Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Jacob, Joseph

1398639Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 29 — Jacob, Joseph1892Alexander Gordon

JACOB, JOSEPH (1667?–1722), sectary, born of quaker parents about 1667, was apprenticed to a linendraper in London, and early showed a keen interest in politics. In 1688, shortly after his coming of age, he showed his zeal for the revolution by riding to meet William of Orange on his progress from Torbay. On the passing of the Toleration Act in 1689 he avowed himself a congregationalist, and studied for the ministry under Robert Trail (1642–1716), a Scottish presbyterian minister in London. As a preacher he obtained a numerous following. He conducted a weekly lecture (1697) in the meeting-house of Thomas Gouge (1665?–1700) [q. v.], but this was soon stopped on the ground of his preaching politics. In his farewell sermon he satirised Matthew Mead [q. v.] and other leading nonconformist divines. He carried away some of Gouge's hearers, and his friends built him (1698) a meeting-house in Parish Street, Southwark. Here he introduced the then novel practice of standing to sing; and enforced, on pain of excommunication, a strict code of life. Dress was regulated; wigs were not allowed; the moustache for men was obligatory. No one was permitted to marry out of the congregation or to attend the worship of any other church. The society dwindled away, and the meeting-house was given up in 1702. Jacob then hired Turners' Hall, Philpot Lane, Fenchurch Street, where he preached political sermons, introducing many personalities. Before 1715 he removed to Curriers' Hall, London Wall, near Cripplegate, sharing the use of it with a baptist congregation. He died on 26 June 1722, aged 55. The inscription on his monument in Bunhill Fields described him as ‘an apostolic preacher.’ He had good natural capacity and some learning, but his eccentricities prevented his exercising any permanent influence. His wife, Sarah Jacob, and two of his daughters were buried in Bunhill Fields. He published: 1. ‘Two Thanksgiving Sermons,’ &c., 1702, 4to. 2. ‘A Thanksgiving Sermon,’ &c., 1705, 4to.

[Wilson's Dissenting Churches of London, 1808, i. 139 sq., 236, ii. 561; James's Hist. Litig. Presb. Chapels, 1867, p. 690.]

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