Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 29.djvu/268

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erected at Dartmoor, Chatham, and Portsmouth.

In 1844 Jebb was appointed a member of a royal commission to report on the punishment of military crime by imprisonment. The commission recommended the establishment of prisons for the exclusive reception of military prisoners, and to be under the supervision of an officer to be termed inspector-general of military prisons, who should also supervise provost and regimental cells. Jebb was appointed to this office on 27 Dec. 1844 in addition to his other duties, and since that date it has been held by the officer at the head of civil prisons, who has always been an officer of royal engineers.

Jebb was promoted lieutenant-colonel on 16 April 1847. On 1 May 1849 his appointment as commissioner of Pentonville prison was renewed. In 1850 a board, called the directors of convict prisons, was formed to replace the various bodies which had hitherto managed the different convict prisons. Jebb was appointed chairman of this board, and under his government the progressive system was adopted generally and developed. Having served ten years uninterruptedly in the civil employment of the state Jebb had, in accordance with regulations, to return to military duty, or retire from the army. He chose the latter alternative, and quitted the military service on full pay retirement on 11 Jan. 1850. He subsequently received the honorary rank of colonel on 28 Nov. 1854, and of major-general 6 July 1860. He was made a K.C.B. for his civil services on 25 March 1859.

In 1861 and 1862 he served on commissions appointed to consider the construction of embankments of the river Thames, and of communications between the embankment at Blackfriars Bridge and the Mansion House, and between Westminster Bridge and Millbank. He died suddenly on 26 June 1863.

Jebb was twice married; first, on 14 June 1830, to Mary Legh, daughter of William Burtinshaw Thomas, esq., of Highfield, Derbyshire, who died in 1850, and by whom he had a son, Joshua Gladwyn, and three daughters; secondly, on 5 Sept. 1854, to Lady Amelia Rose Pelham, daughter of Thomas, second earl of Chichester, who survived him. His principal works are:

  1. ‘A Practical Treatise on Strengthening and Defending Outposts, Villages, Houses, Bridges,’ &c., 8vo, Chatham, 1836.
  2. ‘Modern Prisons: their Construction and Ventilation,’ with plates, 4to, London, 1844.
  3. ‘Notes on the Theory and Practice of Sinking Artesian Wells,’ 4to, 1844.
  4. ‘Manual for the Militia, or Fighting made Easy: a Practical Treatise on Strengthening and Defending Military Posts, &c., in reference to the Duties of a Force engaged in Disputing the Advance of an Enemy,’ 12mo, London, 1853.
  5. ‘A Flying Shot at Fergusson and his “Perils of Portsmouth,” “Invasion of England,”’ &c., 8vo, pamphlet, London, 1853.
  6. ‘Observations on the Defence of London, with Suggestions respecting the necessary Works,’ 8vo, London, 1860.
  7. ‘Reports and Observations on the Discipline and Management of Convict Prisons,’ edited by the Earl of Chichester, 8vo, London, 1863.

[Corps Records; Home Office Records; Porter's History of the Royal Engineers.]

R. H. V.

JEBB, Sir RICHARD, M.D. (1729–1787), physician, son of Samuel Jebb [q. v.], was born at Stratford, Essex, and there baptised 30 Oct. 1729. He entered at St. Mary Hall, Oxford, in 1747, but being a nonjuror could not graduate in that university, and proceeded to Aberdeen, where he joined Marischal College and graduated M.D. 23 Sept. 1751. He took rooms in Parliament Street, London, and was admitted a licentiate of the College of Physicians, 24 March 1755. He was physician to the Westminster Hospital from 1754 to 1762, when (7 May) he was elected physician to St. George's Hospital. He went to Italy to attend the Duke of Gloucester, and became a favourite of George III, who granted him a crown lease of 385 acres of Enfield Chase. He built a small house upon it, enclosed it with a fence, and kept deer. In 1771 he was elected a fellow of the College of Physicians, and in 1774 he delivered the Harveian oration, and was censor in 1772, 1776, and 1781. He was created a baronet on 4 Sept. 1778, and was F.R.S. and F.S.A. In 1768 he had already been obliged by private practice to resign his hospital appointment, and in the three years 1779–81 his fees amounted to twenty thousand guineas. In 1780 he was appointed physician to the Prince of Wales, and in 1786 to the king. He was fond of conviviality and of music. Wilkes and Churchill the poet were his friends, and he paid for the education of Churchill's son. Before he attained much practice he made no unworthy efforts to become prominent, and when his practice was large his patients sometimes complained that his manner was not sufficiently ceremonious. His professional reputation was high, and some disparaging remarks of John Coakley Lettsom [q. v.], who knew him, are obviously the result of inability to appreciate his abilities. In June 1787, while attending two of the princesses, he was attacked by fever. He was attended