Joseph Jekyll FRS (1 January 1754 – 8 March 1837) was a British Whig Member of Parliament for

Calne Calne () is a town and civil parish in Wiltshire, southwestern England,OS Explorer Map 156, Chippenham and Bradford-on-Avon Scale: 1:25 000.Publisher: Ordnance Survey A2 edition (2007). at the northwestern extremity of the North Wessex Downs ...

Wiltshire Wiltshire (; abbreviated Wilts) is a historic and ceremonial county in South West England with an area of . It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset to the southwest, Somerset to the west, Hampshire to the southeast, Gloucestershire ...

. He was the eldest son of Capt. Edward Jekyll, R.N., of Haverfordwest and educated at

Westminster School (God Gives the Increase) , established = Earliest records date from the 14th century, refounded in 1560 , type = Public school Independent day and boarding school , religion = Church of England , head_label = Hea ...

(1766–1770) and Christ Church, Oxford, where he was awarded BA in 1774 and MA in 1777. He trained for the law at Lincoln's Inn from 1769 and was called to the bar in 1778. In 1782 Jekyll wrote a memoir of the black composer

Ignatius Sancho Charles Ignatius Sancho ( – 14 December 1780) was a British abolitionist, writer and composer. Born on a slave ship in the Atlantic, Sancho was sold into slavery in the Spanish colony of New Granada. After his parents died, Sancho's owner t ...

to preface the collection of Sancho's letters. Initially published anonymously, the memoir was attributed to Jekyll in the 1803 edition of the ''Letters''. He was elected in 1790 a

Fellow of the Royal Society Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the judges of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural knowledge, including mathemat ...

as "''a Gentleman conversant in various Branches of Literature''". He married in 1801 Maria, the daughter of MP

Hans Sloane Sir Hans Sloane, 1st Baronet (16 April 1660 – 11 January 1753), was an Irish physician, naturalist, and collector, with a collection of 71,000 items which he bequeathed to the British nation, thus providing the foundation of the British Mu ...

, with whom he had two sons. The youngest was the father of the garden designer, Gertrude Jekyll. He was made Bencher at the

Inner Temple The Honourable Society of the Inner Temple, commonly known as the Inner Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court and is a professional associations for barristers and judges. To be called to the Bar and practise as a barrister in England and ...

in 1805, reader in 1814 and treasurer in 1816. He was appointed solicitor-general to the Prince of Wales and made King's Counsel in 1805. In 1787 he was elected Member of Parliament for

, a seat he held until 1816, after which he resigned by accepting the notional crown appointment as Steward of the Chiltern Hundreds. In 1824, Joseph inherited the

Wargrave Wargrave () is a historic village and civil parish in Berkshire, England. The village is primarily on the River Thames but also along the confluence of the River Loddon and lies on the border with southern Oxfordshire. The village has many old ...

Hill (now Wargrave Manor) estate in Berkshire, although he preferred to live in Mayfair and so rented it out to tenants. He died in London in 1837.

References

* 1754 births 1837 deaths Alumni of Christ Church, Oxford People from Mayfair Members of the Inner Temple Members of the Parliament of Great Britain for English constituencies British MPs 1784–1790 British MPs 1790–1796 British MPs 1796–1800 UK MPs 1801–1802 UK MPs 1802–1806 UK MPs 1812–1818 Fellows of the Royal Society Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for English constituencies People educated at Westminster School, London Fellows of the Society of Antiquaries of London English barristers 18th-century English writers 19th-century King's Counsel {{England-GreatBritain-MP-stub