Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Jacob, Robert
JACOB, ROBERT, M.D. (d. 1588), physician, eldest son of Giles Jacob of London, was entered at Merchant Taylors' School on 21 Jan. 1563–4 (Register, ed. Robinson, i. 4). He matriculated as a sizar of Trinity College, Cambridge, on 12 Nov. 1565, proceeded B.A. in 1569–70, was elected a fellow, and in 1573 commenced M.A. He graduated M.D. at Basle, and was incorporated at Cambridge on 15 May 1579. He became physician to Queen Elizabeth, who in 1581 sent him, at the Czar Ivan's request, to the Russian court, where he attended the czarina, and acquired a reputation which still survives. Jacob recommended Lady Mary Hastings to the czar for his seventh wife. Happily for the lady the czar died before the conclusion of the negotiations, which were opened in 1583 with the sanction of Elizabeth. Jacob returned to England with Sir Jerome Bowes [q. v.], the English envoy in Russia, about March 1584. The Russian company charged him with trading on his own account. On 21 May 1583 he was admitted a licentiate of the College of Physicians in London, a candidate on 12 Nov. 1585, and a fellow on 15 March 1586. In the latter year he went out to Russia a second time. He died abroad, unmarried, in 1588 (Probate Act Book, P. C. C., June 1588).
[Hamel's England and Russia; Russia at the close of the Sixteenth Century, ed. Bond (Hakl. Soc.), pp. 292–3; Cooper's Athenæ Cantabr. ii. 76; Munk's Coll. of Phys. 1878, i. 88–9; British and Foreign Medico-Chirurgical Review, October 1862, p. 291; will registered in P. C. C. 42, Rutland.]