Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Jacob, William (1762?-1851)

by Gordon Goodwin

JACOB, WILLIAM (1762?–1851), traveller and miscellaneous writer, was born about 1762. For some years he carried on business in Newgate Street, London, as a merchant, trading to South America. He was returned for Rye, Sussex, to the House of Commons as a tory in July 1808, and sat till the dissolution in 1812. In 1809 and 1810 he spent six months in Spain, and the letters he wrote from that country were published as ‘Travels in the South of Spain,’ 4to, London, 1811, with numerous plates. He was elected alderman for the ward of Lime Street in 1810, but resigned his gown in the following year. His industry in collecting and epitomising returns and averages connected with the corn law question was rewarded by his appointment in 1822 to the comptrollership of corn returns to the board of trade, from which he retired on a pension in January 1842. He died on 17 Dec. 1851, aged 89 (Gent. Mag. new ser. xxxvii. 523). On 23 April 1807 he was elected F.R.S. (Thomson, Hist. of Roy. Soc. App. iv.)

He wrote also:

1. ‘Considerations on the Protection required by British Agriculture, and on the Influence of the Price of Corn on Exportable Productions,’ 8vo, London, 1814.
2. ‘A Letter to Samuel Whitbread, Esq., M.P., being a Sequel to “Considerations” … To which are added, Remarks on the Publications of a Fellow of University College, Oxford, Mr. Ricardo, and Mr. Torrens,’ 8vo, London, 1815.
3. ‘An Inquiry into the Causes of Agricultural Distress,’ 8vo, London, 1816 (also in the ‘Pamphleteer,’1817, x. 395–418).
4. ‘A View of the Agriculture, Manufacture, Statistics, and State of Society of Germany and parts of Holland and France, taken during a Journey through those Countries in 1819,’ 4to, London, 1820.
5. ‘Report on the Trade in Foreign Corn, and on the Agriculture of the North of Europe. … To which is added an Appendix of Official Documents, Averages of Prices,’ &c., 2nd edit. 8vo, London, 1826.
6. ‘A Report … respecting the Agriculture and the Trade in Corn in some of the Continental States of Northern Europe,’ dated 16 March 1828, in the ‘Pamphleteer,’ 1828, xxix. 361–456.
7. ‘Tracts relating to the Corn Trade and Corn Laws, including the Second Report ordered to be printed by the two Houses of Parliament,’ 3 pts. 8vo, London, 1828.
8. ‘An Historical Inquiry into the Production and Consumption of the Precious Metals,’ 2 vols. 8vo, London, 1831 (translated into German by C. T. Kleinschrod, 2 vols. 8vo, Leipzig, 1838).

Jacob also contributed numerous articles, mostly on agricultural and economical subjects, to the ‘Encyclopædia Britannica,’ 7th edit.

His son, Edward Jacob (d. 1841), graduated B.A. in 1816 at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, as senior wrangler and first Smith's prizeman. He was subsequently elected fellow of his college, proceeded M.A. in 1819, and was called to the bar at Lincoln's Inn on 28 June of that year. He practised with great success in the chancery court, and was appointed a king's counsel on 27 Dec. 1834. He died on 15 Dec. 1841. With John Walker he edited ‘Reports of Cases in the Court of Chancery during the time of Lord-chancellor Eldon, 1819, 1820,’ 2 vols. 8vo, 1821–3, and by himself a volume of similar reports during 1821 and 1822, published in 1828. He also published with valuable additions a second edition of R. S. D. Roper's ‘Treatise of the Law of Property arising from the relation between Husband and Wife,’ 8vo, 1826.

[Authorities cited in the text.]

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