Obituary of the Hon. Andrew Jeffrey, M.L.C., Cobourg Sentinel, 1 Aug 1863

Read on WikiTree, 10 Oct 2026, where it is quoted from Skinner’s compilation:

We deeply regret to state this week that the illness of the Hon. Andrew Jeffrey M.L.C., which we alluded to in our last, proved fatal on Monday morning last. Mr. Jeffrey was one of the oldest inhabitants of this town, and by his strict integrity and upright conduct, had endeared himself alike to all classes in this community. He was born at Swinton, Berwickshire, Scotland, in the year 1800, and consequently was in his 64th year at his death. He came to Canada in 1819, and settled in Cobourg in 1820, since which time he has remained one of its most upright and respected leading citizens. He filled many offices of trust by the will of the people, and in 1852 was elected Mayor of the town, an office which he filled with credit to himself and advantage to the town; he was in the same year elected President of The Board of Trustees of the Northumberland and Durham Savings Bank, which office he held till the time of his death. In 1859 he was appointed one of the five commissioners of The Town Trust, and filled that office with honour and integrity up to the time of his death. In 1860 he was honoured with the confidence of the electors of the Newcastle Division, and was by them elected to represent this Division in the Legislative Council of this Province. He discharged his duties as a legislator with his usual integrity and uprightness, and gained the confidence and esteem of his brother Legislators. His death has left a vacancy which it will not be easy to fill. He has left a numerous family of children and grandchildren and an innumerable host of admiring friends to mourn his demise. The funeral took place on Wednesday last at 12 o’clock, and was very large and respectable. The places of business in town were closed from noon to 2 o’clock, in token of respect to the departed.

The same profile notes, from the family’s papers: he came to Canada at twenty, in 1820; was a saddle and harness maker as well as a hardware merchant; was ordained an elder of the church at Cobourg in 1827 (Judge Riddell’s account at St Andrew’s, 1949); and, by the Cobourg Star of 18 Apr 1849, was then moving his hardware store next to the Albion Hotel. It gives his marriages: to Janet Hall, Cobourg, 18 Feb 1828, and to Agnes Moscrip McLenhan, Port Hope, 4 May 1853.

Andrew Jeffrey was the brother of Mary (Jeffrey) Short. Swinton for his birthplace differs from “Foulden” on his gravestone (findagrave-jeffrey-family); Swinton and Foulden are about seven miles apart in the Merse of Berwickshire.