The land which became Camden Town belonged, at earlier times, to the Jeffreys family. Originally from Brecon in Wales, their wealth was made in international trade through the City of London.
Lunacy in the family.
Download my paper on the casebook of eighteenth-century doctor John Monro and the two inquisitions for lunacy of members of the Jeffreys family – ‘De lunatico inquirendo: managing family inheritance across madness in eighteenth-century London’ (accepted version, History of Psychiatry, 29 January 2024)
Lunacy inquisition of Frances Jeffreys
John Jeffreys and Sir Jeffrey Jeffreys have memorials in St Andrew Undershaft church in St Mary Axe, City of London. The original land of John Jeffreys’ house became Jeffreys Square, with eighteen houses, then the Baltic Exchange and is now the Gerkhin.
The family history is spread over four generations, from John Jeffreys who was the first merchant, his two sons who continued as traders and financiers, Nicholas Jeffreys the next son, and Elizabeth Jeffreys his daughter – who married Charles Pratt (who became Lord Camden). The Jeffreys inheritance is a complex story.:
