Jeffreys, George, 1st Baron Jeffreys of Wem (1645-89), English judge under Kings Charles II and James II, who was notorious for his severity in political cases.

Jeffreys was born in Denbighshire, Wales, on May 15, 1645, and educated at the University of Cambridge and the Inner Temple, London. He was called to the bar in 1668. Jeffreys's brilliance and eloquence soon won him a large private practice. He enjoyed the favour of a number of influential courtiers and managed to gain employment in the confidential legal business of King Charles II . In 1677 he was knighted and appointed Solicitor General to the Duke of York and Albany, later King James II . In 1680 he became chief justice of Chester and, in 1683, Lord Chief Justice of England and a member of the Privy Council

In civil cases, Jeffreys was known as an able and upright judge. His conduct of criminal trials, however, was so brutal that he was widely referred to as the Hanging Judge. In 1683 he presided at the trials of the conspirators in the Rye House Plot, who were accused of conspiring to assassinate his patrons Charles II and the Duke of York. His conduct toward the accused was regarded as so unjust that he became infamous among the king's Whig opponents.

In 1685 James II made Jeffreys a baron. Later in the same year, Jeffreys conducted a series of trials of men charged with complicity in a rebellion against the king led by James Scott, Duke of Monmouth . Because he conducted these trials with ruthless disregard for legal procedure, they became known as the Bloody Assizes.

James II appointed him Lord Chancellor of England and Keeper of the Great Seal. In the years that followed Jeffreys supported the king despite his increasigly tyrannical behaviour. When James fled the country in December 1688 during the Glorious Revolution, Jeffreys also attempted to escape, disguised as a seaman. He was recognized, arrested, and imprisoned in the Tower of London, where he died on April 18, 1689