SHOWELL'S
Dictionary of Birmingham.
Jacks.—Roasting Jacks of some kind or other were
doubtless used by our great-great-grandmothers, but their kitchen
grates were not supplied with "bottle-jacks" till their
fellow-townsman, Mr. Fellowes, of Great Hampton Street, made them in
1796.
Jennens.—It is almost certain that the "Great
Jennens (or Jennings) Case," has taken up more time in our law
courts than any other cause brought before the judges. Charles Dickens
is supposed to have had some little knowledge of it, and to have
modelled his "Jarndyce v. Jarndyce" in "Bleak
House" therefrom. It has a local interest, inasmuch as several
members of the family lived, prospered, and died here, and, in
addition, a fair proportion of the property so long disputed, is here
situated. The first of the name we hear of as residing in Birmingham
was William Jennens, who died in 1602. His son John became a
well-to-do ironmonger, dying in 1653. One of John's sons,
Humphrey, also waxed rich, and became possessed of considerable
estate, having at one time, it is said, no less a personage than Lord
Conway as "game-keeper" over a portion of his Warwickshire
property. Probably the meaning was that his lordship rented the
shooting. Ultimately, although every branch of the family were
tolerably prolific, the bulk of the garnered wealth was concentrated
in the hands of William Jennings, bachelor, who died at Acton Place in
1798, at the age of 98, though some have said he was 103. His landed
property was calculated to be worth £650,000; in Stock and
Shares he held £270,000; at his bankers, in cash and dividends
due, there were £247,000; while at his several houses, after his
death, they found close upon £20,000 in bank notes, and more
than that in gold. Dying intestate, his property was administered to
by Lady Andover, and William Lygon, Esq., who claimed to be next of
kin descended from Humphrey Jennings, of this town. Greatest part of
the property was claimed by these branches, and several noble families
were enriched who, it is said, were never entitled to anything. The
Curzon family came in for a share, and hence the connection of Earl
Howe and others with this town. The collaterals and their descendants
have, for generations, been fighting for shares, alleging all kinds of
fraud and malfeasance on the part of the present holders and their
predecessors, but the claimants have increased and multiplied to such
an extent, that if it were possible for them to recover the whole of
the twelve million pounds they say the property is now worth, it
would, when divided, give but small fortunes to any of them. A meeting
of the little army of claimants was held at the Temperance Hall, March
2, 1875, and there have been several attempts, notwithstanding the
many previous adverse decisions, to re-open the battle for the pelf,
no less than a quarter of a million, it is believed, having already
been uselessly spent in that way.
Jennen's Row is named after the above family.
Jewellery.—See "Trades."
Jews.—The descendants of Israel were allowed to reside in
this country in 1079, but if we are to believe history their lot could
not have been a very pleasant one, the poorer classes of our
countrymen looking upon them with aversion, while the knights and
squires of high degree, though willing enough to use them when
requiring loans for their fierce forays, were equally ready to plunder
and oppress on the slightest chance. Still England must have even then
been a kind of sheltering haven, for in 1287, when a sudden
anti-Semitic panic occurred to drive the Jews out of the kingdom, it
was estimated that 15,660 had to cross the silver streak. Nominally,
they were not allowed to return until Cromwell's time, 364 years
after. It was in 1723 Jews were permitted to hold lands in this
country, and thirty years after an Act was passed to naturalise them,
but it was repealed in the following year. Now the Jews are entitled
to every right and privilege that a Christian possesses. It is not
possible to say when the Jewish community of this town originated, but
it must have been considerably more than a hundred and fifty years
ago, as when Hutton wrote in 1781, there was a synagogue in the
Froggery, "a very questionable part of the town," and an
infamous locality. He quaintly says:—"We have also among us
a remnant of Israel, a people who, when masters of their own country,
were scarcely ever known to travel, and who are now seldom employed in
anything else. But though they are ever moving they are ever at home;
who once lived the favourites of heaven, and fed upon the cream of the
earth, but now are little regarded by either; whose society is
entirely confined to themselves, except in the commercial line. In the
synagogue, situated in the Froggery, they still preserve the faint
resemblance of the ancient worship, their whole apparatus being no
more than the drooping ensigns of poverty. The place is rather small,
but tolerably filled; where there appears less decorum than in the
Christian churches. The proverbial expression, 'as rich as a
Jew,' is not altogether verified in Birmingham; but, perhaps, time
is transferring it to the Quakers. It is rather singular that the
honesty of a Jew is seldom pleaded but by the Jew himself." No
modern historian would think of using such language now-a-days,
respecting the Jews who now abide with us, whose charitable
contributions to our public institutions, &c., may bear comparison
with those of their Christian brethren. An instance of this was given
so far back as December 5th, 1805, the day of general thanksgiving for
the glorious victory of Trafalgar. On that day collections were made
in all places of worship in aid of the patriotic fund for the relief
of those wounded, and of the relatives of those killed in the war. It
is worthy of remark that the parish church, St. Martin's, then
raised the sum of £37 7s., and the "Jews'
Synagogue" £3 3s. At the yearly collections in aid of the
medical charities, now annually held on Hospital Sunday, St.
