Chapter 19

Bibliography.—Of the early biographies, that by J. H. Eaton (Philadelphia, 1824) is a history of Jackson’s early military exploits, written for political purposes. Amos Kendall’sLife(New York, 1843) is incomplete, extending only to 1814. James Parton’s elaborate work (3 vols., New York, 1860) is still useful. Parton prepared a shorter biography for the “Great Commanders Series” (New York, 1893), which emphasizes Jackson’s military career. W. G. Sumner’sAndrew Jacksonin the “American Statesmen Series” (Boston, 1882; revised, 1899) combines the leading facts of Jackson’s life with a history of his times. W. G. Brown wrote an appreciative sketch (Boston, 1900) for the “Riverside Biographical Series.” Of more recent works the most elaborate are theHistory of Andrew Jackson, by A. C. Buell (New York, 1904), marred by numerous errors, and theLife and Times of Andrew Jackson, by A. S. Colyar (Nashville, 1904). Charles H. Peck’sThe Jacksonian Epoch(New York, 1899) is an account of national politics from 1815 to 1840, in which the antagonism of Jackson and Clay is emphasized.

(W. G. S.)

1The charge was freely made then and afterwards (though, it is now believed, without justification) that Clay had supported Adams and by influencing his followers in the house had been instrumental in securing his election, as the result of a bargain by which Adams had agreed to pay him for his support by appointing him secretary of state.

JACKSON, CYRIL(1746-1819), dean of Christ Church, Oxford, was born in Yorkshire, and educated at Westminsterand Oxford. In 1771 he was chosen to be sub-preceptor to the two eldest sons of George III., but in 1776 he was dismissed, probably through some household intrigues. He then took orders, and was appointed in 1779 to the preachership at Lincoln’s Inn and to a canonry at Christ Church, Oxford. In 1783 he was elected dean of Christ Church. His devotion to the college led him to decline the bishopric of Oxford in 1799 and the primacy of Ireland in 1800. He took a leading part in framing the statute which, in 1802, launched the system of public examinations at Oxford, but otherwise he was not prominent in university affairs. On his resignation in 1809 he settled at Felpham, in Sussex, where he remained till his death.

JACKSON, FREDERICK GEORGE(1860- ), British Arctic explorer, was educated at Denstone College and Edinburgh University. His first voyage in Arctic waters was on a whaling-cruise in 1886-1887, and in 1893 he made a sledge-journey of 3000 miles across the frozentundraof Siberia lying between the Ob and the Pechora. His narrative of this journey was published under the title ofThe Great Frozen Land(1895). On his return, he was given the command of the Jackson-Harmsworth Arcticexpedition(1894-1897), which had for its objective the general exploration of Franz Josef Land. In recognition of his services he received a knighthood of the first class of the Danish Royal Order of St Olaf in 1898, and was awarded the gold medal of the Paris Geographical Society in 1899. His account of the expedition was published under the title ofA Thousand Days in the Arctic(1899). He served in South Africa during the Boer War, and obtained the rank of captain. His travels also include a journey across the Australian deserts.

JACKSON, HELEN MARIA(1831-1885), American poet and novelist, who wrote under theinitialsof “H. H.” (Helen Hunt), was born in Amherst, Massachusetts, on the 18th of October 1831, the daughter of Nathan Welby Fiske (1798-1847), who was a professor in Amherst College. In October 1852 she married Lieutenant Edward Bissell Hunt (1822-1863), of the U.S. corps of engineers. In 1870 she published a little volume of meditativeVerses, which was praised by Emerson in the preface to hisParnassus(1874). In 1875 she married William S. Jackson, a banker, of Colorado Springs. She became a prolific writer of prose and verse, including juvenile tales, books of travel, household hints and novels, of which the best isRamona(1884), a defence of the Indian character. In 1883, as a special commissioner with Abbot Kinney (b. 1850), she investigated the condition and needs of the Mission Indians in California.A Century of Dishonor(1881) was an arraignment of the treatment of the Indians by the United States. She died on the 12th of August 1885 in San Francisco.

In addition to her publications referred to above,Mercy Philbrick’s Choice(1876),Hetty’s Strange History(1877),Zeph(1886), andSonnets and Lyrics(1886) may be mentioned.

JACKSON, MASON(c.1820-1903), British engraver, was born at Berwick-on-Tweed about 1820, and was trained as a wood engraver by his brother, John Jackson, the author of a history of this art. In the middle of the 19th century he made a considerable reputation by his engravings for the Art Union of London, and for Knight’sShakespeareand other standard books; and in 1860 he was appointed art editor of theIllustrated London News, a post which he held for thirty years. He wrote a history of the rise and progress of illustrated journalism. He died in December 1903.

