Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 4.djvu/490

 404 NOTES AND QUERIES. [io» s. iv. NOV. is. no& CAPT. JAMES JEFFERYES, OF BLARNEY CASTLE. SPECIAL interest attaches to this soldier and diplomat, as he was the only British officer who attended Charles XII. in his campaigns of 1708 and 1709, including the battle of Pultawa, where he was taken prisoner. James Jefferyes (as he spelt his name) was eldest son of Sir James Jefferyes, Knt., of Blarney Castle, a brigadier-general in Queen Anne's army, and for many years Governor of Cork. Prior to the Revolution Sir James was lieutenant-colonel of a regiment of foot in Sweden, and obtained for his son James, in 1701, the post of secretary to Dr. John Robinson, the British Envoy at Stockholm. In 1705 new levies were raised in England, and Sir J. Jefferyes applied for a captain's commission for his eldest son. The applicant had a strong claim on his country, " having spent most of his substance in the service of the Crown, and abroad many years, and thereby almost ruined his numerous family. One of his sons was lieutenant of the Yarmouth, and very instrumental in taking Gibraltar, where he lost his life."—Sir J. Jefferves's Petition to the Duke of Marlborough, War Office MS. On 12 April, 1706, James Jefferyes was pp. 200 and 273). It is very doubtful if Capt. Jefferyes ever served with his regi- ment,* as in May, 1707, he was still at Stock- holm. Marlborough, in a letter to Harley from the Hague, 10 May, 1707, writes :— " You know the King of Sweden will admit of no foreign Minister to attend him into the field, but as a particular mark of respect for the Queen the Ministers are willing to connive at Mr. Jefferies, Mr. Robinson's secretary, making the campaign as a volunteer whereby H.M. may be truly informed of what passes."—' The Marlborough Dispatches,' vol. iii. p. 359. It was accordingly arranged that Jefferyes was to accompany Charles XII.'s army into the field, in reality as a combatant military attache, but nominally as a volunteer. The British Treasury granted him an allowance for his equipage and subsistence (ibid., p. 379). From an editorial note in ' The Marlborough Dispatches' it appears that Jefferyes kept Marlborough informed of all that passed during the campaigns in which the former took part; but that Count Piper (Charles's chief Minister) had to be heavily subsidized before he permitted Jefferyes to transmit the in 1712 (' English Army Lists,' vol. vi. p. 248). intelligence desired by the Duke (ibid., vol. v. p. 619). In short, Marlborough had to pay the piper ! At the battle of Pultawa (8 July, 1709), which established the ascendency of Peter the Great over his "Swedish rival, Jefferyes was taken prisoner and lost all his equipage. He was given his liberty some months later; but it was not till the spring of 1710 that he reached London and presented his bill of expenses to the Lords of the Treasury. Here it is:— Taken from him on his being made prisoner by the Cossacks, eight horses, one baggage waggon, and all his goods and equipage to the value of £140:0:0 Extraordinary expenses from the Ukraine to Mosco 15:0:0 Extraordinary expenses from Mosco to Smolensko with a guard IS: 0:0 From thence for the rest of the journey home 75:0:0 £248:0:0 Endorsed : " Captain Jefferyes's Bill of Extraordinary Expenses and Losses" ('Trea- sury Papers' under date of 4 April, 1710). A warrant was issued by the Treasury for the above amount in April, 1710. On 19 January, 1711, Jefferyes left London for Bender,* whither Charles XII. had retreated after his decisive defeat at Pultawa. Through Sir Robert Button, British Ambas- sador at Constantinople, promises had been obtained from the Grand Vizier that Capt Jefferyes, the accredited British Envoy to the King of Sweden, should have every facility given him in Turkey on his journey to Bender. For over five years Charles XII. was an exile of his own free will, and for most of that weary time Jefferyes remained in the neighbourhood of Bender, and assisted the iron-willed monarch with advice and money (Voltaire's 'History of Charles XII.'). When Charles did elect to return to his own dominions he travelled with that marvellous rapidity which even Napoleon could not have outdone in his youngest days. Jefferyes describes the king's journey in a letter to Lord Townshend, written from Stralsund, 4 December (O.S.), 1714:— "His Majty having dispos'd the small body of troops he had brought with him from Dimotico, ind those that had joynd him from Bender, into 15 bands, and regulated their march, he departed irom Pitest Oct. the 28th, O.S., and by the 3d of Nov. came to Vienna, where he only stay'd to uk» post, and passing by Lintz, Ratisbon, Nurembonj. Bam berg, Meiningen, Cassell, Brunswick, LenUea at Stockholm. ' S. P. Sweden,' 1704-14.
 * His name appears as captain in this regiment
 * Mr. Rowe to Mr. Jackson, the British