Judge Richard Jebb

Richard Jebb (1766-1834) was an Irish judge of the nineteenth century, and a member of a highly gifted family of English origin, which produced a celebrated doctor, three distinguished clegymen and a noted classical scholar.

He was born in Drogheda, eldest son of John Jebb and his wife Alicia Forster. His father was an alderman of Drogheda, and also had an estate at Leixlip in County Kildare; his grandfather, the elder Richard Jebb, had come to Ireland from Mansfield in Nottinghamshire.

Richard's younger brother was John Jebb, Bishop of Limerick. The two brothers seem to have been close, and John, who never married, lived with Richard as a young man. Their father suffered financial losses for a time, but Richard at the age of twenty-one inherited a substantial fortune from his father's cousin Sir Richard Jebb, 1st Baronet, a distinguished doctor who became physician to King George III. John Jebb, the religious reformer, was another cousin who belonged to the Irish branch of the family.

Richard's younger brother John Jebb, Bishop of Limerick. Richard was educated at a local school in Drogheda, then at the University of Dublin, from which he graduated in 1786. He entered Lincoln's Inn and was called to the Irish Bar in 1789, King's Counsel 1806. He was a moderate opponent of the Act of Union 1800, although in his pamphlet "Arguments for and against the Act of Union" he did endeavour to be fair to both sides of the debate. Like many former opponents of Union he was prepared to accept office under the new regime, although he refused to sit in the English House of Commons. He became Third Serjeant in 1816, Second Serjeant in 1818 and a justice of the Court of King's Bench (Ireland) in 1818. He died suddenly at his home in Rostrevor, County Down in 1834, a victim of the great cholera epidemic.

He married in 1802 Jane Louisa Finlay, eldest daughter of John Finlay, MP for Dublin County. Louisa was described as a woman of exceptional strength of character; she died in 1823, after a long and painful illness. They had six children, of whom the best known is John Jebb (1805-1886), Canon of Hereford Cathedral. Their second son Robert followed his father to the Bar, had a successful career, and was the father of the politician and classical scholar Richard Claverhouse Jebb.

As a judge he has been described as firm but humane and impartial. Elrington Ball calls him a gifted man who like his brother Bishop Jebb was often underestimated by those who knew him, due to his modest and unassuming manner.

• Wikipedia contributors. "Richard Jebb (barrister)." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia.
• Burke, Bernard, Sir. A genealogical and heraldic history of the landed gentry of Great Britain & Ireland 6th ed. London : Harrison 1879. Vol I. page 865