Page:Dictionary of National Biography, Second Supplement, volume 2.djvu/390

 Home and Heaven,' 1891. 6. 'Sound Words, their Form and Spirit,' 1907, addresses on the English Prayer-Book.

 JENKINS, EBENEZER EVANS (1820–1905), Wesleyan minister and missionary, born at Exeter on 10 May 1820, was second son of John Jenkins, cabinet maker, by his wife Mary Evans, a Welshwoman. His parents were earnest methodists. Educated at Exeter grammar school, he showed as a boy literary leanings and soon became assistant master in the school of William Pengelly [q. v.]. Resolving on the methodist ministry, he was ordained at Great Queen Street Wesleyan chapel, London, on 31 Oct. 1845, and was sent out to Madras. Stationed at first at Mannargudi, he was able by September 1846 to prepare a Tamil sermon. After a move to Negapatam, he settled, about 1848, at Black Town chapel, Madras, and soon started the Royapettah school (now college) there, the oldest Wesleyan educational institution. He was absent (1855–7) from India on account of health during the Mutiny, but in 1857 he returned as chairman of the Madras district, continuing to minister in his old chapel, which he enlarged. A volume of sermons preached there was issued at Madras in 1863 (2nd edit. 1866); but his health again failed, and returning home by way of Australia, where he gave many lectures, he was appointed in 1865 superintendent of the Hackney circuit. He at once gained a high reputation as a preacher and speaker through the country, and made several foreign tours in an official capacity, speaking at the Evangelical Alliance convention at New York in 1873, and in 1875-6 and again in 1884-5 visiting missions in China, Japan, and India. From 1877 to 1888 he was a general secretary of the Mission House, remaining an honorary secretary until his death. In 1880 he was president of the Wesleyan conference.

His last years were spent in Southport, where he died on 19 July 1905. He was buried at Norwood cemetery. Jenkins published many addresses and sermons, chiefly on missionary aims and work.

He married twice: (1) in 1850, at Madras, Eliza Drewett (d. 27 April 1869); (2) in October 1871, Margaret Heald, daughter of Dr. Wood of Southport; she died on March 1875 at the birth of her second son.

 JENKINS, JOHN EDWARD (1838–1910), politician and satirist, born at Bangalore, Mysore, Southern India, on 28 July 1838, was the eldest son of John Jenkins, D.D., Wesleyan missionary, by his wife Harriette, daughter of James Shepstone of Chfton. His father removed to Canada, where he became minister of St. Paul's Presbyterian church, Montreal, and moderator of the general assembly. The son, after having been educated at the High School, Montreal, and McGill University, and later at the University of Pennsylvania, came to London, and was called to the bar at Lincoln's Inn on 17 Nov. 1864. He secured some practice, and in 1870 he was retained by the Aborigines Protection and Anti-Slavery Society to watch the proceedings of the British Guiana coolie commission. He visited the colony and became the champion of the Indian indentured labourers there, publishing in 1871 'The Coolie: his Rights and Wrongs.' His zeal for social reform, however, turned him aside from his profession, and in 1870 he suddenly became famous as the anonymous author of 'Ginx's Baby, his Birth and other Misfortunes,' a pathetic satire on the struggles of rival sectarians for the religious education of a derelict child, which attracted universal notice and had its influence on the religious compromise in the Education Act of 1870. An edition, the 36th, of 'Ginx's Baby' (1876) was illustrated by Frederick Barnard [q.v. Suppl. I].

Jenkins was a strong imperialist and in 1871 he organised the 'Conference on Colonial Questions' which met at Westminster under his chairmanship. His inaugural address was entitled 'The Colonies and Imperial Unity: or the Barrel without the Hoops.' This originated the Imperial Federation movement as opposed to the policy of imperial disintegration advocated by Prof. Goldwin Smith [q. v. Suppl. II] and others, and led in 1874 to Jenkins's appointment as first agent-general in London for the dominion of Canada, an office which he held only two years. His imperialism did not, however, hinder him from protesting against the Act by which Queen Victoria became in 1876 empress of India, when he published anonymously 'The Blot on the Queen's Head' (1876). Notwithstanding his imperialism Jenkins was an ardent radical with political ambition. After 