JACKSON, THOMAS(1579-1640), president of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, and dean of Peterborough, was born at Witton-le-Wear, Durham, and educated at Oxford. He became a probationer fellow of Corpus in 1606, and was soon afterwards elected vice-president. In 1623 he was presented to the living of St Nicholas, Newcastle, and about 1625 to the living of Winston, Durham. Five years later he was appointed president of Corpus, and in 1632 the king presented him to the living of Witney, Oxfordshire. He was made a prebendary of Winchester in 1635, and was dean of Peterborough in 1635-1639. Although originally a Calvinist, he became in later life an Arminian.

His chief work was a series of commentaries on the Apostles’ Creed, the first complete edition being entitledThe Works of Thomas Jackson, D.D.(London, 1673). The commentaries were, however, originally published in 1613-1657, as twelve books with different titles, the first beingThe Eternal Truth of Scriptures(London, 1613).

JACKSON, THOMAS JONATHAN(1824-1863), known as “Stonewall Jackson,” American general, was born at Clarksburg, Virginia (now West Virginia), on the 21st of January 1824, and was descended from an Ulster family. At an early age he was left a penniless orphan, and his education was acquired in a small country school until he procured, mainly by his own energy, a nomination to the Military Academy. Lack of social graces and the deficiencies of his early education impeded him at first, but “in the end ‘Old Jack,’ as he was always called, with his desperate earnestness, his unflinching straightforwardness, and his high sense of honour, came to be regarded with something like affection.” Such qualities he displayed not less amongst the light-hearted cadets than afterwards at the head of troops in battle. After graduating he took part, as second lieutenant in the 1st U.S. Artillery, in the Mexican War. At Vera Cruz he won the rank of first lieutenant, and for gallant conduct at Contreras and Chapultepec respectively he was brevetted captain and major, a rank which he attained with less than one year’s service. During his stay in the city of Mexico his thoughts were seriously directed towards religion, and, eventually entering the Presbyterian communion, he ruled every subsequent action of his life by his faith. In 1851 he applied for and obtained a professorship at the Virginia military institute, Lexington; and here, except for a short visit to Europe, he remained for ten years, teaching natural science, the theory of gunnery and battalion drill. Though he was not a good teacher, his influence both on his pupils and on those few intimate friends for whom alone he relaxed the gravity of his manner was profound, and, little as he was known to the white inhabitants of Lexington, he was revered by the slaves, to whom he showed uniform kindness, and for whose moral instruction he worked unceasingly. As to the great question at issue in 1861, Major Jackson’s ruling motive was devotion to his state, and when Virginia seceded, on the 17th of April, and the Lexington cadets were ordered to Richmond, Jackson went thither in command of the corps. His intimate friend, Governor Letcher, appreciating his gifts, sent him as a colonel of infantry to Harper’s Ferry, where the first collision with the Union forces was hourly expected. In June he received the command of a brigade, and in July promotion to the rank of brigadier-general. He had well employed the short time at his disposal for training his men, and on the first field of Bull Run they won for themselves and their brigadier, by their rigid steadiness at the critical moment of the battle, the historic name of “Stonewall.”

After the battle of Bull Run Jackson spent some time in the further training of his brigade which, to his infinite regret, he was compelled to leave behind him when, in October, he was assigned as a major-general to command in the Shenandoah Valley. His army had to be formed out of local troops, and few modern weapons were available, but the Valley regiments retained the impress of Jackson’s training till the days of Cedar Creek. Discipline was not acquired at once, however, and the first ventures of the force were not very successful. At Kernstown, indeed, Jackson was tactically defeated by the Federals under Shields (March 23, 1862). But the Stonewall brigade had been sent to its old leader in November, and by the time that the famous Valley Campaign (seeShenandoah Valley Campaigns) began, the forces under Jackson’s command had acquired cohesion and power of manœuvre. On the 8th of May 1862 was fought the combat of McDowell, won by Jackson against the leading troops of Frémont’s command from West Virginia. Three weeks later the forces under Banks were being driven over the Potomac at Harper’s Ferry, and Jackson was master of the Valley. Every other plan of campaign in Virginia was at once subordinated to the scheme of “trapping Jackson.” But the Confederates, marching swiftly up the Valley, slipped between the converging columns of Frémont from the west andMcDowell from the east, and concluded a most daring campaign by the victorious actions of Cross Keys and Port Republic (8th and 9th of June). While the forces of the North were still scattered, Jackson secretly left the Valley to take a decisive part in Lee’s campaign before Richmond. In the “Seven Days” Jackson was frequently at fault, but his driving energy bore no small part in securing the defeat of McClellan’s advance on Richmond. Here he passed for the first time under the direct orders of Robert Lee, and the rest of his career was spent in command of the II. corps of the Army of Northern Virginia. As Lee’s chief and most trusted subordinate he was throughout charged with the execution of the more delicate and difficult operations of his commander’s hazardous strategy. After his victory over Banks at Cedar Mountain, near Culpeper, Virginia, Jackson led the daring march round the flank of General Pope’s army, which against all theoretical rules ended in the great victory of second Bull Run. In the Maryland campaign Lieut.-General Jackson was again detached from the main army. Eleven thousand Federals, surrounded in Harper’s Ferry, were forced to surrender, and Jackson rejoined Lee just in time to oppose McClellan’s advance. At the Antietam his corps bore the brunt of the battle, which was one of the most stubborn of modern warfare. At Fredericksburg his wing of Lee’s line of battle was heavily engaged, and his last battle, before Chancellorsville, in the thickets of the Wilderness, was his greatest triumph. By one of his swift and secret flank marches he placed his corps on the flank of the enemy, and on the 2nd of May flung them against the Federal XI. corps, which was utterly routed. At the close of a day of victory he was reconnoitring the hostile positions when suddenly the Confederate outposts opened fire upon his staff, whom they mistook in the dark and tangled forest for Federal cavalry. Jackson fell wounded, and on the 10th of May he died at Guinea’s station. He was buried, according to his own wish, at Lexington, where a statue and a memorial hall commemorate his connexion with the place; and on the spot where he was mortally wounded stands a plain granite pillar. The first contribution towards the bronze statue at Richmond was made by the negro Baptist congregation for which Jackson had laboured so earnestly in his Lexington years. He was twice married, first to Eleanor (d. 1854), daughter of George Junkin, president of Washington College, Virginia, and secondly in 1857 to Mary Anna Morrison, daughter of a North Carolina clergyman.

