Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Jeremie, James Amiraux
JEREMIE, JAMES AMIRAUX, D.D. (1802–1872), dean of Lincoln, son of James Jeremie, merchant, and his wife, Margaret Amiraux, descendant of an old Huguenot family long settled in the Channel islands, was born at St. Peter Port, Guernsey, on 12 April 1802. He received his early education at Elizabeth College, Guernsey, and Blundell's grammar school, Tiverton; matriculated at Trinity College, Cambridge, on 13 Nov. 1820, and graduated B.A. in 1824, M.A. in 1827, and B.D. and D.D. in 1850. He obtained the prize for the Norrisian essay in 1823 and 1825; that for the Hulsean essay in 1824, and the members' prize in 1826, when he was elected to a fellowship. He took holy orders in 1830, became examining chaplain to his patron and friend, Bishop Kaye of Lincoln, and was appointed by Kaye to the prebendal stall of Sanctæ Crucis in Lincoln Cathedral on 20 Dec. 1834, and to the subdeanery on 1 July 1848. He also held the rectory of Winwick, Northamptonshire, in the Bishop of Lincoln's patronage, from 9 March 1843 to 1848. On 7 April 1830 he was appointed by the board of directors to the professorship of classical and general literature at the East India Company's college, Haileybury, Hertfordshire. In 1838 he was dean there. Jeremie found congenial associates among his colleagues, who included Le Bas, Malthus, and Empson; was popular with the students, among whom were Sir Monier Williams, Sir Bartle Frere, and Bishop Forbes of Brechin, and was peculiarly successful as a lecturer, although he was weak as a disciplinarian. His sermons at Haileybury are credited with the promotion of that high character in the members of the East Indian civil service which was signally displayed in repressing the mutiny of 1857. In 1833, while still at Haileybury, he was appointed Christian advocate of the university of Cambridge, and in 1850, on the elevation of Dr. Ollivant to the see of Llandaff, he succeeded to his chair as regius professor of divinity, and resigned his position at Haileybury. His lectures at Cambridge were those of a sound and well-read theologian, and of a refined and elegant scholar, but they were lacking in vigour and originality. At Commemoration 1862 he was created D.C.L. by the university of Oxford. In August 1864 he was raised by Lord Palmerston from the subdeanery to the deanery of Lincoln, but was induced to retain his regius professorship for six years, to the sacrifice of his own comfort and to the injury of both his cathedral and his university. He ultimately resigned the professorship in 1870, having previously given 1,000l. to the university for the foundation of two prizes for the study of the Septuagint. After a very protracted illness he died suddenly on 11 June 1872, and was buried in his native island of Guernsey. He was unmarried, and with the exception of some very trifling legacies his large fortune was divided between an unmarried brother and sister. He had collected a magnificent library of the best editions of the classical authors of many different languages; but although he was desirous that it should be kept together, with habitual indecision he was unable to decide to what institution to bequeath it, and on his death it was dispersed.
Jeremie wrote much on many subjects, but an excessive fastidiousness and a nervous sensitiveness to criticism acted as an effectual barrier to publication. With the exception of his occasional sermons, which were numerous, and chiefly preached at Cambridge, he published very little. A volume of collected sermons which he printed he withheld from publication. The matter of his sermons and manner of delivery were alike singularly happy. His voice, although weak, was always musical and sympathetic. He was a contributor to the ‘Encyclopædia Metropolitana,’ writing the articles on Sextus Empiricus, the Pyrrhonists, Plotinus and the Later Platonists, ‘The History of the Christian Church in the Second and Third Centuries,’ and ‘The Roman Empire from Vespasian to its Extinction,’ and collected them as a ‘History of the Christian Church in the Second and Third Centuries,’ 1852, 8vo.
[Private information; personal knowledge; Guardian, June 1872.]