Martin's gives between three and four hundred pounds; the Jewish
congregation contributes about one hundred and fifty. If, then, the
church has thus increased ten-fold in wealth and benevolence in the
last seventy years, the synagogue has increased fifty-fold.
Jews' Board of Guardians. A committee of resident Jews was
appointed in 1869, to look after and relieve poor and destitute
families among the Israelites; and though they pay their due quota to
the poor rates of their parish, it is much to the credit of the Jewish
community that no poor member is, permitted to go to the Workhouse or
want for food and clothing. The yearly amount expended in relief by
this Hebrew Board of Guardians is more than £500, mostly given
in cash in comparatively large sums, so as to enable the recipients to
become self-supporting, rather than continue them as paupers receiving
a small weekly dole. There is an increase in the number of poor
latterly, owing to the depression of trade and to the influx of poor
families from Poland during the last few years. Another cause of
poverty among the Jews is the paucity of artisans among them, very few
of them even at the present time choosing to follow any of the staple
trades outside those connected with clothing and jewellery.
Jewish Persecutions in Russia.—On Feb. 6, 1882, a
town's meeting was called with reference to the gross persecution
of the Jews in Russia, and the collection of a fund towards assisting
the sufferers was set afoot, £1,800 being promised at the
meeting.
John a' Dean's Hole.—A little brook which took
the water from the moat round the old Manor House (site of Smithfield)
was thus called, from a man named John Dean being drowned there about
Henry VIII.'s time. This brook emptied into the river Rea, near
the bottom of Floodgate Street, where a hundred and odd years back,
there were two poolholes, with a very narrow causeway between them,
which was especially dangerous at flood times to chance wayfarers who
chose the path as a near cut to their dwellings, several cases of
drowning being on record as occurring at this spot.—See
"Manor House."
Johnson, Dr. Samuel.—Dr. Johnson's connection with
Birmingham has always been a pleasant matter of interest to the local
literati, but to the general public we fear it matters naught.
His visit to his good friend Dr. Hector in 1733 is historically
famous; his translations and writings while here have been often
noted; his marriage with the widow Porter duly chronicled; but it is
due to the researches of the learned Dr. Langford that attention has
been lately drawn to the interesting fact that Johnson, who was born
in 1709, actually came to Birmingham in his tenth year, on a visit to
his uncle Harrison, who in after years, in his usual plain-speaking
style, Johnson described as "a very mean and vulgar man, drunk
every night, but drunk with little drink, very peevish, very proud,
very ostentatious, but, luckily, not rich." That our local
governors have a due appreciation of the genius of the famed
lexicographer is shown by the fact of a passage-way from Bull Street
to the Upper Priory being named "Dr. Samuel Johnson's
Passage!"
Jubilees.—Strange as it may appear to the men of the
present day, there has never been a National holiday yet kept equal to
that known as the Jubilee Day of George the Third. Why it should have
been so seems a great puzzle now. The celebration began in this town
at midnight of the 24th October, 1809, by the ringers of St.
Philip's giving "five times fifty claps, an interim with the
same number of rounds, to honour the King, Queen, the Royal Family,
the Nation, and the loyal town of Birmingham." At six o'clock
next morning the sluggards were aroused with a second peal, and with
little rest the bells were kept swinging the whole day long, the
finale coming with a performance of "perpetual claps and
clashings" that must have made many a head ache. There was a
Sunday school jubilee celebrated September 14, 1831. The fiftieth
year's pastorate of Rev. John Angell James was kept September 12,
1855, and the Jubilee Day of the Chapel in Carr's Lane, September
27, 1870; of Cannon Street Chapel, July 16, 1856; of the Rev. G.
Cheatle's pastorate, at Lombard Street Chapel, January 11, 1860;
of the Missionary Society, September 15, 1864; of Pope Pius the Ninth,
in 1877, when the Roman Catholics of this town sent him £1,230.
being the third largest contribution from England.
Jubilee Singers.—This troupe of coloured minstrels gave
their first entertainment here in the Town Hall April 9, 1874.
Jury Lists.—According to the Jury Act, 6 George IV., the
churchwardens and overseers of every parish in England are required to
make out an alphabetical list before the 1st September in each year of
all men residing in their respective parishes and townships qualified
to serve on juries, setting forth at length their Christian and
surname, &c. Copies of these lists, on the three first Sundays in
September, are to be fixed on the principal door to every church,
chapel, and other public place of religious worship, with a notice
subjoined that all appeals will be heard at the Petty Sessions, to be
held within the last day of September. The jury list for persons
resident in the borough, and for several adjoining parishes, may be
seen at the office of Mr. Alfred Walter, solicitor, Colmore Row, so
that persons exempt may see if their names are included.
Justices Of the Peace.—The earliest named local Justices
of the Peace (March 8, 1327) are "William of Birmingham" and
"John Murdak" the only two then named for the
county.—See "Magistrates".
