The Dictionary of Australasian Biography/Jefferis, Rev. James
Jefferis, Rev. James, LL.B., was born at Bristol in 1833, and educated for the Congregational ministry at New College, London, and at London University, where he graduated B.A. and LL.B., and was afterwards appointed to a Congregational church at Saltaire, near Bradford. He left for Australia in broken health, in 1859, and settled at Adelaide, where, during his eighteen years' residence, he gained a high repute as a preacher, speaker, and writer. He also acted as professor of mathematics and natural science in Union College, an institution for the education of young men for the ministry, but not attached to any particular denomination. It was to this college that Sir W. W. Hughes wished at first to give the £20,000 which, at Mr. Jefferis' suggestion, he ultimately decided to make the nucleus for the establishment of the now flourishing University of Adelaide. Mr. Jefferis undertook the pastorate of the Congregational Church in Pitt Street, Sydney, in 1877, and retained it till 1890, when he returned to England, and accepted the charge of the Collegiate Church at Hampstead.