Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 29.djvu/91

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Jack
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Jack


quities of the City of Exeter,’ 8vo, London, 1677 (with different title-page, 1681). Other editions, ‘improved and continued’ by his son, Samuel Izacke, were issued in 1723, 1724, 1731, 1734, and 1741. The book is a careless compilation. 2. ‘An Alphabetical Register of divers Persons, who by their last Wills, Grants, … and other Deeds, &c., have given Tenements, Rents, Annuities, and Monies towards the Relief of the Poor of the County of Devon and City and County of Exon,’ 8vo, London, 1736, printed from the original manuscript by Samuel Izacke, the author's grandson. It was reprinted with another title, ‘Rights and Priviledges of the Freemen of Exeter,’ &c., 8vo, London, 1751 and 1757; and enlarged editions were published at Exeter, 1785, 4to, and 1820, 8vo.

[Gough's British Topography, i. 305; Davidson's Bibl. Devon.]

G. G.

JACK, ALEXANDER (1805–1857), brigadier, a victim of the Cawnpore massacre, was grandson of William Jack, minister of Northmavine, Shetland. His father, the Rev. William Jack (d. 9 Feb. 1854) (M.D. Edinburgh), was sub-principal of University and King's colleges, Aberdeen, 1800–15, and principal 1815–54. Principal Jack married in 1794 Grace, daughter of Andrew Bolt of Lerwick, Shetland, by whom he had six children. Alexander, one of four sons, was born on 19 Oct. 1805, was a student in mathematics and philosophy at King's College, Aberdeen, in 1820–2, and is remembered by a surviving class-fellow as a tall, handsome, soldierly young man. He obtained a Bengal cadetship in 1823, was appointed ensign in the (late) 30th Bengal native infantry 23 May 1824, and became lieutenant in the regiment 30 Aug. 1825, captain 2 Dec. 1832, and major and brevet-lieutenant-colonel 19 June 1846. He was present with his battalion at the battle of Aliwal (medal), and acted as brigadier of the force sent against the town and fort of Kangra in the Punjab, when he received great credit for his extraordinary exertions in bringing up his 18-pounder guns, which he had been recommended to leave behind. The march was said ‘to reflect everlasting credit on the Bengal artillery’ (Buckle, Hist. of the Bengal Art. p. 520). Some views of the place taken by Jack were published under the title ‘Six Sketches of Kot-Kangra, drawn on the spot’ (London, 1847, fol.). Jack was in command of his battalion in the second Sikh war, including the battles of Chillianwalla and Goojerat (medal and clasps and C.B.) He was promoted to lieutenant-colonel in the (late) 34th Bengal native infantry 18 Dec. 1851. He became colonel 20 June 1854, and on 18 July 1856 was appointed brigadier at Cawnpore, the headquarters of Sir Hugh Wheeler's division of the Bengal army. On 7 June 1857 the mutiny broke out at Cawnpore. Wheeler maintained his position in an entrenched camp till the 27th, when an attempted evacuation was made in accordance with an arrangement entered into with Nana Sahib. After the troops had embarked in boats for Allahabad, the mutineers treacherously shot down Jack and all the Englishmen except four. During the previous defence of the lines a brother, Andrew William Thomas Jack, who was on a visit from Australia, had his leg shattered, and succumbed under amputation.

[Information supplied through the courtesy of the registrar of Aberdeen University; East Indian Registers and Army Lists; Buckle's Hist. of the Bengal Art. ed. Kaye, London, 1852; Kaye's Hist. of the Indian Mutiny, ed. (1888–9) Malleson, ii. 217–68; Mowbray Thomson's Story of Cawnpore, London, 1859; Gent. Mag. 3rd ser. iii. 565.]

H. M. C.

JACK, GILBERT, M.D. (1578?–1628), metaphysician and medical writer, born in Aberdeen about 1578, was son of Andrew Jack, merchant. After attending Aberdeen grammar school, he became a student in Marischal College. By the advice of Robert Howie, the principal, Jack proceeded to the continent, and studied first at the college of Helmstädt, and then at Herborn, where he graduated. Attracted by the high reputation of the newly founded university of Leyden, he enrolled himself a student on 25 May 1603 (Leyden Students, Index Soc., p. 53), and after acting as a private lecturer, he became in 1604 professor of philosophy. He at the same time diligently prosecuted his own studies, particularly in medicine, and proceeded M.D. in 1611. His inaugural dissertation, ‘De Epilepsia,’ was printed at Leyden during the same year. Jack was the first who taught metaphysics at Leyden, and his lectures gained him such celebrity that in 1621 he was offered the Whyte's professorship of moral philosophy at Oxford, then lately founded, but he declined it. He