Sir Joshua Jebb, (8 May 1793 – 26 June 1863) was a

Royal Engineer The Corps of Royal Engineers, usually called the Royal Engineers (RE), and commonly known as the ''Sappers'', is a corps of the British Army. It provides military engineering and other technical support to the British Armed Forces and is heade ...

and the British

Surveyor-General A surveyor general is an official responsible for government surveying in a specific country or territory. Historically, this would often have been a military appointment, but it is now more likely to be a civilian post. The following surveyor gen ...

of convict prisons. He participated in the

Battle of Plattsburgh The Battle of Plattsburgh, also known as the Battle of Lake Champlain, ended the final British invasion of the northern states of the United States during the War of 1812. An army under Lieutenant General Sir George Prévost and a naval squadro ...

on Lake Champlain during the

War of 1812 The War of 1812 (18 June 1812 – 17 February 1815) was fought by the United States of America and its indigenous allies against the United Kingdom and its allies in British North America, with limited participation by Spain in Florida. It bega ...

, and surveyed a route between

Ottawa River The Ottawa River (french: Rivière des Outaouais, Algonquin: ''Kichi-Sìbì/Kitchissippi'') is a river in the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. It is named after the Algonquin word 'to trade', as it was the major trade route of Eastern ...

and

Kingston Kingston may refer to: Places * List of places called Kingston, including the five most populated: ** Kingston, Jamaica ** Kingston upon Hull, England ** City of Kingston, Victoria, Australia ** Kingston, Ontario, Canada ** Kingston upon Thames, ...

where

Lake Ontario Lake Ontario is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is bounded on the north, west, and southwest by the Canadian province of Ontario, and on the south and east by the U.S. state of New York. The Canada–United States border sp ...

flows into

Saint Lawrence River The St. Lawrence River (french: Fleuve Saint-Laurent, ) is a large river in the middle latitudes of North America. Its headwaters begin flowing from Lake Ontario in a (roughly) northeasterly direction, into the Gulf of St. Lawrence, connectin ...

. However, his route was not followed by

Colonel By Lieutenant-Colonel John By (7 August 1779 – 1 February 1836) was an English military engineer. He is best known for having supervised the construction of the Rideau Canal and for having founded Bytown in the process. It developed and was desi ...

in building the

Rideau Canal The Rideau Canal, also known unofficially as the Rideau Waterway, connects Canada's capital city of Ottawa, Ontario, to Lake Ontario and the Saint Lawrence River at Kingston. It is 202 kilometres long. The name ''Rideau'', French for "curtain", ...

. Jebb was also involved in designing prisons and related buildings, including Pentonville Prison,

Woking Convict Invalid Prison Woking Convict Invalid Prison was constructed in mid-19th-century England, primarily to hold male invalid convicts who previously had been billeted on hulks and had been moved to the temporary invalid prison at Lewes. The concept of a prison spec ...

Broadmoor Hospital Broadmoor Hospital is a high-security psychiatric hospital in Crowthorne, Berkshire, England. It is the oldest of the three high-security psychiatric hospitals in England, the other two being Ashworth Hospital near Liverpool and Rampton Secure ...

, a secure mental hospital in Crowthorne in Berkshire, and

Mountjoy Prison Mountjoy Prison ( ga, Príosún Mhuinseo), founded as Mountjoy Gaol and nicknamed ''The Joy'', is a medium security men's prison located in Phibsborough in the centre of Dublin, Ireland. The current prison Governor is Edward Mullins. History ...

in the centre of

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...

Life

Jebb was the eldest son of Joshua Jebb of Walton,

Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands, England. It includes much of the Peak District National Park, the southern end of the Pennine range of hills and part of the National Forest. It borders Greater Manchester to the nor ...

and his wife Dorothy, daughter of General Henry Gladwin of Stubbing Court. Joshua was born at

Chesterfield Chesterfield may refer to: Places Canada * Rural Municipality of Chesterfield No. 261, Saskatchewan * Chesterfield Inlet, Nunavut United Kingdom * Chesterfield, Derbyshire, a market town in England ** Chesterfield (UK Parliament constitue ...

