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281
Heroes of the Telegraph
·
John Munro
127
CHAPTER
VI.
FLEEMING
JENKIN.
The
late
Fleeming
Jenkin,
Professor
of
Engineering
in
Edinburgh
University,
was
remarkable
for
the
versatility
of
his
talent.
Known
to
the
world
as
the
inventor
of
Telpherage,
he
was
an
electrician
and
cable
engineer
of
the
first
rank,
a
lucid
lecturer,
and
a
good
linguist,
a
skilful
critic,
a
writer
and
actor
of
plays,
and
a
clever
sketcher.
In
popular
parlance,
Jenkin
was
a
dab
at
everything.
His
father,
Captain
Charles
Jenkin,
R.N.,
was
the
second
son
of
Mr.
Charles
Jenkin,
of
Stowting
Court,
himself
a
naval
officer,
who
had
taken
part
in
the
actions
with
De
Grasse.
Stowting
Court,
a
small
estate
some
six
miles
north
of
Hythe,
had
been
in
the
family
since
the
year
1633,
and
was
held
of
the
Crown
by
the
feudal
service
of
six
men
and
a
constable
to
defend
the
sea-way
at
Sandgate.
Certain
Jenkins
had
settled
in
Kent
during
the
reign
of
Henry
VIII.,
and
claimed
to
have
come
from
Yorkshire.
They
bore
the
arms
of
Jenkin
ap
Phillip
of
St.
Melans,
who
traced
his
descent
from
'Guaith
Voeth,'
Lord
of
Cardigan.
While
cruising
in
the
West
Indies,
carrying
specie,
or
chasing
buccaneers
and
slavers,
Charles
Jenkin,
junior,
was
introduced
to
the
family
of
a
fellow
midshipman,
son
of
Mr.
Jackson,
Custos
Rotulorum
of
Kingston,
Jamaica,
and
fell
in
love
with
Henrietta
Camilla,
the
youngest
daughter.
Mr.
Jackson
came
of
a
Yorkshire
stock,
said
to
be
of
Scottish
origin,
and
Susan,
his
wife,
was
a
daughter
of
[Sir]
Colin
Campbell,
a
Greenock
merchant,
who
inherited
but
never
assumed
the
baronetcy
of
Auchinbreck.
[According
to
BURKE'S
PEERAGE
(1889),
the
title
went
to
another
branch.]
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