Edward Jenkins

John Edward Jenkins (2 July 1838 – 4 June 1910), known as Edward Jenkins or J. Edward Jenkins, was a barrister, author and Liberal Party politician in the United Kingdom. He was best known as an author of satirical novels, and also served as the Agent-General of Canada, encouraging emigration to the new Dominion. He contested several parliamentary elections, but won only one, and sat in the House of Commons from 1874 to 1880.

Early life

Jenkins was born in Bangalore, Mysore, India, the eldest son of Rev. Dr. John Jenkins (1813–1898), a minister of the Wesleyan Methodist Missionary Society from 1837 to 1841. His father moved to Canada in 1847 as a Methodist minister, before becoming a Presbyterian minister in Philadelphia in 1853, and minister of a Presbyterian Church in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, from 1865. His mother was Harriet Shepstone of Mysore.

Edward's uncles included David James Jenkins, the MP for Penryn and Falmouth, and Rev. Ebenezer Jenkins, the chairman of Wesleyan Indian Missions.

He was educated in Montreal at the High School and at McGill University, and then at the University of Pennsylvania. He then moved to London, where he studied law with a conveyancer, Mr. Raymond, and was called to the bar at Lincoln's Inn in the Michaelmas term, 1864. He practised as a barrister on the Home Circuit.

Career

Jenkins made his name as the author of the satire Ginx's Baby: his birth and other misfortunes, published in 1870. The book described a child born in poverty who became the victim of rival philanthropists.