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Celebrating Hampshire Historians

Jacob, William Henry

2 October 1829-1918

The son of Jacob Jacob II (1800-1888) and his wife Mary Ann (née Fry, buried in 1833 in Winchester Cathedral churchyard), he was christened at the Independent chapel, Winchester, and became a well-known local journalist and civic dignitary.

The Jacobs were from Monxton near Andover and some of them moved into the world of print in the early nineteenth century. It came about through the marriage in 1798 of WHJ’s grandfather Jacob Jacob I to Ann, a daughter of James Robbins, a master printer in Winchester, who owned the Hampshire Chronicle 1806-1813 and was the publisher of John Milner’s 2-volume The History, Civil and Ecclesiastical, and Survey of Antiquities of Winchester (1799-1802). Robbins took as apprentices William Jacob, who was from another arm of the family, together with William Johnson from Gosport, and they went on to found the Jacob and Johnson partnership that was an independent owner of the Chronicle between 1813 and 1996. He probably also apprenticed Jacob Jacob II, who set up as a printer in Winchester and ran the local office of the Hampshire Independent, a rival newspaper. It was based in Southampton and for a while from 1850 Jacob Jacob II owned a quarter share in it (HRO, 3A00W/B1/3). The tumultuous history of the paper has been told by Richard Preston.

From this family background WHJ became a newspaper correspondent, cutting his teeth at a time when Francis North, Earl of Guilford and the Master of St Cross Hospital, was being pilloried by retired clergyman the Rev. Henry Holloway and the press. WHJ is variously described in census returns as ‘a clerk’ (1851), ‘a newspaper correspondent’ (1871), ‘a newspaper reporter’ (1881) and ‘ex-Mayor and magistrate, newspaper proprietor and journalist’ (1891).  This nicely charts his career, which involved not only writing for the local press, as well as periodicals such as Notes & Queries, but also serving in 1889 as Mayor of Winchester and sitting on the bench. Many of his articles, generally signed ‘W.H.J’, concern local history, which he pursued, often with architect Thomas Stopher – another amateur antiquarian and municipal worthy. In the 1880s and 1890s, he spent much time sorting manuscripts which lay rotting in the Westgate and in 1877 had had a cursory examination under the Royal Commission on Historical Documents. Many of them were preserved (badly by modern standards) in ‘Jacob’s Scrapbooks’ (W/K5/2-8; 102M88W). In 1906 he published an Inventory of Royal Charters Etc, which covered 47 charters, 30 of which were ‘discovered in 1884 in an old box in a lawyer’s office’ (Herbert, 1914, p.3)

The HRO holds four other scrapbooks (19A09) compiled by him, containing mainly ‘antiquarian and literary cuttings relative to Hampshire’ and another compiled by others and donated to him (3A00W/14) – but not dated or sourced.  They cover a wide range of subjects, often topical, like the discovery on St Giles Hill, Winchester, of Anglo-Saxon remains during the development of the site by Thomas Stopher and others.  He served as Vice-President of the HFC in the early 1900s and contributed two papers to the Proceedings. One put in context two incinerary urns found by workmen in St James Lane, Winchester, and the other cited a mass of detail on Tudor Winchester culled from his archival work, but without a single reference.

He was a leading light in a campaign for the new museum for Winchester opened in The Square in 1903 and served as its Honorary Curator until his death (Courtney, 2011).

In 1856 in Winchester he married Rebecca Olive Peaty, who died age 47 in 1876. From at least 1881, he lived in Christchurch Road, Winchester.

Sources

Diana Coldicott, Monxton: a Hampshire village history, 1998, Andover, p. 54, family tree, Jacob family

Richard Preston, Southampton Occasional Paper, No. 12 and Southampton Local History Forum, No, 16; accessed from: http://sotonopedia.wikidot.com/page-browse:hampshire-independent

Courteney, J, 2011, ‘The stuffed animals will have to go’: Alderman Jacob, William Chalkley and Mr Cottrill, PHFC, 66, 215-227

Will of WHJ, 1918, HRO, 5M62/39, p. 412 (M420)

Will of Jacob Jacob II, 1888, 5M62/24, p. 33 (M387).

Herbert, JA, City of Winchester: Calendar of Charters, 1915, Winchester

Portrait

William Henry Jacob

From Courtney, 2011

Contribution to county’s history

At a time when local history was a novelty, he used the press to popularise Hampshire’s past and draw attention to a wealth of topics of interest. He also played a part in the practical preservation of the archives of the City of Winchester and the founding of a new museum.  

Relevant published works

Critical Comments

More a populariser than a scholar, he nonetheless took a serious interest in the history of Winchester and the county.

Other Comments

His published articles require more study.

Contributor

Barry Shurlock, 18 March 2023

Key Words

Journalism, Winchester City Museum, royal charters

Any queries or further suggestions for this part of the list should be addressed to celebrating@hantsfieldclub.org.uk.

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