JACKSON, JOHN (d. 1807), traveller, was for at least six years before 1792 a wine merchant at 31 Clement's Lane, City. In 1786 he sent to Richard Gough [q. v.], the topographer, a description of Roman remains then lately discovered during some excavations in Lombard Street and Birchin Lane, which was printed, with plates, in ‘Archæologia,’ vol. viii. He was made a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, 15 March 1787. Some years afterwards he proceeded to India on private business; and on 4 May 1797 left Bombay by country ship for Bassora on his way home. He proceeded by way of the Euphrates and Tigris to Baghdad, and thence travelled through Kurdistan, Armorica, Anatolia, Bulgaria, Wallachia, Transylvania, reaching Hamburg on 28 Oct. the same year. He published an account of his travels under the title ‘Journey from India towards England …,’ London, 1799, in which he showed that the route he followed was practicable all the year round. In 1803 he communicated to the Society of Antiquaries an account of some excavations made under his directions among the ruins of Carthage and at Udena, published in ‘Archæologia,’ vol. xv., 1806. He also wrote ‘Reflections on the Commerce of the Mediterranean, deduced from actual experience during a residence on both shores of the Mediterranean Sea .. showing the advantages of increasing the number of British Consuls, and of holding possession of Malta as nearly equal to our West Indian trade,’ London, 1804, 8vo. He died in 1807 (Gent. Mag.)
[Lowndes's London Directory, 1789; List of the Soc. of Antiquaries of London, 1717–96; Index to Archæologia, vols. i–xxx.; Watt's Bibl. Brit.; Gent. Mag. vol. lxxvii. pt. ii. p. 785.]
JACKSON, JOHN (1778–1831), portrait-painter, born 31 May 1778, was son of a tailor at Lastingham in the North Riding of Yorkshire, to whom he was apprenticed. At an early age he showed a predilection for art, and drew portraits of his boyish associates. His father, who did not wish to lose his services, discouraged such practices. In 1797 Jackson is said, however, to have offered himself as a painter of miniatures at York, and during an itinerant excursion to Whitby (whether as painter or tailor does not appear) he seems to have been introduced to Lord Mulgrave. Lord Mulgrave recommended him to the notice of the Earl of Carlisle, who gave him the advantage of studying the fine collection of pictures at Castle Howard. Finally Lord Mulgrave and Sir George Beaumont freed him by purchase from the last two years of his apprenticeship. His early portraits were in pencil, weakly tinted with water-colour, and his first essay in oils was a copy of a portrait of George Colman the elder, by Sir Joshua Reynolds, lent to him by Sir George Beaumont. He had to seek the materials in the shop of a local house-painter and glazier at Lastingham, and notwithstanding their roughness and paucity he managed to make so creditable a copy that Sir George advised him to go to London, promising him 50l. a year during his studentship, and a place at his table (some accounts say a room in his house, and Haydon says that the pension came from Lord Mulgrave). He arrived in London in 1804, and was admitted a student of the Royal Academy in the following year, the same year as Wilkie and the year after Haydon. The three students soon became fast friends, and Jackson generously introduced Haydon to Lord Mulgrave, and brought Lord Mulgrave and Sir George Beaumont to see Wilkie's picture of the ‘Village Politicians,’ a visit which laid the foundation of Wilkie's success. Jackson first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1804, sending a portrait of Master H. Robinson. In 1806 he exhibited a portrait group of Lady Mulgrave and the Hon. Mrs. Phipps, and his contributions for several years testified to the kind patronage of that family, which continued till his death. Although the boldness of his effects of colour and chiaroscuro did not attract a taste which delighted in the smooth manner of Lawrence, Jackson made a good income by his admirable small portraits in pencil, highly finished with water-colour, and he obtained much employment in painting and copying portraits for Cadell's ‘Portraits of Illustrious Persons of the 18th Century.’ Though not greatly patronised by the aristocracy, he soon exhibited portraits of Lady Mary Fitzgerald, the Marquis of Huntly, the Marquis of Hartington, the Archbishop of York, Lord Normanby, and the Marquis of Buckingham, besides more than one of Lord Mulgrave, and he painted many of the academicians, Northcote, Bone, West, Stothard, Ward, Westmacott, Thomson, and Shee, to whom he afterwards added Nollekens, Dance, Flaxman, Soane, and Chantrey. He was elected an associate of the Royal Academy in 1815. In 1816 he travelled in Holland and Flanders with the Hon. General Phipps, making sketches, some of which are in the South
