Grammar of the Greek Language, chiefly from the German of Raphael Kühner.’ It was at once recognised as a substantial improvement on existing Greek grammars in the English language, and has passed through at least five editions. In the later editions Jelf's own part of the work became so extensive that he thought himself justified in omitting Kühner's name from the title-page. He also published a letter to the Rev. Frederick Temple (now bishop of London) on the ‘Essays and Reviews,’ which appeared in 1860, and left behind him the materials for a commentary on the first Epistle of St. John, which was published with the Greek text in 1877, under the editorship of W. Webster.
[Annual Register, 1875; Guardian, 27 Oct. and 3 Nov. 1875; Oxford Ten-Year Book; Foster's Alumni Oxon.; information furnished by the family; personal knowledge and recollections.]
JELLETT, JOHN HEWITT (1817–1888), provost of Trinity College, Dublin, was born at Cashel in Tipperary on 25 Dec. 1817, and educated at Trinity College, Dublin, of which he became a fellow in 1840. He graduated B.A. 1838, M.A. 1843, B.D. 1866, and D.D. 1 March 1881. He had been admitted into priest's orders in 1846. In 1848 he was elected to the chair of natural philosophy, and in 1868 he received the appointment of commissioner of Irish national education. A year later the Royal Irish Academy elected him president. In 1870, on the death of Dr. Thomas Luby, he was co-opted by the senior fellows of Trinity College as a member of their board. Mr. Gladstone's government in February 1881 appointed Jellett provost of Trinity; in the same year he was awarded one of the royal medals of the Royal Society. After the disestablishment of the church of Ireland he took an active part in the deliberations of the general synod and in every work calculated to advance its interests. He was an able mathematician, and wrote ‘A Treatise of the Calculus of Variations’ in 1850, and ‘A Treatise on the Theory of Friction’ in 1872, and several papers on pure and applied mathematics, as well as articles in the ‘Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy,’ and some theological essays, sermons, and religious treatises, of which the principal were ‘An Examination of some of the Moral Difficulties of the Old Testament,’ 1867, and ‘The Efficacy of Prayer,’ 1878. He died at the provost's house, Trinity College, Dublin, on 19 Feb. 1888, and was buried in Mount Jerome cemetery on 23 Feb.
[Times, 21 Feb. 1888, p. 10, 24 Feb. p. 5; information kindly supplied by the provost of Trinity College, Dublin; Freeman's Journal, 20 Feb. 1888, p. 3, 24 Feb. p. 3; Illustrated London News, 7 May 1881, pp. 453, 454, with portrait; Graphic, 10 March 1888, pp. 233, 240, with portrait.]
JEMMAT, WILLIAM (1596?–1678), puritan divine, born about 1596, and a descendant of a well-to-do family settled at Reading, Berkshire, was, according to Wood, the son of a former mayor of the town. No Jemmat, however, appears as mayor of Reading before 1661. His mother, Elizabeth Grove, who was buried, at the age of eighty-one, in the churchyard of St. Giles, Reading, on 22 March 1649–50 (register), is described in the register as the ‘pious mother of three Jemmats, vicars of the parish successively.’ Educated at Reading school, William proceeded to Magdalen College, Oxford, in 1610, and there graduated B.A. on 23 May 1614. Before he commenced M.A., 25 Feb. 1617, he transferred himself to Magdalen Hall, and soon afterwards took holy orders. He signs the dedication to his collection of five sermons by Thomas Taylor (1576–1632) [q. v.], which he called ‘a mappe of Rome’ (1620), as ‘your servant in the Gospel of Christ, Reading, 1619.’ He remained at Reading until at least 1621, probably acting as an assistant to Thomas Taylor. From Reading he removed to Lechlade in Gloucestershire, where he describes himself as preacher of God's word; he probably remained there during 1624 and 1625. In 1632–3 he was a licensed lecturer at Isleworth, Middlesex, and was still holding the post in 1648, although Wood asserts that he only held it for fourteen years. He contrived to combine with his work at Isleworth the duties of a lecturer at Dunstable and Kingston, and in the neighbourhood of Faversham, offices to which he was appointed by the House of Commons, in the first two cases in 1642, and in the last about 1643 (Commons' Journals, ii. 788; Watchword for Kent). He was also, according to Wood, for a time chaplain to the Earl of Northumberland. In 1644 he describes himself as ‘pastor of Nettlestead,’ and signs the register there in that and the following years. He became vicar of St. Giles's, Reading, by grant of the House of Lords under the great seal, 20 Dec. 1648 (Lords' Journals, x. 635). The former vicar, Jemmat's elder brother John, had been buried in the church on 10 Dec. 1648 (register). Jemmat appears to have conformed at the Restoration, and retained his benefice till his death at Reading on 28 Jan. 1677–8. He was buried in the chancel of St. Giles's Church on 31 Jan. On 11 Oct. 1619 he married Anne Pocock at St. Giles's Church, Reading.
