The name Jefferies and its variants Jeffries, Jeffrys and so on is common in southern England, especially in the south west. However my ancestor Jefferies come from the north east of Essex and the adjoining parts of Suffolk. In the early 1800's there were several Jeffries families associated with Sible and Castle Hedingham and with some connection to the malting and brewing trades. The connections between these is still to be worked out though I suspect the Jeffries were relative newcomers to the Hedinghams.

The line reliably starts with Jonathan Jefferies who was baptised in Sible Hedingham on 18 December 1807 and who married Harriet Button on 1 June 1838. She was born in Blakenham near Ipswich in Suffolk (her father was a farmer) and it is said that she eloped with Jonathan when he was the family coachman though we have no evidence for this. They were married in the parish church at Gosfield, a small village south of the Hedinghams with her brother Peter and his cousin Ann as witnesses, and not near her family home.

Jonathan and Harriet had three sons, William, Peter and Henry. William appears not to have married and died in Streatham at age 30.

Peter Button Jefferies moved from Sible Hedingham (possibly to Streatham) with his mother and father at some time before 1861 and worked on his own account as a bootmaker. His father died in Streatham just before the 1871 census. Peter married a Harrington, Sarah, daughter of James Harrington in 1874 so after Peter had moved to Streatham. One of his Harrington relatives was a bootmaker in the Hedinghams and I suspect he received his training from him but his father-in-law, his father and many others were bricklayers. Why the move to Streatham in particular is unknown. No Jeffries/Jefferies definitely known to be related to Jonathan were in the Hedinghams in 1861.

Henry Jefferies married Martha Atkin from Mavis Enderby in Lincolnshire in 1870 and they also moved to Streatham, living first in the same road as his brother Peter. Henry was a house painter and is said to have died from lead poisoning at the age of 49 in 1892. His eldest son, Jonathan Henry, went to the USA in 1888 and settled in Florida. His brother, George Atkin Jefferies followed him in 1891 after receiving a letter from his brother and became a meat merchant. On their father's death in 1892 Henry's widow Martha and their four daughters all emigrated to Florida and their descendants are identified on the person pages by a green tree symbol.

The American links came to light through Sally Howard, a descendant of George Atkin Jefferies.

A chart of Jonathan Jefferies' descendants is HERE.