secondly, in 1710, Susan Ganning (d. 1748), by whom he had no issue. Jeffery was an enemy of religious controversy, alleging ‘that it produced more heat than light.’
His portrait, engraved by Anthony Walker after the painting by L. Seeman, is prefixed to his ‘Collection of Sermons and Tracts’ (1751).
His chief writings are: 1. ‘Religion the Perfection of Man,’ 12mo, London, 1689. 2. ‘Proposals to the reverend Clergy of the Archdeaconry of Norwich concerning the reformation of manners and promoting the interest of true religion and virtue,’ 8vo, Norwich, 1700. 3. ‘The Religion of the Bible; or a Summary View of the Holy Scriptures, as the Records of True Religion,’ &c., 8vo, Norwich, 1701. 4. ‘Select Discourses upon divers important subjects,’ 8vo, London, 1710. His shorter works are included in ‘A Complete Collection of the Sermons and Tracts written by … J. Jeffery,’ 2 vols. 8vo, London, 1751.
Jeffery published from his friend Benjamin Whichcot's manuscripts four volumes of ‘Several Discourses,’ 8vo, London, 1701–7; ‘The True Notion of Peace in the Kingdom or Church of Christ,’ 8vo, London, 1717; and ‘Moral and Religious Aphorisms,’ 8vo, London, 1703, an edition of which appeared in 1753, 8vo, London, with large additions by Samuel Bath, D.D. He also edited a posthumous piece by Sir Thomas Browne, which he called ‘Christian Morals,’ 12mo, Cambridge, 1716.
[Memoirs in the Complete Collection by S. Jones; Birch's Life of Tillotson, pp. 326–7; Blomefield's Norfolk, 8vo edit., iii. 641; Cole MS. 5873, f. 7.]
JEFFERY, THOMAS (1700?–1728), nonconformist divine, born at Exeter about 1700, was a student at the nonconformist academy conducted by Joseph Hallett II (1656–1722) [q. v.], where James Foster [q. v.] and Peter King, first lord King [q. v.], afterwards lord chancellor, were fellow-students. Jeffery assisted the Halletts in their ministry for some years, and in 1726 he succeeded James Peirce [q. v.] as colleague to the younger Hallett at the Mint Meeting, but he was shortly afterwards called to Little Baddow, Essex, where he remained until his return to Exeter, immediately before his premature death in 1728.
Jeffery is best remembered by the learned support which he gave to Chandler, Whiston, Sherlock, and other opponents of Anthony Collins [q. v.], the deist, in a ‘Review of the Controversy between the Author of a Discourse on the Grounds and Reasons of the Christian Religion and his Adversaries,’ 1725, 8vo. Jeffery's ‘True Grounds and Reasons of the Christian Religion, in opposition to the false ones set forth in a late book’ (i.e. Collins's ‘Grounds,’ &c.), which was written as early as 1725, is described by Leland (View of Deistical Writers, i. 119) as an ‘ingenious treatise,’ and by Collins himself as the work of an ‘ingenious author.’ Jeffery also wrote ‘Christianity the Perfection of all Religion, Natural and Revealed,’ 1728, 8vo. His works were praised by Dr. Kennicott, and Jeffery is described in Doddridge's ‘Family Expositor’ as having ‘handled the subject of prophecy and the application of it in the New Testament more studiously perhaps than any one since the time Eusebius wrote his “Demonstratio Evangelica.”’
[Biog. Brit. (Kippis), iv. art. ‘Collins;’ Watkins's Biog. Dict. (1807 edit.); Monthly Mag. xv. 146; Murch's Hist. of Presb. and Gen. Baptist Churches in West of England.]
JEFFERYS, JAMES (1757–1784), painter, born in 1757 at Maidstone, Kent, was son of William Jefferys (d. 1805), painter, who found much employment at Maidstone, and exhibited some paintings of fruit at the Society of Arts in London. There is a drawing by William Jefferys at Maidstone of his fellow-townsman, William Woollett [q. v.], the celebrated engraver, with whom young Jefferys was placed as pupil. He made great progress in drawing, and became a student of the Royal Academy, where in 1773 he obtained the gold medal for an historical drawing of ‘Seleucus and Stratonice.’ In 1774 he obtained a gold palette from the Society of Arts for an historical painting, and in 1775 was selected to receive the allowance granted by the Dilettante Society to enable an Academy student to go to Rome. In 1773 and 1774 he exhibited some drawings and pictures at the Society of Artists. Jefferys remained four years in Rome, and on his return to London settled in Meard's Court, Soho. He painted a large picture of ‘The Scene before Gibraltar on the morning of 14 Sept. 1782,’ which he exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1783, and which was again exhibited at the European Museum in 1804. Woollett commenced an engraving of it, which he did not live to finish, but it was completed in 1789 by John Emes [q. v.] Another picture by Jefferys of ‘Orgar and Elfrida’ was engraved in stipple by R. S. Marcuard. Jefferys died of a decline 31 Jan. 1784, at the early age of twenty-seven.
[Edwards's Anecdotes of Painters; Redgrave's Dict. of Artists; Sandby's History of the Royal Academy.]
