Jump to content

Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 29.djvu/135

From Wikisource
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
Jago
129
James I of Scotland

Willoughby de Broke, to the more valuable rectory of Kimcote in Leicestershire (1 May 1771). Jago continued, however, to reside at Snitterfield, passing much of his time in improving the vicarage house and grounds, and there he died on 8 May 1781. He was buried in a vault which he had constructed for his family under the middle aisle of the church, and an inscription to his memory was placed on a flat stone, which has since been moved to the north aisle. He married in 1744 Dorothea Susanna Fancourt, daughter of John Fancourt, rector of the benefice of Kimcote, which he himself afterwards held. She died in 1751, leaving three sons and four daughters; three of the latter survived their father. On 16 Oct. 1758 he married at Rugeley Margaret, daughter of James Underwood, who survived him, but left no issue.

Jago's pleasing elegy, ‘The Blackbirds,’ originally appeared in Hawkesworth's ‘Adventurer,’ No. 37, 13 March 1753, and was by mistake attributed to Gilbert West. Its author thereupon procured its insertion, with other poems and with his name, in Dodsley's ‘Collection’ (vols. iv. and v.), when the manager of a Bath theatre (who is suggested in Notes and Queries, 5th ser. v. 198–9, to have been John Lee) claimed it as his own, alleging that Jago was a fictitious name from ‘Othello.’ This piece was a great favourite with Shenstone, who reports in his letters (June 1754) that it had been set to music by the organist of Worcester Cathedral. Jago published in 1767 a topographical poem, in four books, ‘Edge Hill, or the Rural Prospect delineated and moralized,’ a subject which did not present sufficient variety for a poem of that length, but it has been praised for the ease of its diction. He also wrote: 1. ‘A Sermon on occasion of a Conversation said to have pass'd between one of the Inhabitants and an Apparition in the Churchyard of Harbury,’ 1755. 2. ‘Sermon at Snitterfield on the Death of the Countess of Coventry,’ 1763. 3. ‘Labour and Genius: a Fable,’ inscribed to Shenstone, 1768; also in Pearch's ‘Collection,’ iii. 208–18. 4. ‘An Essay on Electricity,’ which is alluded to in Shenstone's letters, but apparently was never published. Some time before his death he revised his poems, which were published in 1784 with some additional pieces, the most important of which was ‘Adam; an Oratorio, compiled from “Paradise Lost,”’ and with some account of his life and writings by John Scott Hylton of Lapal House, near Halesowen. His poems have appeared in many collections of English poetry, including those of Chalmers, vol. xvii., Anderson, vol. xi., Park, vol. xxvii., and Davenport, vol. lv. Southey, in his ‘Later Poets’ (iii. 199–202), included Jago's ‘Elegy on the Goldfinches;’ and Mitford, while praising his ‘taste, feeling, and poetical talent,’ suggested a selection from Shenstone, Dyer, Jago, and others. Shenstone addressed a poem to him, inscribed a seat at Leasowes with the words ‘Amicitiæ et meritis Richardi Jago,’ and corresponded with him until death (Works, iii. passim). Many of his letters, essays, and several curiosities which were formerly his property, have passed to the Rev. W. Iago of Bodmin. An indignant letter from Jago to Garrick on the Stratford jubilee is in Garrick's ‘Correspondence,’ i. 367–8.

[Gent. Mag. 1781, p. 242; Colvile's Warwickshire Worthies, pp. 458–62; London Mag. 1822, vi. 419–20; Foster's Alumni Oxon.; Nichols's Lit. Anecd. iii. 50–1; Shenstone's Works (1791 edit.), ii. 318, iii. passim; Mrs. Houstoun's Mitford and Jesse, pp. 227–31; Old Cross (Coventry, 1879), pp. 369–74; Boase and Courtney's Bibl. Cornub. iii. 1243; Boase's Collect. Cornub. p. 411; Maclean's Trigg Minor, iii. 424.]

JAMES the Cistercian (fl. 1270), also called James the Englishman, was the first professor of philosophy and theology in the college which Stephen Lexington [q. v.], abbot of Clairvaux, founded in the house of the counts of Champagne at Paris for the instruction of young Cistercians. He supported St. Thomas Aquinas in contesting the immaculate conception of the Virgin Mary, and is said to have written: 1. ‘Commentaries on the Song of Songs.’ 2. ‘Sermons on the Gospels.’ 3. ‘Lecturæ Scholasticæ.’

[Visch. Bibl. Script. Ord. Cist. p. 142, Douay, ed. 1649; Tanner, Bibl. Brit.-Hib. p. 426; Fabricius, Bibl. Lat. Med. Ævi, iv. 5, ed. 1754; Hist. Litt. de la France, xix. 425.]

JAMES I (1394–1437), king of Scotland, third son of Robert III [q. v.] and Annabella Drummond [q. v.], was born at Dunfermline shortly before 1 Aug. 1394 (letter from his mother to Richard II). His age and his father's weak health and feeble character render it probable that his education was entrusted to his mother, who lived chiefly at Dunfermline and Inverkeithing. After her death, in 1402, he was sent to St. Andrews, where he was placed under the care of Henry Wardlaw, consecrated bishop in 1403. The murder of his only surviving brother David, duke of Rothesay, in March 1402, at the instigation of his uncle Albany [q. v.] and Archibald, fourth earl of Douglas [q. v.], made it necessary that he should be in safe custody, and no better guardian could have been found. In 1405 Wardlaw received as guests the Earl