JOBSON, FREDERICK JAMES, D.D. (1812–1881), Wesleyan minister, son of John Jobson, who died 19 April 1875, aged 88, was born at Northwich, Cheshire, on 6 July 1812, and served an apprenticeship to Edward J. Willson, architect, at Norwich. In 1834 he entered the Wesleyan methodist ministry. His evangelistic fervour at once secured him a reputation as a preacher. His first appointment was at Patrington, Yorkshire, and in 1835 he went to Manchester. In 1837 he became assistant at the City Road Chapel, London, where during his career he served three terms, each of three years. His knowledge of architecture proved useful to him in his relations with the normal training college at Westminster, the new Kingswood School, Bath, and the Theological Institution, Richmond, in all of which he took an active interest. In May 1856, in conjunction with Dr. John Hannah, he was sent as one of the representatives of the British conference to the Methodist Episcopal conference at Indianapolis. He attended the Australian conference at Sydney in January 1861, and on his return to England in 1862 published an account of his journey under the title of ‘Australia, with Notes by the way of Egypt, Ceylon, Bombay, and the Holy Land.’ In 1864 he was chosen book steward of the Wesleyan Methodist organisation, and under his management the publishing department was greatly developed, and he superintended the ‘Methodist Magazine’ for twelve years. He was elected president of the Wesleyan Methodist conference on 5 Aug. 1869. He died at 21 Highbury Place, Holloway Road, London, on 4 Jan. 1881, and was buried in Highgate cemetery on 8 Jan. He married, in 1834, Elizabeth Caborn of Bemersley, Staffordshire. Besides many devotional works, he was author of:
- ‘Chapel and School Architecture,’ 1850.
- ‘America and American Methodism,’ 1857.
- ‘Perfect Love for Christian Believers,’ 1864.
- ‘Serious Truths for Consideration,’ 1864.
- ‘Visible Union with the Church of Christ,’ 1864.
[Gregory's Life of Fredk. J. Jobson, 1884, with portrait; Pope's Death and Life in Christ, a funeral sermon, 1881; Evans's Lancashire Authors, 1850, pp. 136–40; Wesleyan Methodist Mag. September 1844, with portrait, June 1871, with portrait, and 1881, civ. 150–7, 176–85, 285–94, 397; Times, 5 Jan. 1881, p. 9; Illustr. London News, 14 Aug. 1869, p. 165, with portrait.]
JOBSON, RICHARD (fl. 1620–1623), traveller, was appointed in 1620 to command an expedition to explore the river Gambia, in the interests of ‘the gentlemen adventurers for the countries of Guinea and Benin.’ Former attempts in 1618 and 1619 had failed, in consequence of the hostility of the Portuguese and the unhealthiness of the climate. Jobson, sailing from England on 25 Oct. 1620, and arriving at the mouth of the Gambia on 17 Nov., succeeded in ascending the river as high as Tenda, though he did not meet with the gold which was the principal object in view. After his return to England in 1621, he published ‘The Golden Trade, or a Discovery of the River Gambra and the Golden Trade of the Æthiopians; also the Commerce with a great blacke merchant called Buckor Sano, and his report of the houses covered with gold, and other strange observations for the good of our owne countrey, set downe as they were collected in travelling part of the yeares 1620 and 1621; by Richard Jobson, gentleman,’ small 4to, 1623. It does not appear that he was a seaman (p. 39), or had any previous experience of travel beyond Ireland, where he had formed a very unflattering estimate of the Irish (p. 37). He may have been a merchant; he writes as a man of education, though without any literary ability, and of intelligence, though he admits a partial belief in the black man's devil. He gives interesting accounts of the natives, till then unvisited by Europeans, though they had already an overland trade with the Moors of the North coast.
[An Account of the Voyage and Expedition extracted from Jobson's Journal, as well as an abridgment of Jobson's Narrative, was published in Purchas his Pilgrimes, pt. ii. pp. 921, 1567. There is no other original authority; but from these the story has been repeated in Astley's Collection of Voyages and Travels, 1745, ii. 174.]
JOCELIN [See also Joscelyn and Joscelyn.]
JOCELIN (d. 1199), bishop of Glasgow, was a monk of Melrose. After filling the office of prior he was, on 22 April 1170, chosen abbot. On 23 May 1174 he was elected bishop of Glasgow at Perth, and was consecrated at Clairvaux on 1 June 1175 by Eskilus, archbishop of Lunden in Holstein. In January 1176 he attended the council of
