Author: Jeffrey, Francis
Biography:
JEFFREY, Francis (1773-1850: ODNB)
Although he was to become one of the most influential critics and judges in Scotland, Jeffrey’s early career was not particularly promising. He was born at Edinburgh to George Jeffrey and Henrietta (Louden) Jeffrey and attended Edinburgh High School before studying law at Glasgow University from 1787. Forbidden by his father to attend lectures by Glasgow’s most famous and liberal lawyer, John Millar, from 1789 he studied at the University of Edinburgh before spending a year at Queen’s College, Oxford—a place he disliked but where he divested himself of his Scottish accent. He was admitted to the Scottish bar in 1794 but he struggled to establish a lucrative legal practice in part because his whiggish political views were viewed unfavourably in the conservative climate predominating in Scotland. In 1801 he married a second cousin, Catherine Wilson; the couple had one child, a son, who died in infancy and Catherine herself died in 1805. By 1802 Jeffrey had decided his only hope for earning a living was by writing, and he joined with the Rev. Sidney Smith to establish the Edinburgh Review, published by Archibald Constable. This was a turning point: after a year, Jeffrey was sole editor of an increasingly popular and highly influential publication which was particularly innovative in its independent reviewing of new books. Although many of Jeffrey’s aesthetic judgments have not stood the test of time, the seriousness with which he approached his task was transformative for the genre. Politically, Jeffrey remained a Whig and, in 1813, his marriage to Charlotte Wilkes (also a relative and great niece of John Wilkes) took him to America where he interviewed President James Madison. The couple returned to Scotland to set up house; they had one child, a daughter. After the 1815 peace, he was sought after as a barrister who worked to expose some sharp practices in the prosecution of radicals. In 1820, he began developing a political career which ended when, in 1834, he was appointed a judge (as Lord Jeffrey). His final years were spent in Edinburgh and at his country home just outside the city; he is buried in the Dean cemetery in Edinburgh. (ODNB 12 Aug 2019) SR