Dictionary of National Biography, 1901 supplement/Jackson, Catherine Hannah Charlotte

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1338848Dictionary of National Biography, 1901 supplement, Volume 3 — Jackson, Catherine Hannah Charlotte1901Elizabeth Lee

JACKSON, CATHERINE HANNAH CHARLOTTE, Lady (d. 1891), authoress, was the daughter of Thomas Elliott of Wakefield. She became the second wife of Sir George Jackson [q. v.] in 1856, the marriage taking place at St. Helena. After her husband's death in 1861 she turned her attention to literature, and began by editing the diaries and letters of her husband's early life. In 1872 appeared in two volumes 'The Diaries and Letters of Sir George Jackson, from the Peace of Amiens to the Battle of Talavera,' and in 1873, also in two volumes, 'The Bath Archives : a further Selection from the Diaries and Letters of Sir George Jackson, 1809-16.' On 19 June 1874 she was granted a pension of 100l. a year from the civil list, in recognition of her husband's services. She now took to reading widely in French memoirs, and compiled from them several books on French society. One of the best of them, 'Old Paris: its Court and Literary Salons,' appeared in two volumes in 1878. Lady Jackson's works have an interest for the general reader, but their inaccuracies and lack of perspective render them useless to the historical student. Her English style cannot be commended. She died at Bath on 9 Dec. 1891.

Other works are: 1. 'Fair Lusitania,' 1874. 2. 'The Old Regime: Court, Salons, and Theatres,' 2 vols. 1880. 3. 'The French Court and Society: Reign of Louis XVI and First Empire,' 2 vols. 1881. 4. 'The Court of the Tuileries from the Restoration to the Flight of Louis Philippe,' 2 vols. 1883. 5. 'The Court of France in the Sixteenth Century, 151459,' 2 vols. 1885. 6. 'The Last of the Valois and Accession of Henry of Navarre, 1559-89,' 2 vols. 1888. 7. 'The First of the Bourbons,' 2 vols. 1890.

[Boase's Modern English Biogr. ii. 29; Times, 11 Dec. 1891; Colles's Literature and the Pension List; Allibone's Dict. Suppl. ii. 891.]

E. L.