JUDGE JEFFREY’S GRAVE

Taranaki Daily News, 23 February 1935, Page 21 (Supplement)

JUDGE JEFFREY’S GRAVE

FOUND IN SOMERSET VILLAGE. An interesting question asto place of the celebrated Judge Jeffreys of “Bloody Assizes” fame has been raised by the discovery of an aneidnt coffin, bearing neither name nor an old family vault at Stocklinch Church, near llminster. The vault had not been opened for 59 years until.it was opened for the , burial of Mr. Jeffreys Charles ’ Allen, ? the 86-y«r-oM Somerset J.P., concerning whose death at Mill House, Upwey, near Weymouth, investigations are being made by Bernard Spilsbury. Mr. Jeffreys Allen belonged to a family which ■ has associations with Stocklinch for a long period of years, and was also a descendant of Judge Jeffreys. When the vault was opened it was found.to contain 11 coffins, all identifiable except the very old one without a name or inscription. The church records yield no information concerning- it, and according to local tradition it contains the. body of Judge Jeffreys, who died in the. Tower .of London, after being captured at Wappmg when attempting to flee the. country. History has it that after his death his relatives took the body .away by night ‘and buried it secretly in the country. Village people of Stocklinch speak of hearing their grandparents say • that the old judge was secretly buried in Stocklinch Church*