Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 29.djvu/122

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Jacob
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Jacob

pp. 18–19). Jacob was specially thanked in presidency general orders 8 Jan. 1858 for ‘the promptitude and decision shown by you on the occasion of the recent insurrection at Kolapore,’ and ‘for the manner in which you upheld the honour of this army, proving to all around you what a British officer can effect by gallantry and prudence in the face of the greatest difficulties’ (ib. p. 264). Jacob's powers, at first limited to Kolapore, Sawunt Warree, and Rutnagerry, were in May 1858 extended to the whole South Mahratta country, of which he was appointed special commissioner, the command of the troops with the rank of brigadier-general being subsequently added. After dealing successfully with various local outbreaks (ib. pp. 210–32), Jacob was sent to Goa to confer with the Portuguese authorities respecting the Sawunt rebels on the frontier (ib. pp. 232–6). This service successfully accomplished, he resigned his command. He remained nominally political agent in Cutch up to the date of his leaving India in 1859. James Outram appears to have desired that Jacob should succeed him as member of the council at Calcutta, but he retired with the rank of major-general from 31 Dec. 1861. He was made C.B. in 1859, and K.C.S.I. in 1869.

Jacob has been likened in character to his cousin, General John Jacob [q. v.] He had the same fearlessness, the same hatred of redtape and jobbery, and the same genius for understanding and conciliating Asiatics. His outspoken advocacy of native rights not unfrequently gave offence to the officials with whom he came in contact. Throughout his life he was a zealous student of the literature of India, and whenever opportunity offered did his best to promote research in the history and antiquities of the land. He was one of the earliest copiers of the Asoka inscriptions (250 B.C.) at Girnar, Kattywar; and in Cunningham's ‘Corpus Inscriptionum,’ Calcutta, 1877, are many inscriptions transcribed by him in Western India. A list of papers bearing on the history, archæology, topography, geology, and metallurgy of Western India, contributed by Jacob at different times to various publications, is given in the ‘Journal of the Asiatic Society,’ London, new ser. xiii. pp. vii. and viii. Some are included in the ‘Royal Society's Catalogue of Scientific Papers;’ but neither list appears complete. In his prime he was an ardent sportsman. Seven lions fell to his rifle in one day in Kattywar, and his prowess as a shikarry is perpetuated in native verse. The last twenty years of Jacob's life were spent at home under much suffering—a constant struggle with asthma, bronchitis, and growing blindness. His mental vigour remained unimpaired. With the assistance of his niece and adopted daughter, Miss Gertrude Le Grand Jacob, he wrote his ‘Western India before and during the Mutiny,’ which was published in 1871, and was highly commended by the historian Kaye; and shortly before his death he paid 20l. for a translation from the Dutch of some papers of interest on the island of Bali (east of Java), subsequently printed in the ‘Journal of the Asiatic Society,’ London, viii. 115, ix. 59, x. 49. Jacob died in London on 27 Jan. 1881, and was buried in Brookwood cemetery, near Woking, Surrey.

[East India Registers and Army Lists; Kaye's Hist. Indian Mutiny, ed. Malleson, cabinet edition, vol. v. book xiii. chap. i. book xiv. chap. iv.; T. R. E. Holmes's Indian Mutiny, 3rd ed. pp. 446–457; Report on Administration of Public Affairs in Bombay in 1857–8; Goldsmid's James Outram, a biography, London, 1888, i. 341–80; Overland Mail, 6 May 1881; Journal of the Asiatic Soc. London, May 1881, new ser. vol. xiii.; Jacob's Western India.]

H. M. C.

JACOB, GILES (1686–1744), compiler, born in 1686 at Romsey, Hampshire, was the son of a maltster. In his ‘Poetical Register’ (i. 318) he states that he was bred to the law under a ‘very eminent attorney,’ and that he was afterwards steward and secretary to the Hon. William Blathwait. He died on 8 May 1744.

Jacob was a most diligent compiler. He is chiefly remembered by the

  1. ‘Poetical Register, or Lives and Characters of the English Dramatic Poets,’ 2 vols., 1719–20, 8vo (some copies are dated 1723); and
  2. ‘A New Law Dictionary,’ 1729, fol., which reached a tenth edition in 1782, and was reissued, with additions by T. Tomlins, in 1797, 1809, and 1835.

Among other law-books compiled by Jacob are:

  1. ‘The Accomplished Conveyancer,’ 3 vols., 1714.
  2. ‘Lex Mercatoria,’ 1718.
  3. ‘Lex Constitutionis,’ 1719.
  4. ‘The Laws of Appeal and Murder,’ 1719.
  5. ‘The Laws of Taxation,’ 1720.
  6. ‘The Common Law common-placed,’ 1726.
  7. ‘The Compleat Chancery-Practiser,’ 1730.
  8. ‘City Liberties,’ 1732, &c.

Other compilations are:

  1. ‘The Compleat Courtkeeper, or Land-Steward's Assistant,’ 1713; 8th edit. 1819.
  2. ‘The Country Gentleman's Vade Mecum, containing an Account of the best Methods to improve Lands,’ 1717.
  3. ‘The Compleat Sportsman,’ in three parts, 1718.
  4. ‘The Land Purchaser's Companion,’ 1720.

In 1714 Jacob published an indifferent farce (never acted), ‘Love in a Wood, or the Country Squire’ (one act, prose); and he mentions in the ‘Poetical Register’ that