Herbert Jeffreys (English Army officer)
Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Herbert Jeffreys ( – 17 December 1678) was an English Army officer and colonial administrator who served as the acting governor of Virginia in the immediate aftermath of Bacon's Rebellion. American historian Douglas Edward Leach described Jeffreys as a "chief troubleshooter" and "the most active and expert guardsman in the political police function of the courtier army." Biography Early life and family Jeffreys was born around 1620–1625 in Kirkham, North Yorkshire, England. Available records indicate that Jeffreys married Susanna Osborne and they had seven children during the period between 1666 and 1674. The Jeffreys family resided in Yorkshire and attended Saint Michael-Le-Belfry church. Military service Jeffreys was a longtime military officer and staunch royalist. From 1642 until 1648, he fought for King Charles I in the English Civil War. During the period following, Jeffreys was in French exile, where he served on the military staff of Charles I's second son, James, Duke of York. While in Flanders, Jeffreys supported the repression of the Fronde provincial revolts between 1648 and 1653 and helped to form the Guards of Charles II. After the restoration of Charles II as King, Jeffreys served the crown as commander of Guards Garrison companies in Portsmouth, York, the Isle of Jersey, and London. He served as deputy governor of York for over eight years and assumed martial command in 1670. He attained the rank of captain and later lieutenant colonel in the English Army. Virginia political career In November 1676, Jeffreys was appointed by Charles II as a lieutenant governor of Virginia colony and arrived in Virginia in February 1677. During Bacon's Rebellion, Jeffreys was commander-in-chief of the regiment of six warships carrying over 1,100 troops, tasked with quelling and pacifying the rebellion upon their arrival. He served as leader of a three-member commission (alongside Sir John Berry and Francis Moryson) to inquire into the causes of discontent and political strife in the colony. The commission published a report for the King titled "A True Narrative of the Rise, Progresse, and Cessation of the late Rebellion in Virginia," which provided an official report and history of the insurrection. On 27 April 1677 and with the support of the King, Jeffreys assumed the role of acting colonial governor following Bacon's Rebellion, succeeding his political rival Governor Sir William Berkeley after he was formally recalled to England and convinced to vacate the colony. Shortly after Jeffreys took over as acting governor, Berkeley angrily remarked that Jeffreys had an "irresistible desire to rule this country" and that his action could not be justified. He wrote to Jeffreys, "I believe that the inhabitants of this Colony will quickly find a difference between your management and mine." As acting governor, Jeffreys was responsible for appeasing the remaining factions of resistance and reforming the colonial government to be once more under direct Crown control. As acting governor, Jeffreys presided over the Treaty of 1677, the formal peace treaty between the Crown and representatives from various Virginia Native American tribes that was