Gratitude is a salad.

Today is American Thanksgiving, a month or so later than the Canadian version. I actually like the way that the two are on separate dates. Today, I am really enjoying celebrating my gratitude for my American friends and family. Our son-in-law, Micah, and his family always come to mind on this day, as well as they do on many other days. They don’t make people any better than this. Actually this year, in some ways, I celebrated American Thanksgiving early.

On September 18^th I visited Micah’s parents, Trudy & Joel, in their home outside New Salem. In the clearing in the woods, that surrounds their home, they have a half dozen or so raised beds where they grow much of what they eat during the growing season. The salad in the picture above was one that Trudy made from the mix of vegetables that she and Joel had grown. She also baked bread for us, and made an amazing cake. In fact, the lunch spread was more than generous, more than beautiful, and more than delicious. Some of the left-over bagel, salmon and cream cheese fueled me the following evening when I flew off to Ireland.

Food such as this is a blessing. Grown with love; prepared with love; served with love. There are reasons that food features in the sacramental rituals of so many faiths.

Yesterday, Andreas set out crab traps and thankfully the crabs obliged. Our plan was to score enough to be able to make crab cakes with whiskey sauce with Sabrina and Micah when they visit here over the Christmas break. They will be here in a matter of weeks. Now, there is a pound or more of shelled crab in the freezer awaiting their arrival.

When I visited them recently in Boston, Micah made my coffee for me every morning, a perfect Americano served in a Crown Derby cup. After coffee, and brunch on the deck - made by Sabrina – she and I often walked, and talked, and listened for hours. It was my first real chance to get to know a bit about their neighbourhood. Some evenings, we went out to local restaurants that I have been meaning to write about - there are so many places in Boston with such amazing food for easy-on-the-wallet prices. One day, the two of them tried to see if they could get me into a clothing store and have me walk out with something that I would wear. They even succeeded. That is harder than many people might think.

Oh my, oh my. Profound gratitude. Thanks-giving.

Today in Roberts Creek, we are in the midst of an early winter storm with the surf loosening the snags that have been dug in to the sand for some years at the edge of the shore. There will be no crabbing today, but the pounding of the surf has been booming like fat chords played on a pipe organ. The biggest snag that had been at the bottom of our stairs for the past few years was moved west by one of the larger surges. Perhaps over Christmas, when we have more hands on deck, we can chainsaw up the rest of it, and open up a new passage for easier egress for all the friends who join us for Twelfth Night.

Gratitude in so many forms. I could go on forever, but it is time to baste the Chinese Honey-Ginger Duck that I am cooking for tonight's dinner with Vietnamese black rice. For American Thanksgiving. In Canada.

Jacksons and the Samuel Pepys connection

Image of Samuel PEPYS from Wikimedia Commons.

About four years ago, I noted a mention of a John Jackson in The Diary of Samuel Pepys. After a quick look at www.thepeerage.com , I set it aside, one of the several thousands of disconnected bits parked in my bags of Jackson-related snippets. Just as in my previous two posts – the one on Original Jackson and the one on Island Hall  -  it was Christopher Vane Percy whose new information prodded me to fill in more of the blanks.

Easy to find on line and in my library were the references to the marriage of John Jackson and Paulina Pepys – sister of Samuel - in Pepys’ diary:

• Jan 2, 1668: This day I received a letter from my father, and another from my cozen Roger Pepys, who have had a view of Jackson's evidences of his estate, and do mightily like of the man and his condition and estate, and do advise me to accept of the match for my sister and to finish it as soon as I can; and he do it so as, I confess, I am contented to have it done, and so give her her portion.
• February 7, 1668, Mr. Jackson, who is a plain young man, handsome enough for Pall, [Paulina] one of no education nor discourse, but of few words, and one altogether that I think will please me well enough.
• March 2, 1668:2nd. This day I have the news that my sister was married on Thursday last to Mr. Jackson; so that work is, I hope, well over.
• May 24, 1668 Here I saw my brothers and sister Jackson, she growing fat, and since being married I think looks comelier than before: but a mighty pert woman she is, and I think proud, he keeping her mighty handsome, and they say mighty fond, and are going shortly to live at Ellington of themselves, and will keep malting, and grazing of cattle.

