Jeffries Family Papers 1622-1880; bulk: 1670-1800 Guide to the Collection

Table of Contents Collection Summary Biographical Sketches Collection Description Arrangement Custodial History Detailed Description of the Collection Preferred Citation Access Terms

Collection Summary

Biographical Sketches

Note: The names in italics below are the names used by Walter Lloyd Jeffries, the compiler of this collection, to identify the various Jeffries family members. These italicized names are used in the Detailed Description of the Collection below.

David Jeffries (1658-1742) (David Jeffries II) was a Boston merchant. A native of Rhoad, Wiltshire, England, he settled in Boston in 1677 and married Elizabeth Usher, the daughter of John Usher (1648-1726). Their children were: Jane Jeffries (b. 1687); John Jeffries (b. 1689); David Jeffries (1690-1716); Elizabeth Jeffries (b. 1692), who married (1st) Charles Shepreeve in 1709 and (2nd) Benjamin Eliot in 1723; Rebecca Jeffries (b. 1693), who married Ebenezer Wentworth in 1711; Sarah Jeffries (b. 1695), who married George Jaffrey in 1711; Francis Jeffries (1696-1715); and Peter Jeffries (1697-1698).

John Jeffries (b. 1689) (Hon. John Jeffries) was a merchant who married Ann Clarke in 1713.

David Jeffries (1690-1716) (David Jeffries III) was a merchant who married Katherine Eyre, the daughter of John Eyre and Katherine Brattle Eyre, in 1713. Katherine Eyre Jeffries married (2nd) Oliver Noyes in 1719. Her mother, Katherine Brattle Eyre, married (2nd) Wait Still Winthrop.

David Jeffries (1714-1784) (David Jeffries IV), the son of David Jeffries (1690-1716) and Katherine Eyre Jeffries, was the deacon of Old South Church and town treasurer of Boston. In 1741, he married (1st) his first cousin Sarah Jaffrey, who died in 1753. In 1755, he married (2nd) the widow of Israel Walker, Deborah Lyde Walker, who died in 1767. In 1768, he married (3rd) Hannah Winslow, who died in 1783. In 1784, he married (4th) Sarah Leach Rhoads, the widow of Henry Rhoads.

John Jeffries (1745-1819) (Dr. John Jeffries), the son of David Jeffries (1714-1784) and Sarah Jaffrey Jeffries, was a Loyalist, physician, and balloonist. He studied medicine under Dr. James Lloyd of Boston. In 1773, he married (1st) Sarah Rhoads, who died in 1780. Their son died in 1796, and their daughter Ann Jeffries would later marry Samuel Brown. Dr. John Jeffries married (2nd) Hannah Hunt, the daughter of William Hunt, in 1787. They had ten children, four of whom died young.

John Usher (1648-1726) was a Boston bookseller, colonel of militia, member of the governor's council, treasurer and receiver general of the Territory and Dominion of New England under Sir Edmund Andros, land speculator, and lieutenant governor of New Hampshire from 1692-1697 and 1702-1716. He married (1st) Elizabeth Lidget, the daughter of Peter Lidget (d. 1676), and (2nd) Elizabeth Allen, the daughter of New Hampshire grantee Samuel Allen. Usher's daughter Elizabeth Usher married David Jeffries (1658-1742).

Collection Description

This collection consists of business and personal papers of Jeffries family members, primarily David Jeffries (1658-1742), David Jeffries (1690-1716), David Jeffries (1714-1784), and John Jeffries (b. 1689), merchants of Boston and Portsmouth, N.H., and papers of physician and Loyalist John Jeffries (1745-1819). The collection also contains papers of John Usher, receiver general of New England under Sir Edmund Andros and lieutenant governor of New Hampshire; Boston merchants Charles Lidget (1650-1698) and Peter Lidget (d. 1676); physician Isaac Waldron; apothecary William Davis and his son Benjamin; John Cooke, an English merchant in Oporto, Portugal; Henry Rhoads; Aeneas Salter; and Boston shipping merchants David Jeffries and Company, John and David Jeffries, and Jeffries and Shepreeve. The collection was compiled, arranged, and tipped into volumes by Walter Lloyd Jeffries and includes some notes and documents in his hand, as well as an index (Vol. 34).

Arrangement

The papers in this collection are arranged topically, not chronologically. There is an individual index at the beginning of each volume, and Volume 34 contains an index to the entire collection. Volume 29 (copies of Usher papers from the British Archives Public Records Office, 1689-1715) has been removed to the John Usher papers, Ms. N-2071 (XT), and cataloged separately. Some of the volumes, as noted in the Detailed Description of the Collection, are available on microfilm, P-493.

The papers have been removed from the bound volumes (Vol. 1-34) and rehoused in document boxes. The former volume numbers are included in the Detailed Description of the Collection below.

Custodial History

Most of the papers in this collection were found in the attic of Faneuil Hall, Boston, Mass., by a city official and turned over to Walter Lloyd Jeffries. Jeffries has made occasional notes throughout the papers as to the provenance of individual documents.

Detailed Description of the Collection

Preferred Citation

Jeffries family papers, Massachusetts Historical Society.

Access Terms

This collection is indexed under the following headings in ABIGAIL, the online catalog of the Massachusetts Historical Society. Researchers desiring materials about related persons, organizations, or subjects should search the catalog using these headings.