James St John Jeffereyes (1734 – 14 September 1780), also recorded as St John Jeffreys, was an Anglo-Irish soldier, landowner and politician.
Jeffereyes was the son of the diplomat James Jeffreys and Anne Brodrick, and the grandson of Sir James Jeffreys and
St John Brodrick
William St John Fremantle Brodrick, 1st Earl of Midleton, KP, PC, DL (14 December 185613 February 1942), styled as St John Brodrick until 1907 and as Viscount Midleton between 1907 and 1920, was a British Conservative and Irish Unionist Alli ...
. He entered
Trinity College Dublin
, name_Latin = Collegium Sanctae et Individuae Trinitatis Reginae Elizabethae juxta Dublin
, motto = ''Perpetuis futuris temporibus duraturam'' (Latin)
, motto_lang = la
, motto_English = It will last i ...
on 12 February 1752, but did not graduate and instead joined the
British Army
The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...
. By 1766 he had attained the rank of major in the
24th Regiment of Foot
Fourth or the fourth may refer to:
* the ordinal form of the number 4
* ''Fourth'' (album), by Soft Machine, 1971
* Fourth (angle), an ancient astronomical subdivision
* Fourth (music), a musical interval
* ''The Fourth'' (1972 film), a Sovie ...
and he served as Lieutenant-Governor of Cork from 1768 to 1769.
Between 1758 and 1776, Jeffereyes sat in the
Irish House of Commons
The Irish House of Commons was the lower house of the Parliament of Ireland that existed from 1297 until 1800. The upper house was the House of Lords. The membership of the House of Commons was directly elected, but on a highly restrictive fran ...
as the
Member of Parliament
A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members o ...
for
Midleton
Midleton (; , meaning "monastery at the weir") is a town in south-eastern County Cork, Ireland. It lies approximately 16 km east of Cork City on the Owenacurra River and the N25 road, which connects Cork to the port of Rosslare. A satellit ...
, before representing
Randalstown
Randalstown is a townland and small town in County Antrim, Northern Ireland, between Antrim and Toome. It has a very prominent disused railway viaduct and lies beside Lough Neagh and the Shane's Castle estate. The town is bypassed by the ...
from 1776 until his death in 1780. In Parliament, Jeffereyes was an opponent of
Richard Boyle, 2nd Earl of Shannon
Richard Boyle, 2nd Earl of Shannon KP, PC (Ire) (30 January 1727 – 20 May 1807), was an Irish peer and Member of Parliament. He represented Dungarvan and Cork County, and succeeded his father as Earl of Shannon.Roman Catholics greater property rights; Shannon opposed it.
Jeffereyes was noted for his work as a reforming landlord on his
Blarney Castle
Blarney Castle ( ga, Caisleán na Blarnan) is a medieval stronghold in Blarney, near Cork, Ireland. Though earlier fortifications were built on the same spot, the current keep was built by the MacCarthy of Muskerry dynasty, a cadet branch of th ...
estate. During the 1760s and 1770s he spent over £8,000 as loans to manufacturers or in building premises on the estate which he then leased out to encourage economic activity. He invested in improvement works, including housing for workers and water power for local industry. He granted favourable leases to residents and encouraged textile printers to come from
Dublin
Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 c ...
to set up in his village; the thirteen factories on his estate in 1776 included a linen tape factory, a tuck mill, and a leather works.Lunney, Linde Jeffereyes (Jeffereys, Jeffries, Jeffreys), (James) St John ''Dictionary of Irish Biography'' (October 2009). Retrieved 25 January 2023.
He married Arabella Fitzgibbon, sister of John FitzGibbon, 1st Earl of Clare. They had one son, George, and four daughters, including Mary Anne, whose first marriage to
George Nugent, 7th Earl of Westmeath
George Frederick Nugent, 7th Earl of Westmeath PC (18 November 1760 – 30 December 1814), styled Lord Delvin until 1792, was an Irish peer. He gained notoriety in his own lifetime, due to his unhappy first marriage to Maryanne Jeffries, which e ...
ended in a scandalous
divorce
Divorce (also known as dissolution of marriage) is the process of terminating a marriage or marital union. Divorce usually entails the canceling or reorganizing of the legal duties and responsibilities of marriage, thus dissolving the ...