Lord Francis Jeffrey

Pam Perkins (University of Manitoba)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.06: English Writing and Culture of the Romantic Period, 1789-1837.
Vol. editors: Daniel Cook (University of Dundee), Daniel Robinson (Widener University), Emily Rohrbach (University of Durham)

Dates

Born 23 Oct 1773
Died 26 Jan 1850
Activity 1802-1850

Places

Born in Scotland
Active in England; Scotland

Activities

Primary

Editor
Journalist
Literary Critic/ Historian

Other

Jurist
Lawyer/ Barrister/ Solicitor
Member of Parliament

Resources

Jeffrey's Works

Save to Bookshelf

Engraving by W. Wastle after P.M., 1819. Courtesy The Walter Scott Digital Archive, Edinburgh University Library.

Francis Jeffrey was born in Edinburgh on 23 October, 1773 and was educated in Glasgow, Edinburgh, and Queen's College, Oxford. Although he made his name as the shaping force behind the Edinburgh Review, a journal solidly on the Whig side of the political debates in early nineteenth-century Britain, he came from a Tory background. According to Jeffrey's long-time friend, Henry Cockburn, the 1793 Edinburgh treason trials, in which a number of radicals were tried and sentenced to transportation – effectively a delayed death sentence – were a formative event in the development of Jeffrey's political thought. Jeffrey witnessed the trials and was never afterwards able to speak

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999 words

Citation: Perkins, Pam. "Lord Francis Jeffrey". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 17 July 2001 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=2355, accessed 25 November 2024.]