Rambles about Portsmouth. Sketches of persons, localities, and incidents of two centuries: principally from tradition and unpublished documents. By Charles W. Brewster.

THE FOUR GEORGE JAFFREYS. 157
But, as in these days, the people of old made haste to be
rich more rapidly than through the channels of regular
trade. Mr. Jaffrey was a man of good repute, and a member of the Rev. Mr. Moody's church. But in 1684, for
some attempt to import without paying regular duties, his
vessel was seized and put under government charge. In
the night the vessel mysteriously disappeared. Mr. Jaffrey
took oath that he had no knowledge of the affair.
Although there was no doubt in the public mind in this
respects Gov. Cranfield was compounded with, and all legal
proceedings against Jaffrey were stopped. But the conscientious Mr. Moody was not so easily satisfied. He preached
a sermon on false swearing, and had an ecclesiastical trial
of Jaffrey. He acknowledged his crime, made a public
confession, and we know not that he afterwards went astray.
This proceeding was an occasion of great offence to Cranfield, and led to the imprisonment of Moody. The Annals
of Portsmouth, p. 72, endeavors to veil the matter by using
the name " George Janvrin,'-the church records however
give the trial as that of George Jaffrey. This old clock
doubtless witnessed a sorry and anxious countenance free
quently cast upon it in those days —Whet it occupied a
place in the old Jaffiey house at Newcastle. That house
still stands in the vicinity of Jerry's Point-originally,
doubtless, Jaffrey's Point.
His son George Jaffrey, Jr., (whose name appears as an
owner of the old clock,) was born at Newcastle in 1683,
graduated at Harvard College in 1702, was a mandamus
counsellor in 1716, and after the death of Samuel Pen:
hallow in 1726, was Treasurer of the Province. He was
also Chief Justice of the Superior Court to the time of llia
death in 1749.
He took up his residence in Portsmouth previous to
1719-as we find him holding various town offices from and
after that year-and built, probably as early as 1730, that