John Jeremiah Jacob (December 9, 1829 – November 24, 1893) was a Democratic politician from Green Spring in (Hampshire County), in the U.S. state of West Virginia.

John Jeremiah Jacob was born in Green Spring, Virginia on the Potomac River, north of Romney.

Jacob's Hampshire County roots made him the first of West Virginia's governors to be born within the present-day borders of the state.

Jacob practiced law and taught school in Hampshire County before accepting a teaching position at the University of Missouri in 1853.

After Jacob left the governor's office, he remained in Wheeling and served once again in the West Virginia House of Delegates, this time from Ohio County, in 1879.