Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 30.djvu/221

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shipped some goods from that town (Hunter, Chorus Vatum, v. 196). In 1609 he accompanied his townsman, Sir George Summers, Sir Thomas Gates [q. v.], and Captain Newport, deputy governors of Virginia, on their voyage to America. They were wrecked on 28 July at Bermuda, then uninhabited, and took possession of it for the crown of England. On his return Jourdain wrote ‘A Discovery of the Barmudas, otherwise called the Ile of Divels,’ 4to, London, 1610 (reprinted, without acknowledgment, in 1613 in a ‘Plaine Description of the Barmudas,’ edited by W. C., and dedicated to Sir Thomas Smith). Other reprints are to be found in Hakluyt's ‘Collection of Voyages,’ 1809 and 1812, and in the Aungervyle Society's reprints, 1884. Shakespeare was well acquainted with Jourdain's ‘Discovery,’ and doubtless drew from it some hints for his ‘Tempest.’ Ariel talks of fetching dew from ‘the still-vexed Bermoothes’ (i. 2). Fletcher in ‘Women Pleased’ (i. 2) and Webster in ‘Duchess of Malfi’ (iii. 2) follow Jourdain in representing Bermudas as the home of devils and witches. Jourdain died unmarried in the parish of St. Sepulchre beyond Newgate, London, in the spring of 1650, his estate being administered on 28 May of that year by his brother John Jourdain the younger (Administration Act Book, P. C. C., 1650, f. 83 b).

Jourdain's brother, Ignatius Jourdain (1561–1640), went to Guernsey for a time, and became a prosperous merchant at Exeter. He was elected M.P. for that city in 1625, 1625–6, and 1627–8, and was also mayor. While deputy-mayor, in the great plague of 1625, he wrote letters to many towns in the western counties soliciting subscriptions for the numerous poor. He endeavoured to get passed a bill against adultery, which was brought in afterwards as Jourdain's Bill, and he was the first who promoted the bill for the observance of Sunday and against swearing (cf. Notes and Queries, 5th ser. iii. 445, 493). When the proclamation touching the rebellious practices in Scotland was read, in April 1639, in Exeter Cathedral, Jourdain exhibited such contempt that he was commanded either to apologise or appear before the council in London. He did neither (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1639, pp. 53, 160, 469). He died on 15 July 1640, leaving a widow, Elizabeth, and children.

[Hutchinson's Dorsetshire, 3rd ed. ii. 75; F. Nicholls's Life of I. Jourdain, 1653; Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1627–33; will of I. Jourdain, registered in P. C. C. 130, Coventry.]

G. G.

JOWETT, JOSEPH, LL.D. (1752–1813), professor of civil law, was son of Henry Jowett of Leeds. He was educated at a school in that town, and admitted as a sizar at Trinity College, Cambridge, 24 June 1769, being then seventeen. He matriculated on 8 July 1769. In January 1773 he migrated to Trinity Hall, at the instance of Dr. Samuel Hallifax [q. v.], then regius professor of civil law, who offered him the post of assistant-tutor, with the prospect of a fellowship, and the reversion of the tutorship on the first vacancy. Jowett proceeded LL.B. in 1775, and LL.D. in 1780. In the former year he was elected fellow of Trinity Hall and principal tutor. In 1782 he was appointed regius professor of civil law, probably through the influence of Dr. Hallifax, who had been made bishop of Gloucester. He delivered lectures each term, and discharged all the duties of his office with ability and assiduity. His lectures are said to have been popular, and his comparison of the Roman and English law is specially commended. Jowett was principal tutor of Trinity Hall from 1775 to 1795, when he accepted the vicarage of Wethersfield in Essex, where he resided during the long vacations. He held strict evangelical opinions, which were unpopular in the university; but his sincerity and his high moral character gained for him general respect and much influence. His most intimate friend was Dr. Milner, president of Queens', with whom he never failed to pass two evenings alone each week. To Dr. Milner's influence may be ascribed the part he took in the refusal of Trinity Hall to elect Mr. (afterwards Archdeacon) Wrangham to a fellowship. Trinity Hall was in those days described as ‘a fief of Queens'.’ Wrangham is believed to have written the epigram on the garden which Jowett laid out in the angle between the two divisions of the east front of his college:

A little garden little Jowett made,
And fenced it with a little palisade.
But when this little garden made a little talk
He changed it to a little gravel-walk.
If you would know the mind of little Jowett,
This little garden don't a little show it.

Jowett died suddenly at Trinity Hall, 13 Nov., and was buried in the college chapel, 18 Nov. 1813.

[Obituary notice by Dr. Milner in the Christian Observer for 1813, pp. 820–4; Milner's Life, pp. 581–9; Simeon's Life, p. 375; Cambridge Chronicle, 19 Nov. 1813; Cambridge Calendar; Gunning's Reminiscences, ed. 1855, ii. 12–34; Admission Books of Trinity College; Archit. History of the Univ. and Colleges of Cambr. ed. Willis and Clark, i. 228.]

J. W. C.

JOWETT, WILLIAM (1787–1855), divine, born in 1787, was son of J. Jowett of Newington, Surrey, and nephew of Joseph Jowett [q. v.] He was educated at St.