Unfortunately, for anyone who may count this John Jackson as an ancestor, he doesn’t seem to have managed the financial side of his life at all well. There will be no hidden inheritances thanks to him.Too bad.

He did receive a dowry of £600 upon marrying Paulina, but before long, she had to take up the financial reins in order to get them out of trouble. It is hard to say what Jackson’s problem was. Certainly, it wasn’t the lack of a decent start in life. After his father’s death in 1652, he farmed the Parsonage farm in Brampton [I believe it was in Brampton] together with a few other fields that he had also inherited in copyhold. He has also inherited the Tiled House in Ellington as well as 20-30 acres of pasture from Robert Ensum who was either a brother-in-law or else a stepbrother – the records are a bit murky when it comes to specifics.

Needless to say, Samuel Pepys was none too thrilled with the financial acumen of his brother-in-law, and had thought of buying him out and leaving Jackson with what might amount to pocket change. That never happened. On September 1680, just before Pepys was able to set up a financial firewall and an annuity for his sister and their two children, John Jackson died. It seems that the best that could be said for John and Paulina’s marriage is that they seemed to have some times of contentment in their early years. Also, in spite of some ratty comments made by Pepys about Paulina when she was his wife’s maidservant, it is heartening how he came to her rescue when help was needed.

But back to John Jackson. There is little known about his parents or where they came from. Just this:

John JACKSON, wife of Paulina Pepys was a son of John Jackson of Buckden Hunt’s. He was a nephew of Lewis Phillips, an attorney of Brampton, mentioned in Pepys’ Diary. John JACKSON, who was mentioned in the will of his father 15 Jan. 1652/3. Died c. Sept. 1680. Administration 4 Oct. 1680 Excerpts from Eight Generations of the Pepys Family 1500-1800 by Edwin Chappell [published 1936] 

Another biographical source describes him as a grazier from Ellington, which would be a fit with the fact that he owned and/or leased several fields for pasturage. 

There may or may not be a familial relationship between him and the Original Jackson of Godmanchester. Geographically, they were in the same neck of the woods. Brampton, the home of John Jackson, is about 2 miles as the crow flies from Godmanchester. That’s all we have to go on at present, and of course such coincidences do not constitute anything like proof.

We do know that John Jackson jr. also had two brothers:

Will [314 Brent] pr. June 29 by sons Richard and James JACKSON, John, of Buckden, Hunts., gent., Jan. 15, 1652-3. Source: Abstracts of Probate Acts in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury.

OTHER SOURCES:

I have posted a tree of this John Jackson and his wife Paulina Pepys

The Diary of Samuel Pepys, Vol. 10: Companion. Samuel Pepys, Robert Latham, William Matthews. University of California Press, 2000.

Island Hall in Godmanchester

As a mentioned in my previous post, Island Hall was built by Original Jackson  for his son, John. 

Island Hall is an elegant riverside mansion built in the late 1740s. The house is situated in 3 acres of gardens including an ornamental Saxon island in the river Great Ouse.

For the purposes of history alone – and other reasons no doubt as well – we are fortunate that the house and grounds are now owned by Christopher Vane Percy who lives there with his family. It is worth checking out theirgallery of photos. Obviously, the Original Jackson who built this Georgian house was blessed with a considerable dab of good taste, as is the current owner.

