Jekyll was born in the parish of St. Helen, Bishopsgate, London, on 12 January 1570, was eldest son of John Stocker Jekyll of Newington, Middlesex, by Mary, daughter and heiress of Nicholas Barnehouse of Wellington, Somerset (Visitations of Essex, Harl.
He became an attorney of Clifford's Inn, and was afterwards made secondary of the king's bench and one of the clerks of the papers.
Availing himself of his access to legal records, Jekyll filled above forty volumes with valuable materials for the histories of Essex, Norfolk, and Suffolk (Gough, British Topography, i.
A portion of the Jekyll collection was included in the list of manuscripts belonging to John Ouseley, rector of Springfield, Essex, printed in the ‘Catalogi Librorum Manuscriptorum Angliæ,’ 1697 (ii.
William Holbrook, his son-in-law, who in 1710 was willing to sell them to Harley, earl of Oxford (cf.
Holbrook is said to have subsequently communicated his part of the collection to William Holman, who obtained additions from Nicholas Jekyll.
Of two manuscript catalogues of the Jekyll MSS., drawn up by Holman in 1715, one is now in the library of All Souls' College, Oxford (No.
An interesting letter from Jekyll to Sir Symonds D'Ewes, dated from Bocking on 19 Dec. 1641, is in Harleian MS. 376.