Note 16 — Chapter I

My friend, the Rev. D. Hewitt, of Exeter, informs me: “I find the Mayor of Exeter for the year 1688 was a Jefford, or Gifford, as it is sometimes spelt. He had acquired a fortune in business as a dyer. In religion he was a Presbyterian. He was made Mayor by Order of the Privy Council, when James II. required many Corporations to surrender their charters. The King’s mandamus to his ‘trusty and well-beloved,’ commanding them to remove the then present Mayor (J. Snell) and other members of the Corporation, and to elect and admit ‘our well-beloved Thomas Jefford’ to be Mayor, is dated 28th of November, 1687. Jenkins, our local historian, says, ‘that not only the Mayor, but the other members of the newly-created Chamber, were Presbyterians. When the Corporation sent up an address to the King, congratulating him on the birth of a Prince, the Mayor received the honour of knighthood. When the King turned penitent, as you are aware, one of the fruits of his repentance was the restoration of their charters to corporate towns, and this caused Sir Thomas to descend from his corporate dignity, and return into an obscurity where, thus far, I have not been able to trace him. Perhaps the well-known fact that the Mayor was a Presbyterian, might have something to do with the Bishop’s allusion to the Conventicle.”