Life

He was born about 1694, probably at Mansfield

Mansfield

Mansfield is a town in Nottinghamshire, England. It is the main town in the Mansfield local government district. Mansfield is a part of the Mansfield Urban Area....

, Nottinghamshire

Nottinghamshire

Nottinghamshire is a county in the East Midlands of England, bordering South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west...

, the second son of Samuel Jebb, a maltster. His eldest brother, Richard, settled in Ireland. Another brother, John, became dean of Cashel, and was father of Dr. John Jebb, the Socinian.

Samuel Jebb was educated at Mansfield grammar school, and became a sizar

Sizar

At Trinity College, Dublin and the University of Cambridge, a sizar is a student who receives some form of assistance such as meals, lower fees or lodging during his or her period of study, in some cases in return for doing a defined job....

 at Peterhouse, Cambridge

Peterhouse, Cambridge

Peterhouse is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. It is the oldest college of the University, having been founded in 1284 by Hugo de Balsham, Bishop of Ely...

, on 15 June 1709, aged 15. He graduated B.A. in January 1713. He was intended for the church, but, having joined the nonjurors

Nonjuring schism

The nonjuring schism was a split in the Church of England in the aftermath of the Glorious Revolution of 1688, over whether William of Orange and his wife Mary could legally be recognised as King and Queen of England....

, was unable to take orders. According to Nichols, he remained at Cambridge at least till 1718. On leaving Cambridge he became librarian to Jeremy Collier

Jeremy Collier

Jeremy Collier was an English theatre critic, non-juror bishop and theologian.-Life:Born in Stow cum Quy, Cambridgeshire, Collier was educated at Caius College, University of Cambridge, receiving the BA and MA . A supporter of James II, he refused to take the oath of allegiance to William and...

 in London, and occupied himself with literary work. After the death of Collier, in 1726, on the advice of Richard Mead

Richard Mead

Richard Mead was an English physician. His work, A Short Discourse concerning Pestilential Contagion, and the Method to be used to prevent it , was of historic importance in the understanding of transmissible diseases.-Life:The eleventh child of Matthew Mead , Independent divine, Richard was born...

, he went into medicine, attending Mead's private practice, and also learning chemistry and pharmacy from Mr. Dillingham, a well-known apothecary of Red Lion Square

Red Lion Square

Red Lion Square is a small square on the boundary of Bloomsbury and Holborn in London. The square was laid out in 1698 by Nicholas Barbon, taking its name from the Red Lion Inn. According to some sources the bodies of three regicides - Oliver Cromwell, John Bradshaw and Henry Ireton - were placed...

. He took the degree of M.D. at Reims

Reims

Reims , a city in the Champagne-Ardenne region of France, lies east-northeast of Paris. Founded by the Gauls, it became a major city during the period of the Roman Empire....

 on 12 March 1728, and set up in practice as a physician at Stratford-le-Bow. Successful in following his profession, he continued his literary work. He did not become licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians

Royal College of Physicians

The Royal College of Physicians of London was founded in 1518 as the College of Physicians by royal charter of King Henry VIII in 1518 - the first medical institution in England to receive a royal charter...

 till 25 June 1751.

A few years before his death he retired to Chesterfield

Chesterfield

Chesterfield is a market town and a borough of Derbyshire, England. It lies north of Derby, on a confluence of the rivers Rother and Hipper. Its population is 70,260 , making it Derbyshire's largest town...

, Derbyshire

Derbyshire

Derbyshire is a county in the East Midlands of England. A substantial portion of the Peak District National Park lies within Derbyshire. The northern part of Derbyshire overlaps with the Pennines, a famous chain of hills and mountains. The county contains within its boundary of approx...

, where he died on 9 March 1772. About 1727 he married a relative of Mrs. Dillingham, the apothecary's wife, and left several children, one of whom was the physician, Sir Richard Jebb.

Works

His literary productions were chiefly editions and translations, and he published no original work on medicine. He is best known for his edition of Roger Bacon

Roger Bacon

Roger Bacon, O.F.M. , also known as Doctor Mirabilis , was an English philosopher and Franciscan friar who placed considerable emphasis on the study of nature through empirical methods...

's Opus Majus

Opus Majus

The Opus Majus is the most important work of Roger Bacon. It was written in Medieval Latin, at the request of Pope Clement IV, to explain the work that Bacon had undertaken. The 840-page treatise ranges over all aspects of natural science, from grammar and logic to mathematics, physics, and...

undertaken at the suggestion of Richard Mead, to whom it is dedicated. It was the first edition of Bacon's work.

His major classical work was an edition of the works of Aristides

Aristides

Aristides , 530 BC – 468 BC was an Athenian statesman, nicknamed "the Just".- Biography :Aristides was the son of Lysimachus, and a member of a family of moderate fortune. Of his early life, it is only told that he became a follower of the statesman Cleisthenes and sided with the aristocratic party...

, the Greek rhetorician. In 1720 he issued proposals for its publication (in 4 vols. 4to); it ultimately appeared in 2 vols. 4to, with introduction, collation of manuscripts, and notes.

He published in 1725 a collection of sixteen historical memoirs relating to Mary Queen of Scots in Latin, French, and Spanish. In the same year he issued, anonymously, ‘The History of the Life and Reign of Mary Queen of Scots,’ London, 1725, a dry narrative. A similar work, ‘The Life of Robert, Earl of Leicester, the favourite of Queen Elizabeth,’ London, 1727, is also attributed to him. He edited the posthumous work of Humphrey Hody

Humphrey Hody

Humphrey Hody was an English scholar and theologian.-Life:He was born at Odcombe in Somerset in 1659. In 1676 he entered Wadham College, Oxford, of which he became a fellow in 1685...

, with a dissertation on Hody's life and writings, London, 1742.

In 1722 he started a classical periodical, ‘Bibliotheca Literaria, being a collection of Inscriptions, Medals, Dissertations,’ &c., intended to appear every two months. Ten numbers were issued from 1722 to 1724. Jebb's own contributions were anonymous. His other publications were:

• A translation of the reply by Daniel Martin, pastor of the French church at Utrecht, to a tract by Thomas Emlyn
  Thomas Emlyn
  Thomas Emlyn , English nonconformist divine.-Life:Emlyn was born at Stamford, Lincolnshire and served as chaplain to the presbyterian Letitia, countess of Donegal, and then to Sir Robert Rich, afterwards becoming colleague to Joseph Boyse, presbyterian minister in Dublin...
  
  on a theological point, Cambridge(?), 1718; London, 1719.
• ‘Sancti Justini Martyris cum Tryphone dialogus, ed. S. J.,’ 1719.
• ‘Joannis Caii De Canibus Britannicis, … De Pronunciatione Græcæ et Latinæ linguæ, etc., ed. S. J.,’ 1729.