The extraordinary life and death of John Jackson

In an earlier post I focussed on a particular episode in the life of John Jackson.  Now I want to expand on what we know about this fascinating man.
He was born in around 1772, but not in Hull.  We don't know where.  With a name like John Jackson he is very difficult to research.  The first certain sighting of him is on 2 November 1813, when he married Alice Cowan at Holy Trinity, Hull.  He was described as a merchant.  Since he was about 41 at the time it was probably not his first marriage.  Alice was 20 years younger than her husband.  Two years later, on 29 July 1815, their daughter Elizabeth was baptised at St Mary's, Hull.  Their abode was given as Bishop Lane.  It seems that the child died in infancy, and a few years later another daughter was born and given the same name - a common practice then.  It will have been during this period that the couple had the run-in with Robert Bamford while Alice was heavily pregnant.  John, it seems, already had debt problems.

Homes of the Jackson family - North Walls, Bishop Lane and Bowlalley Lane

By 1823 the family had moved to 16, Bowlalley Lane, where Baines' Directory describes John as a merchant.  It's likely that his merchandise was books, and that he was also printing and publishing his and others' work.

16 Bowlalley Lane

At some point he joined the Radical movement.  This had arisen in the 18th century as a growing demand for electoral reform, both in national and local government.  1819 saw the Peterloo Massacre at one of the many large protest gatherings; they were rural riots in the 1820s.  In Hull there was a particular focus on corruption in local government.  Accounts dwell on the role of James Acland, but by the time he came to Hull, Jackson may already have been at the forefront of the reform movement.  The 21st edition of Acland's weekly publication, the Hull Portfolio, on 24 December 1831, led with a letter from Acland to Jackson: "Dear Sir.  At a Public meeting of the People of Hull, held at the scite [sic] of the Old Gaol, now some weeks since, a certain declaration to His Majesty was unanimously resolved upon.  You were the Chairman at that Meeting, and as the proceedings were of my suggestion I trust I may be permitted to enquire, whether the document in question (which was signed by thousands) has been duly forwarded by you to His Majesty - if so by what means, and, if otherwise, why."
Acland must have known perfectly well what was going on; the Portfolio was printed by Jackson at his Bowlalley Lane premises.  Shortly afterwards the People of Hull became a formal group as the Hull Political Union with John Jackson as its first president.  The implication is that Acland was the instigator of the Political Union and pulling the strings, while Jackson was simply his puppet.  That has certainly become the official version, and Jackson's name appears nowhere in the accounts of the time.  But there is a strong possibility that John Jackson played a bigger part than history records.
James Acland was a hugely disruptive presence in the city.  In a very short time he was stirring up almost nightly demonstrations.  His full story has been well documented, including his ferry scheme and his standing for Parliament.  He was imprisoned in 1832, and it became clear that he had created a great deal of personal animosity from people who had been his allies, including John Jackson.  In 1832 Jackson published a pamphlet, written by F. Adams with a preface by John himself, setting out the ways in which Acland had broken his promises and conned his friends out of money which he never paid back.
Jackson had money troubles, probably exacerbated by his involvement with Acland.  He was jailed for non-payment of taxes in 1833.  But his political activity continued.  In August 1836 a letter to the Hull Advertiser referred to his "stern republicanism".  At some point in the 1840s he, Alice and Elizabeth moved to North Walls, where the 1841 census records him as a Clerk.  But Jackson was in jail at that point, and is recorded on the census there too.  (It was not uncommon for that to happen.)  It is likely that he had continuing problems with debt.
The 1832 Reform Act had brought very limited electoral reform, but the 1835 Municipal Corporations Act delivered much more fundamental changes, and the first election in Hull after it, in 1836, swept away the old regime.  The corruption in the running of local charities including the Charterhouse was tackled.  John Jackson got his name onto the waiting list and was elected to a room in the Charterhouse on 7 February 1844.  Since the choices were made by the

Council, this shows that he had friends, or at least sympathisers, among the Aldermen.  But it was apparently the fourth time that his name had been put forward, and John could not resist a dig at those who had voted against him, as the Hull Advertiser noted on 15 March.  Alice went in with her husband, although her name is not recorded in our register.  In the Charterhouse the couple would have come face to face with Sarah Bamford, twenty years after she had been awarded the room in circumstances which John had complained so bitterly about.  She was still only 76.  And she was to outlive John.
John Jackson died in horrific circumstances on 15 January 1850.

The local paper printed an account of the inquest, which makes grim reading.  The exact circumstances couldn't be known, but his end was the stuff of nightmares.  For Alice it was a double tragedy.  She had lost her husband and she was now homeless.  She was not given a room, and was evicted.  She appears on the 1851 census as a merchant's widow in North Street, Sculcoates.

(Photo of 16 Bowlalley Lane and contributions to this research by M Gilchrist.)