on 8 May 1793. After passing through the Royal Military Academy at

Woolwich Woolwich () is a district in southeast London, England, within the Royal Borough of Greenwich. The district's location on the River Thames led to its status as an important naval, military and industrial area; a role that was maintained throu ...

he was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the

Royal Engineers The Corps of Royal Engineers, usually called the Royal Engineers (RE), and commonly known as the ''Sappers'', is a corps of the British Army. It provides military engineering and other technical support to the British Armed Forces and is heade ...

on 1 July 1812. He was promoted to first lieutenant on 21 July 1813, and embarked for Canada in the following October. He served with the army under the command of General Francis de Rottenburg on the frontier of Lower Canada until the summer of 1814, when he joined the army of Lieutenant-general Sir George Prevost in the United States, and took part in the campaign of the autumn of 1814. He was present at the

, 11 September 1814, and was thanked in general orders. In 1816, he completed a survey for a canal which was designed to allow access to the Canadian heartland.The Rideau Canal's Transformation of a Wilderness Waterway, Ken W. Watson
accessed October 2007 He returned to England in 1820, after an extended service in Canada. He was stationed at

and afterwards at

Hull Hull may refer to: Structures * Chassis, of an armored fighting vehicle * Fuselage, of an aircraft * Hull (botany), the outer covering of seeds * Hull (watercraft), the body or frame of a ship * Submarine hull Mathematics * Affine hull, in affi ...

until December 1827, when he embarked for the

West Indies The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greater A ...

. He was promoted second captain on 26 February 1828, and was invalided home in September 1829. Having recovered his health he was sent to

Chatham Chatham may refer to: Places and jurisdictions Canada * Chatham Islands (British Columbia) * Chatham Sound, British Columbia * Chatham, New Brunswick, a former town, now a neighbourhood of Miramichi * Chatham (electoral district), New Brunswic ...

. Jebb was appointed adjutant of the royal sappers and miners at Chatham on 11 February 1831, and promoted first captain on 10 January 1837. In 1837 inquiries conducted in America by William Crawford (1788–1847) led to the adoption of the " separate system" of prison discipline. Jebb was appointed Surveyor-General of prisons, in order to provide the home office with a technical adviser on the construction of prisons. He was employed in designing county and borough prisons, and was associated with the inspectors, Crawford and the Reverend William Whitworth Russell, in the design and construction of the "Model Prison" at Pentonville. Jebb continued in his military duties, and was quartered at

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...

until he was seconded on 20 September 1839, and his services entirely devoted to civil work. On 10 March 1838 he had been appointed by the Lord President of the council to hold inquiries on the grants of charters of incorporation to Bolton and

Sheffield Sheffield is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in South Yorkshire, England, whose name derives from the River Sheaf which runs through it. The city serves as the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is Historic counties o ...

, and on 21 May of the same year he was made a member of the commission on the municipal boundary of

. On 23 November 1841 he received a brevet majority for his past services, and on 29 June 1843 he was made a commissioner for the government of Pentonville Prison. The decline of transportation forced the Government to create an alternative method of punishing criminals. Commencing with a period of strict separation at Pentonville, the convicts were passed to one of the prisons specially constructed with a view to their employment upon public works. For this purpose Jebb designed the

prison A prison, also known as a jail, gaol (dated, standard English, Australian, and historically in Canada), penitentiary (American English and Canadian English), detention center (or detention centre outside the US), correction center, correc ...

Portland Portland most commonly refers to: * Portland, Oregon, the largest city in the state of Oregon, in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States * Portland, Maine, the largest city in the state of Maine, in the New England region of the northeas ...

. Similar prisons were subsequently erected at Dartmoor, Chatham, Portsmouth and

Isle of Wight The Isle of Wight ( ) is a county in the English Channel, off the coast of Hampshire, from which it is separated by the Solent. It is the largest and second-most populous island of England. Referred to as 'The Island' by residents, the Isle of ...