That Jackson’s death, at a critical moment of the fortunes of the Confederacy, was an irreparable loss was disputed by no one. Lee said that he had lost his right arm, and, good soldiers as were the other generals, not one amongst them was comparable to Jackson, whose name was dreaded in the North like that of Lee himself. His military character was the enlargement of his personal character—“desperate earnestness, unflinching straightforwardness,” and absolute, almost fatalist, trust in the guidance of providence. At the head of his troops, who idolized him, he was a Cromwell, adding to the zeal of a fanatic and the energy of the born leader the special military skill and trained soldierly spirit which the English commander had to gain by experience. His Christianity was conspicuous, even amongst deeply religious men like Lee and Stuart, and penetrated every part of his character and conduct.

See lives by R. L. Dabney (New York, 1883), J. E. Cooke (New York, 1866), M. A. Jackson (General Jackson’s widow) (New York, 1892); and especially G. F. R. Henderson,Stonewall Jackson(London, 1898), and H. A. White,Stonewall Jackson(Philadelphia, 1909).

JACKSON, WILLIAM(1730-1803), English musician, was born at Exeter on the 29th of May 1730. His father, a grocer, bestowed a liberal education upon him, but, on account of the lad’s strong predilection for music, was induced to place him under the care of John Silvester, the organist of Exeter Cathedral, with whom he remained about two years. In 1748 he went to London, and studied under John Travers, organist of the king’s chapel. Returning to Exeter, he settled there as a teacher and composer, and in 1777 was appointed subchanter, organist, lay-vicar and master of the choristers of the cathedral. In 1755 he published his first work,Twelve Songs, which became at once highly popular. His next publication,Six Sonatas for the Harpsichord, was a failure. His third work,Six Elegies for three voices, preceded by an Invocation, with an Accompaniment, placed him among the first composers of his day. His fourth work was another set ofTwelve Songs, now very scarce; and his fifth work was again a set ofTwelve Songs, all of which are now forgotten. He next publishedTwelve Hymns, with some good remarks upon that style of composition, although his precepts were better than his practice. A set ofTwelve Songsfollowed, containing some good compositions. Next came anOde to Fancy, the words by Dr Warton.Twelve Canzonets for two voicesformed his ninth work; and one of them—“Time has not thinned my Flowing Hair”—long held a place at public and private concerts. His tenth work wasEight Sonatas for the Harpsichord, some of which were novel and pleasing. He composed three dramatic pieces,—Lycidas(1767),The Lord of the Manor, to General Burgoyne’s words (1780), andThe Metamorphoses, a comic opera produced at Drury Lane in 1783, which did not succeed. In the second of these dramatic works, two airs—“Encompassed in an Angel’s Form” and “When first this Humble Roof I knew”—were great favourites. His church music was published after his death by James Paddon (1820); most of it is poor, but “Jackson in F” was for many years popular. In 1782 he publishedThirty Letters on Various Subjects, in which he severely attacked canons, and described William Bird’sNon nobis Domineas containing passages not to be endured. But his anger and contempt were most strongly expressed against catches of all kinds, which he denounced as barbarous. In 1791 he put forth a pamphlet,Observations on the Present State of Music in London, in which he found fault with everything and everybody. He published in 1798The Four Ages, together with Essays on Various Subjects,—a work which gives a favourable idea of his character and of his literary acquirements. Jackson also cultivated a taste for landscape painting, and imitated, not unsuccessfully, the style of his friend Gainsborough. He died on the 5th of July 1803.

