Abbott, Jacob (1803-1879), an American writer. He was born at Hallowell, Maine. He was a graduate of Bowdoin College, a student of divinity at Andover, a professor of mathematics in Amherst College, the principal of a girls' school in Boston, and pastor of a Congregational church at Roxbury, Mass. He had a fondness for young people, and wrote several series of instructive story books. The best known of these are the Rollo Books in which he describes Rollo's experiences while traveling in the United States and in various foreign countries. Mr. Abbott was for years one of the main contributors to Harper's Monthly. In his later years he retired to Farmington, Maine, where he died October 31, 1879.