Page:Dictionary of National Biography. Sup. Vol III (1901).djvu/54

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Jenyns
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Jervois

was, indeed, appointed to the legislative council in 1890, and was delegate for New South Wales in the convention on federation held at Sydney in March 1891, but that was practically the close of his public life. He died at Brisbane at a private hospital on 11 July 1897, and was buried at Sydney.

Jennings is described by a contemporary as 'a clear-headed, cultured Irishman' who 'turned every honest opponent who came into contact with him into an admiring friend' (Sydney Mail, 17 July 1897, p. 115). He did much to promote the cultivation of music in New South Wales, and gave large sums for the erection of the organ at Sydney University, of which he was a member of senate. He was also a trustee of the National Art Gallery. He was a fellow of St. John's (Roman catholic) College in Sydney, a knight grand cross of Pius IX in 1887, and was made LL.D. of Dublin in 1887.

Jennings married, in 1864, Mary Anne, daughter of Martin Shanahan of Marnoo, Victoria; she died in 1887. He left two sons and a daughter.

[Sydney Mail, 17 July 1897; Heaton's Australian Dictionary of Dates; Mennell's Dict. of Australasian Biogr.; Parkes's Fifty Years in the making of Australian History, vol. ii.; New South Wales Blue-books; New South Wales Parliamentary Debates.]

JENYNS, LEONARD (1799–1893), writer and benefactor of Bath. [See Blomefield.]

JERRARD, GEORGE BIRCH (d. 1863), mathematician, was the son of Major-general Joseph Jerrard (d. 23 Nov. 1858). He studied at Trinity College, Dublin, and graduated B.A. in 1827. He is chiefly known for his work in connection with the theory of equations. Between 1832 and 1835 he published his 'Mathematical Researches' (Bristol, 8vo), in which he made important contributions towards the solution of the general quintic equation. In 1858 he published a further treatise on the subject, entitled 'An Essay on the Resolution of Equations' (London, 8vo). The theory of equations has since undergone great development, Arthur Cayley [q. v. Suppl.] and Sir James Cockle [q. v. Suppl.] being among those who have devoted attention to it.

Jerrard died on 23 Nov. 1863 at Long Stratton rectory in Norfolk, the residence of his brother, Frederick William Hill Jerrard (d. 18 Feb. 1884).

[Boase's Modern English Biogr.; Gent. Mag 1859 i. 102, 1864 i. 130; Encyclopædia Britannica, 9th edit. viii. 509.]

JERVOIS, Sir WILLIAM FRANCIS DRUMMOND (1821–1897), lieutenant-general, colonel-commandant royal engineers, son of General William Jervois, K.H., colonel of the 76th foot, and his wife Elizabeth, daughter of William Maitland, was born at Cowes, Isle of Wight, on 10 Sept. 1821. Educated at Dr. Burney's academy at Gosport and Mr. Barry's school at Woolwich, he entered the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich in February 1837, and obtained a commission as second lieutenant in the royal engineers on 19 March 1839. His further commissions were dated: lieutenant 8 Oct. 1841, captain 13 Dec. 1847, brevet major 29 Sept. 1854, brevet lieutenant-colonel 13 Feb. 1861, lieutenant-colonel 1 April 1862, brevet colonel 1 April 1867, colonel 27 Jan. 1872, major-general 1 Oct. 1877, lieutenant-general 7 April 1882, colonel-commandant of royal engineers 28 June 1893.

After the usual course of professional instruction at Chatham, where his survey sheets were framed as a pattern for the survey school, and after a few months' duty at Woolwich, Jervois embarked on 26 March 1841 for the Cape of Good Hope. He was employed on the eastern frontier in the construction of defensive posts on the Fish river to keep the Kaffirs in check. Towards the end of 1842 he was appointed brigade major to a force of all arms, sent to Colesberg on the Orange river, under Colonel Hare, the lieutenant-governor, to control the Boers. He was afterwards employed in building a bridge over the Fish river at Fort Brown, and in making the main road to Fort Beaufort. In 1845 he was appointed adjutant of the royal sappers and miners. He accompanied Colonel Piper, the commanding royal engineer, to Natal, and, on his return overland via Colesberg to Cape Town, made a rough survey of the little-known country through which he passed.

At the beginning of 1847 he accompanied General Sir George Berkeley, commanding the troops, to Kaffirland, where he made a sketch survey of British Kaffraria, extending from the Keiskama river to the Kei river, and from Fort Hare to the sea, some two thousand square miles, of which eleven hundred were surveyed during the war under the protection of military escorts. This survey proved of considerable value in subsequent wars, and thirty years later was the only map with any pretension to accuracy which Lord Chelmsford could find for his guidance in that part of the country. On hs way home in the Devastation, in 1848, Jervois connected the sketch sheets of the