JACKSON,a city and the county-seat of Jackson county, Michigan, U.S.A., on both sides of the Grand River, 76 m. W. of Detroit. Pop. (1890), 20,798; (1900), 25,180, of whom 3843 were foreign-born (1004 German, 941 English Canadian); (1910 census) 31,433. It is served by the Michigan Central, the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern, the Grand Trunk and the Cincinnati Northern railways, and by inter-urban electric lines. It is the seat of the state prison (established 1839). Coal is mined in the vicinity; the city has a large trade with the surrounding agricultural district (whose distinctive product is beans); the Michigan Central railway has car and machine shops here; and the city has many manufacturing establishments. The total factory product in 1904 was valued at $8,348,125, an increase of 24.4% over that of 1900. The municipality owns and operates its water-works. The place was formerly a favourite camping ground of the Indians, and was settled by whites in 1829. In 1830 it was laid out as a town, selected for the county-seat, and named Jacksonburg in honour of Andrew Jackson; the present name was adopted in 1838. Jackson was incorporated as a village in 1843, and in 1857 was chartered as a city. It was at a convention held at Jackson on the 6th of July 1854 that the Republican party was first organized and so named by a representative state body.

JACKSON,a city and the county-seat of Hinds county, Mississippi, U.S.A., and the capital of the state, on the W. bank of the Pearl River, about 40 m. E. of Vicksburg and 185 m. N. of New Orleans, Louisiana. Pop. (1890), 5920; (1900), 7816, of whom 4447 were negroes. According to the Federal census taken in 1910 the population had increased to 21,262. Jackson is served by the Illinois Central, the Alabama & Vicksburg, the Gulf & Ship Island, New Orleans Great Northern, and the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley railways, and during the winter by small freight and passenger steamboats on the Pearl River. In Jackson is the state library, with more than 80,000 volumes. The new state capitol was finished in 1903. The old state capitol, dating from 1839, is of considerable interest; in it were held the secessionconvention (1861), the “Black and Tan Convention” (1868), and the constitutional convention of 1890, and in it Jefferson Davis made his last speech (1884). Jackson is the seat of Millsaps College, chartered in 1890 and opened in 1892 (under the control of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South), and having, in 1907-1908, 12 instructors and 297 students; of Belhaven College (non-sectarian, 1894), for girls; and of Jackson College (founded in 1877 at Natchez by the American Baptist Home Mission Society; in 1883 removed to Jackson), for negroes, which had 356 students in 1907-1908. The city is a market for cotton and farm products, and has a number of manufactories. In 1821 the site was designated as the seat of the state government, and early in the following year the town, named in honour of Andrew Jackson, was laid out. The legislature first met here in December 1822. It was not until 1840 that it was chartered as a city. During the Civil War Jackson was in the theatre of active campaigning. On the 14th of May 1863 Johnston who then held the city, was attacked on both sides by Sherman and McPherson with two corps of Grant’s army, which, after a sharp engagement, drove the Confederates from the town. After the fall of Vicksburg Johnston concentrated his forces at Jackson, which had been evacuated by the Federal troops, and prepared to make a stand behind the intrenchments. On the 9th of July Sherman began an investment of the place, and during the succeeding week a sharp bombardment was carried on. In the night of the 16th Johnston, taking advantage of a lull in the firing, withdrew suddenly from the city. Sherman’s army entered on the 17th and remained five days, burning a considerable part of the city and ravaging the surrounding country.

JACKSON,a city and the county-seat of Madison county, Tennessee, U.S.A., situated on the Forked Deer river, about 85 m. N.E. of Memphis. Pop. (1890), 10,039; (1900), 14,511, of whom 6108 were negroes; (1910 census), 15,779. It is served by the Mobile & Ohio, the Nashville, Chattanooga & St Louis and the Illinois Central railways. The state supreme court holds its sessions here for the western district of Tennessee. The city is the seat of Union University (co-educational), chartered in 1875 as Southwestern Baptist University, and conducted under that name at Jackson until 1907, when the present name was adopted. In 1907-1908 the university had 17 instructors and 280 students. At Jackson, also, are St Mary’s Academy (Roman Catholic); the Memphis Conference Female Institute (Methodist Episcopal, South, 1843), and Lane College (for negroes), under the control of the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church. Jackson is an important cotton market, and is a shipping point for the farm products and fruits of the surrounding country. It has also numerous manufactures and railway shops. The total value of the factory product in 1905 was $2,317,715. The municipality owns and operates the electric-lighting plant and the water-works. There is in the city an electro-chalybeate well with therapeutic properties. Jackson was settled about 1820, incorporated as a town in 1823, chartered as a city in 1854, and in 1907 received a new charter by which the sale of intoxicating liquors is forever prohibited. After General Grant’s advance into Tennessee in 1862 Jackson was fortified and became an important base of operations for the Federal army, Grant himself establishing his headquarters here in October.

