Date Published:
January 2005

L’Encyclopédie de l’histoire du Québec / The Quebec History Encyclopedia

John Edward Jenkins

Jenkins, John Edward (1838-1910), politician and author, was born at Bangalore, Mysore, India, on July 28, 1838, the eldest son of the Rev. John Jenkins and Harriette Shepstone. He came to Canada with his parents at an early age, and was educated at McGill University and at the University of Pennsylvania. He studied law in England, and was called to the bar at Lincoln 's Inn in 1864. In 1874 he was appointed the first agent-general for Canada in London ; but this appointment he held for only two years. From 1874 to 1880 he represented Dundee as a radical in the British House of Commons; but when he attempted to recover the seat in 1885 and in 1896 as a Conservative, he was defeated. After suffering for some years from paralysis, he died in London, England , on June 4, 1910. In 1867 he married Hannah Matilda Johnstone, of Belfast, Ireland ; and by her .he had five sons and two daughters. He was especially famous as the author of a satire entitled Ginx's baby (London, 1870) ; but he wrote also Lord Bantam (London, 1871), Barney Geoghegan, M.P. (London, 1872), and the following works of fiction: Little Hodge (London, 1873), The devil's chain (London, 1876), Lutchmee and billoo (3 vols., London, 1877), A paladin of finance (London, 1882), A week of passion (3 vols., London, 1884), A secret of two lives (London, 1886), and Pantalas (London, 1897). In 1886 he became editor of the Overland Mail and the Homeward Mail, newspapers of which his brother-in-law, Sir Henry Seymour King, was the proprietor.

Source: W. Stewart WALLACE, ed., The Encyclopedia of Canada, Vol. III, Toronto, University Associates of Canada, 1948, 396p., p. 296.