State-worthies, or, The states-men and favourites of England since the reformation their prudence and policies, successes and miscarriages, advancements and falls, during the reigns of King Henry VIII, King Edward VI, Queen Mary, Queen Elizabeth, King James, King Charles I.

Observations on the Life of Sir John Jeffrey.

SIr Iohn Ieffrey was born in Sussex, where he left behind him a fair Estate to his Daughter. He so profited in the Study of our Municipal Law, that he was preferred secondary Judge of the Common Pleas, and thence advanced by Queen Elizabeth, in Michaelmas-Term, the Nineteenth of her Reign, to be Lord Chief Baron of the Ex∣chequer: which place he discharged for the Term of two years, to his great commendation. He left one Daughter and Heir, married to Sir Edward Montague, (since Baron of Boughton) by whom he had but one Daughter, Elizabeth, married to Ro∣bert Barty Earl of Lindsey, Mother to the truly ho∣nourable Montague Earl of Lindsey, and Lord great Chamberlain of England. This worthy Judge di∣ed in the 21. of Queen Elizabeth.

This was he who was called the Plodding Stu∣dent, whose industry perfected Nature, and was perfected by experience. He read not to argue only; for that is vanity: nor to believe and trust; for that is easiness: nor to discourse; for that is idle: but to weigh and consider; for that is pru∣dence. He had his Studies for pleasure and pri∣vacy, for ornament and converse, and for judg∣ment and business. To spend too much time on his Book, was sloth; to talk by Book, was af∣fected; and to act by it, was humoursome and Scholar-like.

Four things he would say helped him.

• 1. His Inclination: (It's a great happiness to a Man (saith Aristotle) when his Calling is one of the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, of those things that agree with his n••ture.)
• 2. Method.
• 3. Religion, with that just and composed mind that attends it.
• 4, A great happiness in all the four faculties that make a Lawyer: 1. A sharp invention, and clear apprehension to search all the circumstances of a case propounded. 2. Judgment to examine and weigh the particulars invented and apprehended: ••or truth lieth in things, as Gold in Mines. 3. Me∣mory to retain what is judged and examined. 4. A prompt and ready delivery of what is conceived and retained, set out with ingenuity and gravity. Oratio prompa non audax. What he said, was close and pinching, and not confident and earnest; allowing passion not to disturb either the method or delivery of his discourse, but to quicken it. To speak well and much, he said, was not the work of one man: yet if a Philosopher be eloquent, said Cicero, we must not despise him; if he be not, he must not af∣fect it, so that he can comprehend in words what he conceiveth, and speak them plainly, that he may be understood. His Latine and French were Gram∣matical, his Rhetorick Natural, his Logick Rea∣son: The first, opened the terms; the second, pressed the Vigour; the last, collected and disposed of the Axiomes, Grounds, and Rules of the Law, and all prepared him for that comprehensive Pro∣fession: in the ashes whereof, the sparks of all o∣ther Sciences were raked up.

His gesture and habit was grave, but not affected: speaking as much to the eye, as his tongue did to the ear: (the gesture being a great discoverer of the constitution, and a great direction to business: what a man misseth in the speech, he may sometimes ••ind in the looks.) His temper was moderate and sober; a Virtue, and a seasoning of all others, atten∣ded with the Lawyers gift, and that is Patience. Modest he was, but not fondly bashful; his pru∣dence, and not his softness. His humility begat affableness; his affableness, society; that, confe∣rence; conference, parts, and they acquaintance; and that, practice; and practice, experience; ex∣perience, renown; and that, preferment.

Sir Iohn's inclination was studious; his mind, constant, solid, and setled, and able to dive into the Whirl-pools of that intricate and perplexed fa∣culty; his thoughts being orderly, and his conce∣ptions methodical: his search comprehensive, avoid∣ing Epitomes, as the banes of Learning. Nullu: illi per otium dies exit, partem noctium studiis vindicat; non vacat somno, sed succumbit, & oculos vigilia fati∣gatos cadentes{que} in opere detinet.

Considerable were the parts he had, but more so the making up of those he had not: his cover••ng of his defects being of no less importance than the valuing of good parts, which he did three ways:

• 1. By caution, ingeniously and discreetly waving and putting off things improper.
• 2. By colour, making his Defects his Virtues, and his Faults his Endowments. And,
• 3. By that freedom of Spirit that daunts the weak∣est, and prevaileth with the wisest.

He proposed to himself five things to enquire

into, in order to that compleatness he arrived unto:

• 1. The ancient Maximes and Principles, or the more ancient Customs that make up the Common Law of England.
• 2. The Acts and Constitutions that make up its Statute-Law.
• 3. The particular Priviledges, Liberties, Immu∣nities and Usages of Counties, Burroughs, Cities, &c. that do swerve from this Law.
• 4. The ancient Grounds and Reasons (as far as History can direct) of all these: our Law being an exact Reason.
• 5. The most satisfactory explanations of the Law: 1. From Commentaries, as Bractons: 2. Abridgments, as Stathams: 3. History, as the years and terms of the Common Law: And 4. From more particular Tracts, that handled their peculiar subjects, as Fortescue, Glanvil, Britton, Fleta, Lit∣tleton, which he thought not unprofitable to read, though dangerous to rely upon: (with the Lord Cooke, not liking those that stuff their mindes with wandering and masterless reports: For, as he said, they shall find them too soon to lead them to error:) Beginning with the terms of Art, and then to the matter; perusing what is antiquated, and obser∣ving what is suitable to the present constitution and complexion. It's my Lord Cook's Rule,

  That for the most part the latter Judgments and Re∣solutions are the surest, and therefore fittest to season a man withal in the beginning; both for settling of his Judgment, and retaining them in memory; yet as he goeth on, out of the old fields must spring and grow the new Corn.

Our Lawyers course was slow and leisurely, his reading digested and deliberate: His conside∣rations wary, and distrust his way to knowledge. He that begins with certainties, ends in doubts: and he that begins with doubts, ends in certain∣ties, and looketh into t••e bo••••••m of things.

Upon serious and solid Books he bestowed a double reading; the one cursorily, by way of p••e∣paration; and the other exact, by way of digesti∣on.

Three things made him a Pleader:

• 1. Reading.
• 2. Observation.
• 3. Exercise.

And indeed,* 1.1 in ancient times, the Sergeants and Apprentices of Law did draw their own pleadings, which made them good Pleaders.

He observed the affections, the intent, the ana∣logy, the validity of the Law, putting all his read∣ing to writing; having the places he was most to handle in all the variety that could be, with his Rules and Maximes, as far as reading, hearing, meditation, conference and memory could help him.

Thus his fi••st thoughts were upon his Profession, until that advanced him to the highest Eminence; and his last upon his Interest, until that was im∣proved to as much fortune as lieth in a well-laid Estate and Alliance.

Notes

• * 1.1

  Vid. Co••. in Littl. Presat.