JACKSONVILLE,a city and the county-seat of Duval county, Florida, U.S.A., in the N.E. part of the state, on the left bank of the St John’s River, 14 m. from the Atlantic Ocean as the crow flies and about 27 m. by water. Pop. (1890), 17,201; (1900), 28,429, of whom 16,236 were negroes and 1166 foreign-born; (1910 census) 57,699; the city being the largest in the state. It is served by the Southern, the Atlantic Coast Line, the Seaboard Air Line, the Georgia Southern & Florida and the Florida East Coast railways, and by several steamship lines.1It is the largest railway centre in the state, and is popularly known as the Gate City of Florida. In appearance Jacksonville is very attractive. It has many handsome buildings, and its residential streets are shaded with live-oaks, water oaks and bitter-orange trees. Jacksonville is the seat of two schools for negroes, the Florida Baptist Academy and Cookman Institute (1872; Methodist Episcopal). Many winter visitors are annually attracted by the excellent climate, the mean temperature for the winter months being about 55° F. Among the places of interest in the vicinity is the large Florida ostrich farm. There are numerous municipal and other parks. The city owns and operates its electric-lighting plant and its water-works system. The capital invested in manufacturing increased from $1,857,844 in 1900 to $4,837,281 in 1905, or 160.4%, and the value of the factory product rose from $1,798,607 in 1900 to $5,340,264 in 1905, or 196.9%. Jacksonville is the most important distributing centre in Florida, and is a port of entry. In 1909 its foreign imports were valued at $513,439; its foreign exports at $2,507,373.

The site of Jacksonville was called Cow Ford (a version of the Indian name, Wacca Pilatka), from the excellent ford of the St John’s River, over which went the King’s Road, a highway built by the English from St Augustine to the Georgia line. The first settlement was made in 1816. In 1822 a town was laid out here and was named in honour of General Andrew Jackson; in 1833 Jacksonville was incorporated. During the Civil War the city was thrice occupied by Federal troops. In 1888 there was an epidemic of yellow fever. On the 3rd of May 1901 a fire destroyed nearly 150 blocks of buildings, constituting nearly the whole of the business part of the city, the total loss being more than $15,000,000; but within two years new buildings greater in number than those destroyed were constructed, and up to December 1909 about 9000 building permits had been granted.

1Shoals in the river and sand rock at its mouth long prevented the development of an extensive water trade, but in 1896 the United States Government made an appropriation (supplemented in 1902, 1903 and 1904) for deepening, for a width of 300 ft., the channel connecting the city and the ocean to 24 ft., and on the bar 27 ft. (mean low water), and by 1909 the work had been completed; further dredging to a 24 ft. depth between the navigable channel and pierhead lines was authorized in 1907 and completed by 1910.

JACKSONVILLE,a city and the county-seat of Morgan county, Illinois, U.S.A., on Mauvaiseterre Creek, about 33 m. W. of Springfield. Pop. (1890), 12,935; (1900), 15,078, of whom 1497 were foreign-born; (1910 census), 15,326. It is served by the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy, the Chicago & Alton, the Chicago, Peoria & St Louis and the Wabash railways. It is the seat of several educational and philanthropic institutions. Illinois College (Presbyterian), founded in 1829 through the efforts of the Rev. John Millot Ellis (1793-1855), a missionary of the American Home Missionary Society and of the so-called Yale Band (seven Yale graduates devoted to higher education in the Middle West), is one of the oldest colleges in the Central States of the United States. The Jacksonville Female Academy (1830) and the Illinois Conservatory of Music (1871) were absorbed in 1903 by Illinois College, which then became co-educational. The college embraces, besides the collegiate department, Whipple Academy (a preparatory department), the Illinois Conservatory of Music and a School of Art, and in 1908-1909 had 21 instructors and 173 students. The Rev. Edward Beecher was the first president of the college (from 1830 to 1844), and among its prominent graduates have been Richard Yates, jun., the Rev. Thomas K. Beecher, Newton Bateman (1822-1897), superintendent of public instruction of Illinois from 1865 to 1875 and president of Knox College in 1875-1893, Bishop Theodore N. Morrison (b. 1850), Protestant Episcopal Bishop of Iowa after 1898, and William J. Bryan. The Illinois Woman’s College (Methodist Episcopal; chartered in 1847 as the Illinois Conference Female Academy) received its present name in 1899. The State Central Hospital for the Insane (opened in 1851), the State School for the deaf (established in 1839, opened in 1845, and the first charitable institution of the state) and the State School for the Blind (1849) are also in Jacksonville. Morgan Lake and Duncan Park are pleasure resorts. The total value of the factory product in 1905 was $1,981,582, an increase of 17.7% since 1900. Jacksonville was laid out in 1825 as the county-seat of Morgan county, was named probably in honour of Andrew Jackson, and was incorporated as a town in 1840, chartered as acity in 1867, and re-chartered in 1887. The majority of the early settlers came from the southern and border states, principally from Missouri and Kentucky; but subsequently there was a large immigration of New England and Eastern people, and these elements were stronger in the population of Jacksonville than in any other city of southern Illinois. The city was a station of the “Underground Railroad.”

