The life and letters of Benjamin Jowett, M. A., master of Balliol college, Oxford.

The Master's Grandfather

9

Benjamin Jowett, of Camberwell, I754-I837.
Benjamin, the third son of Henry of Leeds, was grandfather to the Master of Balliol. After leaving the
Grammar School, he commenced business with his father
in Leeds; and when the family was settled in London,
he became John's partner in the warehouse in Bermondsey. In 1785 he married his cousin, Anne Jowett, of
York, whose father is mentioned several times in letters of
this period with a sort of respect, as 'Cousin Jowett 1.' In
right of this lady, who was his grandmother, the Master
-(then Professor Jowett) inherited, some eighty years after
this, a property in Yorkshire 2. She died in 799, leaving
five children, Elizabeth Maria, Benjamin, Josiah, and
Henry. In a letter dated February 20, 799, Henry Jowett
the elder, now of Camberwell, and in his eightieth year,
speaks feelingly of his son Benjamin's loss. Soon after
his father's death, Benjamin married again, and had
a daughter, Irene. He appears as a witness to the
marriage of his son, the Master's father, in 18I4. Nothing
more is known of him until the year 1823, when the
success of Joshua (John's third son), who had opened
a business in Liverpool, seems to have induced Benjamin
senior and his two youngest sons to migrate thither.
They were accompanied by the elder daughters, Elizabeth
and Maria. Benjamin senior remained in Liverpool until
the spring of 1837. In March of that year he writes an
affecting letter to his sister Sarah. It is the year of
influenza, and the prevalence of illness has interfered
with the progress of music. 'Nothing new has been
produced of late.' At this time he must have been
about eighty-two years old. He died very shortly afterwards, in April, I837.
1 Henry Jowett, of York (son of was Sheriff of York in 1764-5.
Benjamin, see p. 2), flax-dresser, 2 See p. 375.