Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Jeacocke, Caleb
JEACOCKE, CALEB (1706–1786), orator, born in 1706, carried on the business of a baker in High Street, St. Giles's, London, and became a director of the Hand-in-Hand fire office, and a member of the Skinners' Company. He frequently attended the Robin Hood debating society, Butcher Row, Temple Bar, where it is said his oratory often proved more effective than that of Edmund Burke and others who acquired celebrity in the House of Commons. To this society Goldsmith was introduced by Samuel Derrick at a time when Jeacocke was president. Struck by the eloquence and imposing presence of Jeacocke, who sat in a large gilt chair, Goldsmith thought nature had meant him for a lord chancellor. ‘No, no,’ whispered Derrick, who knew him to be a baker, ‘only for a master of the rolls’ (Forster, Life of Goldsmith, 1888, i. 287–8). Jeacocke died on 7 Jan. 1786, in Denmark Street, Soho (Gent. Mag. vol. lvi. pt. i. pp. 84, 180). He was author of ‘A Vindication of the Moral Character of the Apostle Paul against the Charges of Hypocrisy and Insincerity brought by Lord Bolingbroke, Dr. Middleton, and others,’ 8vo, London, 1765.
[Prior's Memoir of Edmund Burke (1826), i. 127; will registered in P. C. C. 26, Norfolk.]