JACOB(Hebrewyă’ăqōb, derived, according to Gen. xxv. 26, xxvii. 36, from a root meaning “to seize the heel” or “supplant”), son of Isaac and Rebekah in the Biblical narrative, and the father of the twelve tribes of Israel. Jacob and his twin brother Esau are the eponyms of the Israelites and Edomites. It was said of them that they would be two nations, and that the elder would serve the younger. Esau was born first, but lost his superiority by relinquishing his birthright, and Jacob by an act of deceit gained the paternal blessing intended for Esau (Gen. xxvii., J and E).1The popular view regarding Israel and Edom is expressed when the story makes Jacob a tent-dweller, and Esau a hunter, a man of the field. But whilst Esau married among the Canaanite “daughters of the land” (P in xxvi. 34; xxviii. 8 seq.), Jacob was sent, or (according to a variant tradition) fled from Beer-sheba, to take a wife from among his Syrian kinsfolk at Haran. On the way he received a revelation at Bethel (“house of God”) promising to him and to his descendants the whole extent of the land. The beautiful story of Jacob’s fortunes at Haran is among the best examples of Hebrew narrative: how he served seven years for Rachel, “and they seemed a few days for the love he had to her,” and was tricked by receiving the elder sister Leah, and how he served yet another seven years, and at last won his love. The patriarch’s increasing wealth caused him to incur the jealousy of his father-in-law, Laban, and he was forced to flee in secret with his family. They were overtaken at Gilead,2whose name (interpreted “heap of witness”) is explained by the covenant into which Jacob and Laban entered (xxxi. 47 sqq.). Passing Mahanaim (“camps”), where he saw the camps of God, Jacob sent to Esau with friendly overtures. At the Jabbok he wrestled with a divine being and prevailed (cf. Hos. xii. 3 sqq.), hence he called the place Peniel or Penuel (“the face of God”), and received the new name Israel. He then effected an unexpected reconciliation with Esau, passed to Succoth, where he built “booths” for his cattle (hence its name), and reached Shechem. Here he purchased ground from the clan Hamor (cf. Judg. ix. 28), and erected an altar to “God (El) the God of Israel.” This was the scene of the rape of Dinah and of the attack of Simeon and Levi which led to their ruin (xxxiv.; seeDan,Levites,Simeon). Thence Jacob went down south to Bethel, where he received a divine revelation (P), similar to that recorded by the earlier narrator (J), and was called Israel (xxxv. 9-13, 15). Here Deborah, Rebekah’s nurse, died, on the way to Ephrath. Rachel died in giving birth to Benjamin (q.v.), and further south Reuben was guilty of a grave offence (cf. xlix. 4). According to P, Jacob came to Hebron, and it was at this juncture that Jacob and Esau separated (a second time) and the latter removed to Mount Seir (xxxvi. 6 sqq.; cf. the parallel in xiii. 5 sqq.). Compelled by circumstances, described with much fullness and vividness, Jacob ultimately migrated to Egypt, receiving on the way the promise that God would make of him a great nation, which should come again out of Egypt (seeJoseph). After an interview with the Pharaoh (recorded only by P, xlvii. 5-11), he dwelt with his sons in the land of Goshen, and as his death drew near pronounced a formal benediction upon the two sons of Joseph (Manasseh and Ephraim), intentionally exalting the younger. Then he summoned all the “sons” to gather round his bed, and told them “what shall befall in the latter days” (xlix.). He died at the age of 147 (so P), and permission was given to carry his body to Canaan to be buried.

