Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Jackson, Joseph
JACKSON, JOSEPH (1733–1792), letter-founder, was born in Old Street, Shoreditch, London, 4 Sept. 1733, and was educated at a school near St. Luke's, in which church he was the first infant baptised. He was apprenticed to William Caslon the elder (1692–1766) [q. v.], at Chiswell Street, to learn ‘the whole art’ (E. Rowe Mores, Dissertation on English Typographical Founders, 1778, p. 83), and, says Nichols, ‘being exceedingly tractable in the common branches of the business, he had a great desire to learn the method of cutting the punches, which is in general kept profoundly secret’ (Literary Anecdotes, ii. 359). This important art was carried on privately by Caslon and his son, and Jackson only discovered the process by watching through a hole in the wainscot. He worked for Caslon a short time after the expiration of his articles, and is represented as a rubber in the view of the foundry given in the ‘Universal Magazine’ (June 1750, vi. 274). Thomas Cottrell and he were discharged as the ringleaders of a quarrel among the workmen, and the two began business themselves. In 1759, however, Jackson was serving on board the Minerva frigate as armourer, and in May 1761 held the same office on the Aurora. At the peace of 1763 he took 40l. prize-money. Having left the navy, he returned to work in Cottrell's foundry in Nevill's Court, Fetter Lane. He then hired a small house in Cock Lane, and about 1765 produced his first specimen-sheet of types. His business increased, and he moved to Dorset Street, Salisbury Square, Fleet Street. In 1773 he issued another specimen, including Hebrew, Persian, and Bengalee letters; it is praised by Mores, who describes Jackson as ‘obliging and communicative’ (Dissertation, p. 83). He produced the type used in Domesday Book, 1783. Woide's facsimile of the New Testament of the Codex Alexandrinus is described on the title-page as being ‘typis Jacksonianis;’ and Jackson also cut the punches for Kipling's edition of the ‘Codex Bezæ,’ 1793. In 1790 his moulds and matrices were much damaged in a fire. He cut for Bensley a splendid fount for Macklin's ‘Bible,’ 1800, 7 vols. folio, and another for the same printer, used in Hume's ‘England,’ 1806, 10 vols. folio; the last, he asserted, would ‘be the most exquisite performance of the kind in this or any other country’ (Gent. Mag. 1792, p. 166). The anxiety of this undertaking is supposed to have hastened his death, which took place 14 Jan. 1792, in his fifty-ninth year. Jackson was married, first, to Elizabeth Tassell (d. 1783), and, secondly, to Mrs. Pasham (d. 1791), widow of a printer in Blackfriars. He was buried beside his two wives in the burial-ground of Spa Fields Chapel. He ‘was in every sense of the word a master of his art’ (T. C. Hansard, Typographia, 1825, p. 359). ‘By the death of this ingenious artist and truly worthy man the poor lost a most excellent benefactor, his own immediate connections a steady friend, and the literary world a valuable coadjutor to their labours’ (Nichols, Literary Anecdotes, ii. 360). An engraved portrait is given by Nichols (ib. ii. 358); a portrait in oil was shown by W. Blades at the Caxton Exhibition (Catalogue, p. 336). He was childless, and left the bulk of his fortune, which was large, to fourteen nephews and nieces. His foundry was ultimately purchased by the third William Caslon, by whom it was enlarged and improved.
[Nichols's Lit. Anecd. ii. 358–63, iii. 264, 460; Gent. Mag. January 1792, pp. 92–3, 166; Reed's Old English Letter Foundries, 1887, pp. 315–329.]