Life
Born at Rye in Sussex, on 9 October 1623, he may have belonged to one of the French Protestant families who settled in the county at the end of the 16th century: the name Jeake, written also Jake, Jaque, Jeakes, and Jacque, does point to a French origin. Samuel's father was a baker. His mother, a pious woman, was daughter of the Rev. John Pearson of Peasmarsh, Sussex; she died 20 November 1639.
In 1640 Samuel severed his connection with the Church of England, and was appointed minister of a conventicle, apparently Baptist. He later became an attorney-at-law at Rye, and in 1651 was made a freeman and common, or town, clerk. This office he resigned, or was deprived of, after the passing of the act of 1661 excluding dissenters from municipal corporations.
As a sectarian preacher, Jeake frequently clashed with the authorities. He was prosecuted before the privy council in 1681, and his meeting-house was shut up. Next year he was again delated, under the Five Miles Act. Brought to London, he remained there till 1687, when the toleration which James II extended to the dissenters enabled him to return to Rye. There he took part in meetings till his death, on 3 October 1690.
Jeake dabbled in alchemy, and made a calculation of his own horoscope. He had a large library, and compiled a catalogue. Remains of a storehouse built by him, and of a horoscope on the front, survived in Mermaid Street, Rye.
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