The "Blood-Stone" Ring of Jeffreys

Jeffreys, the bloody Jeffreys, whose greatest honor was to make a martyr of Sidney, while rising in royal favor and when about to depart for the circuit to give the provinces "a lick with the rough side of his tongue," (a favorite expression of his,) experienced a mark of regard from Charles the Second. The King took a ring from his own finger and gave it to this besotted wretch of a chief justice: At the same time the monarch bestowed on him a curious piece of advice to be given by a king to a judge: it was, that, as the weather would be hot, Jeffreys should beware of drinking too much. The people called the ring "Jeffrey's blood-stone," as he got it just after the execution of Sir Thomas Armstrong. Roger North says: "The king was persuaded to present him with a ring, publicly taken from his own finger, in token of his majesty's acceptance of his most eminent services; and this by way of precursor being blazoned in the Gazette, his lordship went down into the country, as from the king legatus a latere." The Lord Keeper North, who, it has been said, hated Jeffreys worse than popery, speaks of the terror to others of the face and voice of the chief justice: "as if the thunder of the day of judgment broke over their heads;" and shows how Jeffreys, who, by this time, had reached the position of Lord Chancellor, was discovered by a lawyer that had been under the storm of his countenance: "There was a scrivener of Wapping brought to hearing for relief against a bummery bond; the contingency of losing all being showed, the bill was going to be dismissed. But one of the plaintiff's counsel said that he was a strange fellow and sometimes went to church, sometimes to conventicles and none could tell what to make of him and it was thought he was a trimmer. At that the Chancellor fired; and 'A trimmer,' said he, 'I have heard much of that monster, but never saw one. Come forth, Mr. Trimmer, turn you round, and let us see your shape;' and at that rate talked so long that the poor fellow was ready to drop under him; but, at last, the bill was dismissed with costs and he went his way. In the hall, one of his friends asked him how he came off? 'Came off!' said he, 'I am escaped from the terrors of that man's face, which I would scarce undergo again to save my life; and I shall certainly have the frightful impression of it as long as I live.' Afterwards, when the Prince of Orange came and all was in confusion, this Lord Chancellor, being very obnoxious, disguised himself in order to go beyond sea. He was in a seaman's garb and drinking a pot in a cellar. This scrivener came into the cellar after some of his clients; and his eye caught that face, which made him start; and the Chancellor, seeing himself eyed, feigned a cough and turned to the wall with his pot in his hand. But Mr. Trimmer went out and gave notice that he was there; whereupon the mob flowed in and he was in extreme hazard of his life," etc., etc. This term "Trimmer" seemed to be very obnoxious to Jeffreys. Once at the council and when the king was present, Jeffreys "being flaming drunk, came up to the other end of the board and (as in that condition his way was) fell to talking and staring like a madman, and, at length, bitterly inveighed against Trimmers and told the king that-he had Trimmers in his court and he would never be easy so long as the Trimmers were there." North gives the interpretation of the word "Trimmer," which was taken up to subdivide the Tory party, of whom all (however loyal and of the established church professed) who did not go into all the lengths of the new-flown party at court, were so termed.