These narratives are full of much valuable evidence regarding marriage customs, pastoral life and duties, popular beliefs and traditions, and are evidently typical of what was currently retailed. Their historical value has been variously estimated. Thenameexisted long before the traditional date of Jacob, and the Egyptian phonetic equivalent of Jacob-el (cf. Isra-el, Ishma-el) appears to be the name of a district of central Palestine (or possibly east of Jordon) about 1500B.C.But the stories in their present form are very much later. The close relation between Jacob and Aramaeans confirms the view that some of the tribes of Israel were partly of Aramaean origin; his entrance into Palestine from beyond the Jordan is parallel to Joshua’s invasion at the head of the Israelites; and his previous journey from the south finds independent support in traditions of another distinct movement from this quarter. Consequently, it would appear that these extremely elevated and richly developed narratives of Jacob-Israel embody, among a number of other features, a recollection of two distinct traditions of migration which became fused among the Israelites. See furtherGenesis;Jews.

(S. A. C.)

1For the symbols J, E, P, as regards the sources of the book of Genesis, seeGenesis;Bible:Old Test. Criticism.2Since it is some 300 m. from Haran to Gilead it is probable that Laban’s home, only seven days’ journey distant, was nearer Gilead than the current tradition allows (Gen. xxxi. 22 sqq.).

1For the symbols J, E, P, as regards the sources of the book of Genesis, seeGenesis;Bible:Old Test. Criticism.

2Since it is some 300 m. from Haran to Gilead it is probable that Laban’s home, only seven days’ journey distant, was nearer Gilead than the current tradition allows (Gen. xxxi. 22 sqq.).

JACOB, JOHN(1812-1858), Indian soldier and administrator, was born on the 11th of January 1812, educated at Addiscombe, and entered the Bombay artillery in 1828. He served in the first Afghan War under Sir John Keane, and afterwards led his regiment with distinction at the battles of Meeanee, Shahdadpur, and Umarkot; but it is as commandant of the Sind Horse and political superintendent of Upper Sind that he was chiefly famous. He was the pacificator of the Sind frontier, reducing the tribes to quietude as much by his commanding personality as by his ubiquitous military measures. In 1853 he foretold the Indian Mutiny, saying: “There is more danger to our Indian empire from the state of the Bengal army, from the feeling which there exists between the native and the European, and thence, spreads throughout the length and breadth of the land, than from all other causes combined. Let government look to this; it is a serious and most important truth”; but he was only rebuked by Lord Dalhousie for his pains. He was a friend of Sir Charles Napier and Sir James Outram, and resembled them in his outspoken criticisms and independence of authority. He died at the early age of 46 of brain fever, brought on by excessive heat and overwork. The town of Jacobabad, which has the reputation of being the hottest place in India, is named after him.

See A. I. Shand,General John Jacob(1900).

JACOB BEN ASHER(1280-1340), codifier of Jewish law, was born in Germany and died in Toledo. A son of Asher ben Yeḥiel (q.v.), Jacob helped to re-introduce the older elaborate method of legal casuistry which had been overthrown by Maimonides (q.v.). The Asheri family suffered great privations but remained faithful in their devotion to the Talmud. Jacob ben Asher is known as the Ba‘al ha-ṭurim (literally “Master of the Rows”) from his chief work, the fourṬurimor Rows (the title is derived from the fourṬurimor rows of jewels in the High Priest’s breastplate). In this work Jacob ben Asher codified Rabbinic law on ethics and ritual, and it remained a standard work of reference until it was edited with a commentary by Joseph Qaro, who afterwards simplified the code into the more popularShulḥan Aruch. Jacob also wrote two commentaries on the Pentateuch.

See Graetz,History of the Jews(Eng. trans.), vol. iv. ch. iii.; Weiss,Dor dor we-dorashav, v. 118-123.

(I. A.)

JACOB OF EDESSA,who ranks with Barhebraeus as the most distinguished for scholarship among Syriac writers,1was born at ’Ēn-dēbhā in the province of Antioch, probably aboutA.D.640. From the trustworthy account of his life by Barhebraeus (Chron. Eccles.i. 289) we learn that he studied first at the famous monastery of Ken-neshrē (on the left bank of the Euphrates, opposite Jerābis) and afterwards at Alexandria, which had of course beenfor some time in the hands of the Moslems.2On his return he was appointed bishop of Edessa by his friend Athanasius II. (of Balad), probably in 684,3but held this office only for three or four years, as the clergy withstood his strict enforcement of the Church canons and he was not supported by Julian, the successor of Athanasius in the patriarchate. Accordingly, having in anger publicly burnt a copy of the canons in front of Julian’s residence, Jacob retired to the monastery of Kaisūm near Samosāta, and from there to the monastery of Eusebhōnā,4where for eleven years he taught the Psalms and the reading of the Scriptures in Greek. But towards the close of this period he again encountered opposition, this time from monks “who hated the Greeks,” and so proceeded to the great convent of Tell ’Addā or Teleda (? modern Tellādi, N.W. of Aleppo), where he spent nine years in revising and emending the Peshitta version of the Old Testament by the help of the various Greek versions. He was finally recalled to the bishopric of Edessa in 708, but died four months later, on the 5th of June.

