Dorchester’s court was hung with scarlet as a sign of its bloody purpose. Of the 312 charged, 74 were executed, 175 were transported, 9 were whipped or fined with just 54 discharged. Thirty were convicted the first day and eighty the second day. Three who were executed were quartered, placed on a a Wareham bridge and then had their heads nailed to a wooden tower in the town. Another of the victims was discharged after £15,000 was paid to Judge George Jeffries. One of his sentences was for the accused to be imprisoned for seven years but each year to be whipped in each market town in Dorset.

He died at the age of 41 years ‘a diseased, hounded and accursed wretch.’ During World War II, Jeffreys’s tomb was destroyed in a German air raid.

(Source: Highways and Byways of Dorset by Frederick Treves.)

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