. In 1843-4 Jebb erected a terrace of houses, part of Parkhurst Prison on the Isle of Wight – Nichollson Street, these are now listed buildings. In 1844, Jebb was appointed a member of a royal commission to report on the punishment of military crime by imprisonment. The commission recommended the establishment of prisons for the exclusive reception of military prisoners, and to be under the supervision of an officer to be termed inspector-general of military prisons, who should also supervise provost and regimental cells. Jebb was appointed to this office on 27 December 1844 in addition to his other duties, and since that date it has been held by the officer at the head of civil prisons, who has always been an officer of royal engineers. Jebb was promoted

lieutenant-colonel Lieutenant colonel ( , ) is a rank of commissioned officers in the armies, most marine forces and some air forces of the world, above a major and below a colonel. Several police forces in the United States use the rank of lieutenant colonel. ...

on 16 April 1847. On 1 May 1849 his appointment as commissioner of Pentonville prison was renewed. In 1850, a board, called the Directors of Convict Prisons, was formed to replace the various bodies which had previously managed the different convict prisons. Jebb was appointed chairman of the board, and under his direction the progressive system was adopted and developed. Joshua Jebb Grave Brookwood

Having served ten years in the civil employment of the state, Jebb had, in accordance with regulations, to return to military duty, or retire from the army. He chose the latter alternative, and left military service on full pay retirement on 1 January 1850. He subsequently received the honorary rank of colonel on 28 November 1854. He was made a KCB for his civil services on 25 March 1859. In 1861 and 1862 he served on commissions appointed to consider the construction of embankments of the

River Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the The Isis, River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the Longest rivers of the United Kingdom, se ...

, and of communications between the embankment at Blackfriars Bridge and the Mansion House, and between Westminster Bridge and Millbank. He died suddenly on 26 June 1863 in Charing Cross, London, coming off the omnibus from Parson's Green, where he resided,West London Observer, 4th July 1863 and was buried in Brookwood Cemetery. His successor as Survey General of Prisons was another

officer, Major Edmund Henderson.

Family

Jebb married twice; first, on 14 June 1830, to Mary Legh Thomas, daughter of William Burtinshaw Thomas, of Highfield, Derbyshire, who died in 1850, and by whom he had a son, Joshua Gladwyn, and three daughters. He was remarried on 5 September 1854, to Lady Amelia Rose Pelham, daughter of Thomas Pelham, the Earl of Chichester, who survived him.

Major works

# A Practical Treatise on Strengthening and Defending Outposts, Villages, Houses, Bridges,'' Chatham, 1836. # ''Modern Prisons : their Construction and Ventilation,'' with plates, London, 1844. # ''Notes on the Theory and Practice of Sinking

Artesian Wells An artesian aquifer is a confined aquifer containing groundwater under positive pressure. An artesian aquifer has trapped water, surrounded by layers of impermeable rock or clay, which apply positive pressure to the water contained within th ...

,'' 1844. # ''Manual for the Militia, or Fighting made Easy : a Practical Treatise on Strengthening and Defending Military Posts in reference to the Duties of a Force engaged in Disputing the Advance of an Enemy,'' London, 1853. # ''A Flying Shot at Fergusson and his " Perils of Portsmouth," " Invasion of England,'' pamphlet, London, 1853. # ''A practical treatise on the Duties to be performed ... at a siege'', 3rd Edition, London, William Clowes and Son, 1860, London''A practical treatise on the Duties to be performed ... at a siege'', 3rd Edition, London, William Clowes and Son, 1860, London
# ''Observations on the Defence of London, with Suggestions respecting the necessary Works,'' London, 1860. # ''Reports and Observations on the Discipline and Management of Convict Prisons,'' edited by the

Earl of Chichester Earl of Chichester is a title that has been created three times, twice in the Peerage of England and once in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. The current title was created in the Peerage of the United Kingdom in 1801 for Thomas Pelham, 2nd Ba ...

, London, 1863.

References

External links

Catalogue of the Jebb papers
at th

of the

London School of Economics , mottoeng = To understand the causes of things , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £240.8 million (2021) , budget = £391.1 millio ...

. {{DEFAULTSORT:Jebb, Joshua 1793 births 1863 deaths Royal Engineers officers British Army personnel of the War of 1812 Knights Commander of the Order of the Bath People from Chesterfield, Derbyshire 19th-century Australian public servants