In doctrine Jacob was undoubtedly Monophysite.5Of the very large number of his works, which are mostly in prose, not many have as yet been published, but much information may be gathered from Assemani’sBibliotheca Orientalisand Wright’sCatalogue of Syriac MSS. in the British Museum. (1) Of the Syriac Old Testament Jacob produced what Wright calls “a curious eclectic or patchwork text,” of which five volumes survive in Europe (Wright’sCatalogue38). It was “the last attempt at a revision of the Old Testament in the Monophysite Church.” Jacob was also the chief founder of the Syriac Massorah among the Monophysites, which produced such MSS. as the one (Vat. cliii.) described by Wiseman inHorae syriacae, part iii. (2) Jacob was the author both of commentaries and of scholia on the sacred books; of these specimens are given by Assemani and Wright. They were largely quoted by later commentators, who often refer to Jacob as “the interpreter of the Scriptures.” With the commentaries may be mentioned hisHexahemeron, or treatise on the six days of creation, MSS. of which exist at Leiden and at Lyons. It was his latest work, and being left incomplete was finished by his friend George the bishop of the Arabs. Among apocrypha, theHistory of the Rechabitescomposed by Zosimus was translated from Greek into Syriac by Jacob (Wright’sCatalogue1128, and Nau inRevue sémitiquevi. 263, vii. 54, 136). (3) Mention has been made above of Jacob’s zeal on behalf of ecclesiastical canons. In his letter to the priest Addai we possess a collection of canons from his pen, given in the form of answers to Addai’s questions. These were edited by Lagarde inReliquiae juris eccl. syriace, pp. 117 sqq. and Lamy inDissert.pp. 98 sqq. Additional canons were given in Wright’sNotulae syriacae. The whole have been translated and expounded by Kayser,Die Canones Jacobs von Edessa(Leipzig, 1886). (4) Jacob made many contributions to Syriac liturgy, both original and translated (Wright,Short Hist.p. 145 seq.). (5) To philosophical literature his chief original contribution was hisEnchiridion, a tract on philosophical terms (Wright’sCatalogue984). The translations of works of Aristotle which have been attributed to him are probably by other hands (Wright,Short Hist.p. 149; Duval,Littérature syriaque, pp. 255, 258). The treatiseDe causa omnium causarum, which was the work of a bishop of Edessa, was formerly attributed to Jacob; but the publication of the whole by Kayser6has made it clear that the treatise is of much later date. (6) An important historical work by Jacob—aChroniclein continuation of that of Eusebius—has unfortunately perished all except a few leaves. Of these a full account is given in Wright’sCatalogue1062. (7) Jacob’s fame among his countrymen rests most of all on his labours as a grammarian. In his letter to George, bishop of Sĕrūgh, on Syriac orthography (published by Phillips in London 1869, and by Martin in Paris the same year) he sets forth the importance of fidelity by scribes in the copying of minutiae of spelling. In his grammar7(of which only some fragments remain), while expressing his sense of the disadvantage under which Syriac labours through its alphabet containing only consonants, he declined to introduce a general system of vowel-signs, lest the change should contribute to the neglect and loss of the older books written without vowels. At the same time he invented, by adaptation of the Greek vowels, such a system of signs as might serve for purposes of grammatical exposition, and elaborated the rules by which certain consonants serve to indicate vowels. He also systematized and extended the use of diacritical points. It is still a moot question how far Jacob is to be regarded as the author of the five vowel-signs derived from Greek which soon after came into use among the Jacobites.8In any case he made the most important contribution to Syriac grammar down to the time of Barhebraeus. (8) As a translator Jacob’s greatest achievement was his Syriac version of theHomiliae cathedralesof Severus, the monophysite patriarch of Antioch (512-518, 535-536). This important collection is now in part known to us by E. W. Brooks’s edition and translation of the 6th book of selected epistles of Severus, according to another Syriac version made by Athanasius of Nisibis in 669. (9) A large number of letters by Jacob to various correspondents have been found in various MSS. Besides those on the canon law to Addai, and on grammar to George of Sĕrūgh referred to above, there are others dealing with doctrine, liturgy, &c. A few are in verse.Jacob impresses the modern reader mainly as aneducatorof his countrymen, and particularly of the clergy. His writings lack the fervid rhetoric and graceful style of such authors as Isaac of Antioch, Jacob of Sĕrūgh and Philoxenus of Mabbōg. But judged by the standard of his time he shows the qualities of a truly scientific theologian and scholar.

Jacob impresses the modern reader mainly as aneducatorof his countrymen, and particularly of the clergy. His writings lack the fervid rhetoric and graceful style of such authors as Isaac of Antioch, Jacob of Sĕrūgh and Philoxenus of Mabbōg. But judged by the standard of his time he shows the qualities of a truly scientific theologian and scholar.

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