Jeffries, Elizabeth (d. 1752)

views updated

Jeffries, Elizabeth (d. 1752)

English woman convicted of murder. Hanged in Epping Forest, Mar 28, 1752.

In Walthamstow, managed estate of uncle who alternately promised to leave estate to her or exclude her from his will; conspired with one of his employees, John Swan (with whom she may have been intimate), to murder her uncle; with Swan, hired man named Matthews to assist in killing; after Matthews abandoned the plan and Swan killed her uncle (July 3, 1751), was arrested with Swan; convicted, fainted repeatedly on way to gallows.

More From encyclopedia.com