Richard Taylor Jacob (March 13, 1825 – September 13, 1903) was an American attorney and politician, elected as 17th Lieutenant Governor of Kentucky (1863–64).

Due to his support of Democratic Party candidate George B. McClellan for the presidency in 1864, Jacob was arrested and expelled from the state during the war.

Governor Thomas E. Bramlette appealed to President Abraham Lincoln for Jacob's release, and he was subsequently allowed to return to Kentucky.

In 1855 Jacob bought a farm called "Woodland" on the Ohio River in Oldham County, Kentucky, and moved there with his family.

But when the American Civil War broke out, he remained loyal to the Union and worked to prevent Kentucky from seceding and joining the Confederacy.

Jacob attacked the Emancipation Proclamation, issued in 1863, considering it unfair to those Kentucky slave-holders who remained loyal to the Union as it did not provide compensation for freeing slaves.

General Stephen G. Burbridge, the Union commander of the district of Kentucky, had caused much controversy and opposition in the state for his heavy-handed tactics, including execution of suspected spies on flimsy evidence.