Joshua Jebb

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Joshua Jebb bigraphy, stories - British army officer

Joshua Jebb : biography

8 May 1793 – 26 June 1863

Sir Joshua Jebb (8 May 1793 – 26 June 1863) was a Royal Engineer and the British Surveyor-General of convict prisons.

He participated in the Battle of Plattsburgh on Lake Champlain during the War of 1812, accessed 28 October 2007 and surveyed a route between Ottawa River and Kingston where Lake Ontario flows into Saint Lawrence River. However, his route was not followed by Colonel By when he built the Rideau Canal.

Jebb was also involved in designing prisons and related buildings, including Pentonville Prison, Broadmoor Hospital, a secure mental hospital in Crowthorne in Berkshire, and Mountjoy Prison in the centre of Dublin.

Life

Jebb was the eldest son of Joshua Jebb of Walton, Derbyshire and his wife Dorothy, daughter of General Henry Gladwin of Stubbing Court. Joshua was born at Chesterfield on 8 May 1793.

Jebb’s route which he surveyed for the [[Rideau Canal. Eventually an alternative route was chosen.]] After passing through the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich he was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Royal Engineers 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 Battle of Plattsburgh, 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. accessed October 2007

An isometric drawing of Pentonville prison from an 1844 report to J.JebbReport of the Surveyor-General of Prisons, London, 1844 reproduced in Mayhew, Criminal Prisons of London, London, 1862 He returned to England in 1820, after an extended service in Canada. He was stationed at Woolwich and afterwards at Hull until December 1827, when he embarked for the West Indies. 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. Jebb was appointed adjutant of the royal sappers and miners at Chatham on 11 February 1831, and promoted first captain on 10 January 1837.

The 3rd edition of his treatise on [[siege warfare was published in 1860.]] 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 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, and on 21 May of the same year he was made a member of the commission on the municipal boundary of Birmingham. 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 evils of the system of transportation led to the adoption of a progressive system of prison treatment at home. 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 at Portland. Similar prisons were subsequently erected at Dartmoor, Chatham, Portsmouth and Isle of Wight. In 1843-4 Sir Joshua Jebb erected terrace of houses part of Parkhurst Prison on the Isle of Wight – Nichollson Street, these are now listed buildings.