A Review Of The Conduct Of The Prince Wales In His Various Transactions With Mr. Jefferys During A Period Of More Than Twenty Years, Containing A Detail Of Many Circumstances Relative To The Prince And Princess Of Wales, Mrs Fitzherbert, Etc. To Which Is Added A Letter To Mrs. Fitzherbert, Upon The Influence Of Example, Etc. Seventh Edition With Additions. By Nathaniel Jefferys. With: Diamond Cut Diamond; Or, Observations On A Pamphlet, Entitled ‘a Review Of The Conduct Of His Royal Highness The Prince Of Wales;’ Comprising A Free And Impartial View Of Mr Jefferys As A Tradesman, Politician, And Courtier, During A Period Of Twenty Years. By Philo-veritas. Fourth Edition, Considerably Enlarged..
£60.00
Publisher
Printed for, and published by, Mr. Jefferys, 20, Pall-Mall, and No. 8, Pavilion-Parade, Brighton. Diamond Cut Diamond, Printed by B. McMillan, Bow-Street, Covent- Garden, Printer to His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales, for C. Chapple, Pall-Mall, and Southampton-Row Russell-Square; and T. Ostell,,, Ave-Maria Lane, St. Paul's.,
Date
1806
Item Description
8vo. 4.75 x 8 inches. A Review, 76 pp.; Diamond Cut Diamond, viii + 74 pp + [2] pp. publisher's advertisements. Disbound pamphlets. Some foxing but otherwise good condition.
Notes
Early signature of Alex. Forrest at top of titles. Two polemical pamphlets published in 1806 relating to the conduct of George, Prince of Wales and that of his now estranged jeweller, Nathaniel Jefferys (1758?-1810). Jefferys, from a family of goldsmiths, had formerly been on intimate terms with the Prince at Carlton House as his jeweller, and in 1790, had, at the Prince's request, paid off a œ1600 debt of Mrs Fitzherbert, a Roman Catholic whom the Prince had married illegally. This was repaid but in 1795, Jefferys had supplied about œ60,000 worth of jewels on the occasion of the Prince's marriage to Caroline of Brunswick in 1795. As the Prince's disastrous financial affairs had now been entrusted to commissioners, Jefferys had to obtain a court settlement to award him payment and this was delayed. Having purchased a town house in Pall Mall and a marine villa at Ramsgate, Jefferys was now pursued by creditors himself. His reaction was to go into parliament, where he was MP for Coventry from 1796 until he was unseated in 1803. He returned to the subject of his losses from the Prince, claiming over œ16,000 was still owed and his 1806 pamphlet (nine editions appeared this year) presses his claims with vituperative attacks against the Prince and Mrs Fitzherbert. This caused offence and several other pamphleteers came to the Prince's defence. Philo-Veritas has been identified as Thomas Gilliland, an attorney pensioned by the Prince. Gilliland uses equally robust language to attack Jefferys' character, styling him 'Peeping Tom of Coventry.This Jack-of-all-Trades, Silversmith, Courtier, Politician, House-Agent, Physiognomist, and Secretmonger.who has published sixty-eight pages of slander on the Heir Apparent to the Throne' in a pamphlet which 'has no regular beginning, middle, or ending.' Jefferys, after another bankruptcy, retuned to the business of estate agency and put his name to two topographical books on the Isle of Man (1808) and Dublin (1810), announcing, in his preface to the first, the end of his dispute with the Prince, perhaps implying a repayment of his debts. /
[Stock No. 23242]
