Jacob Brinkerhoff (August 31, 1810 – July 19, 1880) was an American jurist, Congressman, and author of the Wilmot Proviso.

Two years later he moved to Mansfield, Ohio, where in 1837 he was admitted to the bar and began to practice in partnership with Thomas W.

He became affiliated with the Free Soil Party and drew up the famous resolution known as the Wilmot Proviso; the original draft in his handwriting is in the Congressional Library.

Several copies of this resolution were made and distributed among the Free Soil members of Congress, with the understanding that whoever among them should catch the speaker's eye and get the floor should introduce it.

He dissented in the Oberlin-Wellington Rescue case of 1858, a test of the Fugitive Slave Law, arguing that slavery was solely a state institution, that should enjoy no protection at the federal level.