The name Jefferies and its variants Jeffries, Jeffrys, Jeffreys and so on is common in southern England, especially in the south west. However my first known 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 and also as bootmakers.  In the surrounding area there are more Jefferies families and I suspect there are family connections to Sudbury in Suffolk and Chelmsford and Colchester in Essex.  I am adding other Jefferies families in the area as I find them in the hope that these will provide a link back into earlier times.

Peter Button Jefferies moved from Sible Hedingham (possibly to Streatham) with his mother and father at some time before 1861 as they are not in the 1861 census there; 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 at Castle Hedingham 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 are recorded in the Hedinghams in 1861.  

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

 

The line reliably starts with Jonathan and Harriet who had three sons, William (1839), Peter (1840)and Henry (1843). Jonathan Jefferies who was baptised in Sible Hedingham on 18 December 1807 with his parents given as Jonathan and Maria.  Jonathan junior 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 Skipper Button and an Ann Jefferies (who may be his cousin) as witnesses, and not near her family home, which is unusual for the time. 

William appears not to have married and died in Streatham at age 30.

Henry Jefferies married Martha Atkin from Mavis Enderby in Lincolnshire in 1870 and they 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 Jefferies, went to the USA in 1888 - this is dealt with on the 'American' Jefferies page.

 
See where the places mentioned here are using The Jefferies Map. This should open in a new window or tab leaving this page still available to you. The map may not show all localities on first opening, move the map around or zoom out to see all. Clicking on the blue markers on the map should open a label with information and/or a picture. Some localities will need to be zoomed in to to see all the markers in a particular area.