Introduction

Biography

Jacob was the hus­band of Ag­nes Boyd (marr­ied 1866, Mil­ton Scot­land, with Nor­man Mac­leod of­fi­ci­at­ing at the ce­re­mo­ny).

He stu­died at the Uni­ver­si­ty in Glas­gow, and in 1849 beg­an mis­sion work in the west dis­trict of that ci­ty by found­ing the Roll Toll Ragg­ed School. Three years lat­er he found­ed the Port Room Ragg­ed School; and in 1858, the Mill Girls’ Re­li­gious So­ci­ety, with branch­es all ov­er the ci­ty.

In 1858, he found­ed the Bi­ble Stu­dents’ So­ci­ety, in 1862 the Ci­ty Hall Sup­pers for the poor, and in 1863 the Foun­dry Boys’ Re­li­gious So­ci­ety. In 1866 the Grove Street In­sti­tute was built, and his va­ri­ous en­ter­pris­es were cen­tered in this large build­ing.

In 1879, Mac­Gill went to Lon­don, where he and his friend Grat­tan Gui­ness found­ed Ber­ger Hall, a Home Mis­sion In­sti­tute on the same lines as the Grove Street In­sti­tute.

From 1884 un­til 1901, he was sec­re­ta­ry of the Man­ches­ter City Mis­sion, the larg­est ci­ty mis­sion in Bri­tain out­side Lon­don. While there, he man­aged to build 24 meet­ing hous­es or as­semb­lies in Man­ches­ter.

Works

• Ragged School Work, 1886