Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 29.djvu/321

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traits of Liverpool by Hoppner; one, in the possession of Mr. C. G. S. Foljambe, M.P., has been engraved. There are also three portraits by Sir T. Lawrence, one of which is at Windsor; all three have been engraved.

History has hardly done justice to Liverpool's solid though not shining talents. That he was for nearly fifteen years head of an administration which concluded successfully the French war, carried the country through the perils which followed upon the peace of 1815, and brought it to the eve of the great reform period, and that during all that time his ministry, even when it consisted of two hostile and irreconcilable parties, was rarely in danger from its opponents, is proof conclusive that, although neither an impressive orator nor a great statesman, he had consummate tact, an infallible instinct for the practical solution of difficulties, unfailing temper, and eminent talents as a man of business and a public official.

He was twice married: first, on 25 March 1795, to Lady Theodosia Louisa, third daughter of Frederick Augustus Hervey, fourth earl of Bristol [q. v.], who was bishop of Derry; and secondly, in 1822, to Miss Chester, daughter of Charles Chester and niece of the first Lord Bagot. He had no issue, and his half-brother, Charles Cecil Cope Jenkinson [q. v.], succeeded him in the earldom. The best testimony to the irreproachable character of his private life is that no details of it are preserved.

[The definitive Life of the second Earl of Liverpool is that by C. D. Yonge, who had all the earl's papers before him. His life from 1812 is inseparable from the general public history of the time. Kebbel's History of Toryism contains an excellent appreciation of his political importance. Napier's Peninsular War criticises adversely his conduct of the war in Spain. See, too, Brougham's Statesmen of the Time of George III; Lord Colchester's Diary; Rose's Diaries; Lord Castlereagh's Correspondence; the Marquis of Buckingham's Memoirs; Spencer Walpole's History of England; Grey's Life of Earl Grey; Twiss's Life of Lord Eldon; Stapleton's Life of Canning.]

J. A. H.

JENKS, BENJAMIN (1646–1724), divine, eldest son of John Jenks, vicar of Eaton-under-Haywood, Shropshire, was baptised there on 29 May 1646. His family had long been resident at Wolverton, and he was related to Dr. John Williams, bishop of Chichester, to whom he dedicated his book of ‘Prayers.’ After taking holy orders, he officiated for some time as curate of Harley, in his native county. Francis, viscount Newport, afterwards earl of Bradford, the patron of the living, liked his sermons, and afterwards presented him to the rectory both of Harley and of the neighbouring parish of Kenley, besides making him his chaplain. He died at Harley on 10 May 1724, and was buried in the chancel of that church, where there is a monument to his memory. He married (1) Miss Baugh, by whom he had a son and a daughter; and (2) the widow of a clergyman, whose maiden name was Hunt, by whom he had no issue. His works are: 1. ‘Prayers and Offices of Devotion for Families, and for particular Persons upon most Occasions,’ London, 1697, 8vo; 2 vols., London, 1706; 8th edit., London, 1729, 12mo; 20th edit., London, 1780; 25th edit., Albany, U.S., 1801; 26th edit., altered and improved by the Rev. Charles Simeon, London, 1808, 8vo; 30th edit., London, 1832; another edit., London, 1860, 8vo. The 13th edition of Simeon's improved version appeared at London, 1866, 8vo. 2. ‘Submission to the Righteousness of God, or the necessity of trusting to a better Righteousness than our own, Opened and Defended in a … Discourse upon Rom. x. 3,’ London, 1700, 8vo; 5th edit., London, 1764; another edit., Glasgow, 1775. 3. ‘Meditations, with Short Prayers annexed, in Ten Decads, upon Various Subjects,’ London, 1701, 12mo. 4. ‘A Second Century of Meditations, with Short Prayers annexed, on Various Subjects. To which is added a Postscript by way of Meditation on the spoils and ruins made by the … Tempest, Nov. 27, 1703,’ London, 1704, 12mo. 5. ‘Contemplation full of Admiration. Serious Thoughts of the Wonderful God,’ London, 1705, 12mo. 6. ‘The Glorious Victory of Chastity in Joseph's Hard Conflict, and his Happy Escape,’ London, 1707, 24mo. 7. ‘Ouranography, or Heaven opened. The substance of Cardinal Bellarmine's … Eternal Felicity of the Saints … made English,’ London, 1710, 12mo. 8. ‘The Poor Man's Ready Companion. A lesser Prayer Book for Families … with a new Preface upon the Creed, Lord's Prayer, and Ten Commandments,’ London, 1713, 8vo. 9. ‘The Liberty of Prayer asserted, and guarded from Licentiousness,’ 3rd edit., London, 1716, 8vo. 10. ‘Meditations upon Various and Important Subjects, and Short Prayers annexed. With a Preface by the Rev. Mr. Hervey,’ 2 vols., London, 1756, 8vo; reprinted in 1757 and 1793.

[Orton and Stenhouse's Letters to the Rev. Thomas Stedman, i. 16; Gent. Mag. December 1852, pp. 605–7; Lowndes's Bibl. Man. (Bohn), p. 1196.]

T. C.

JENKS, SYLVESTER, D.D. (1656?–1714), catholic divine, born in Shropshire in or about 1656, was educated in the English College at Douay, where he took the mis-