[Mr Vane Percy] has completed the house's restoration: not only has it been redecorated but the 18th century cupola over the stables has been rebuilt, the island bought back and the Chinese bridge reconstructed. The long task of returning to the garden to the vision of the 'stillest repose' which Octavia Hill enjoyed is now well advanced. She saw the house as a reminder 'of what that deep attachment is to an inherited spot of old earth, rich with memories of days long ago.' By some miracle, that attachment has endured.
Michael Hall, Country Life, February 26, 1998, with photographs by June Buck

I silvered the columns, then stippled them with the blues of lapis. I gilded the woodwork, then gave it a grain finish. For that, the school of safe good taste would probably have taken me out and shot," says Christopher Vane Percy, "but my house needed something bold. Island Hall may be mid-eighteenth century, but the architecture looks back to the seventeenth century, a gutsier era when all the great Baroque houses were over the top.
Elizabeth Lambert, Architectural Digest, 1996

Although Christopher does not have a direct link with Original Jackson, his family’s connection to the house does go back to the early 1800s:

After Original’s death, his son John’s financial situation  went from bad to worse, and his Son, John Junior’s situation was no better. By 1804 the house had to be sold, and was subsequently bought by my ancestor. In 1958, my grandfather’s cousin sold the house and I bought it back in 1983 It was my family who named the house Island Hall – before that there was no name.  

For those interested in all aspects Jackson, the house and grounds are well worth a tour and the family welcome guests:

Island Hall is a family run private home and all tours are given by a member of the family. You can also stay for tea, dinner or attend one of our evening concerts. Visiting is easy by road or rail: drive a short distance from the A14 or A1(M) or alight at Huntingdon station.

As always, when it comes to what I know about Jacksons, I continue to stand on the shoulders of others. Thanks to my new vantage point - standing on the work of Christopher Vane Percy - I can see just that much further. As always, gratitude.

Original Jackson

The story of Original Jackson may turn out to have absolutely nothing to do with the Jacksons I am researching, still, I decided to figure out more about who he was for three reasons:

• Birds of a feather fly together. It may be a clue that the birds on his grave-memorial appear to be the same shovellers used by a line of Coleraine Jacksons in their family crest. This is also the same bird seen in the crest of Sir Thomas Jackson (1841-1915).
• Secondly, Original Jackson lived at Godmanchester, Cambridgeshire not far from the JACKSONs of Duddington. Some of these Duddington Jacksons settled in Fanningstown, Co. Limerick in the mid-1600s. One of their crests includes three eagles, which may seem like a bird of a different feather, but these heraldic elements do tend to morph from one generation to another.
• Finally, there is a family story that Sir Thomas Jackson’s people came to Ireland from Northamptonshire in the time of Elizabeth I, and also that they came and went in the decades that followed, including in the time of Cromwell.

This crest is in the uppermost corner of a painting of John Jackson (b c. 1630)
of Kirby Lonsdale, later of Coleraine..

My first solid piece of information on Original Jackson came last August when Les Swinburne sent me photos from St. Mary’s and St. Regius Church. With his permission, I posted them on my website.  The ones from St. Mary’s were a slam dunk fit with the Jacksons of Duddington. Since St. Regius and St. Mary’s are quite close - about 6 miles apart – the first one in the town of Duddington, the second in Water Newton, I started to wonder about a connection between these various Jacksons. My curiosity about this increased when I noted that a later generation of one of the Duddington Jacksons – Charles William Jackson (1797-1819) – married a Rachel Bromhead who came from Connington,  near Godmanchester. Who knows? There may be a connection.

Last week, the current owner of Island Hall, Christopher Vane Percy, sent me six pages of new-to-me material. It included stabs at a couple of Jackson family trees as well as notes from a genealogist he had once employed to learn more about the Jackson connection to both Island Hall and the diarist Samuel Pepys. (The Pepys part, I will address in a future post.) Christopher’s interest in Jacksons is because the historic Georgian House he lives in – now called Island Hall - was built by Original Jackson in celebration of his son’s 21^st birthday. The question that Christopher was pursuing was: Who was this Original Jackson?

The name is rare, but not unique. Notes and Queries suggests that the name Original was a derivation of Reginald. If you say both names quickly with a regional accent, it is easy to believe that this is possible. But maybe not. Some suggest that the name Original was mostly used by Pilgrims. The author of Curiositiesof Puritan Nomenclature  disagrees with this. He claims that the name was a way of tagging the first born, the original heir. Another respondent in the same set of queries claims that Original Jackson, Original Upsall, and Original Marshall were all of Rampton, Nottinghamshire, and that in the same rough time frame there were also men named: Original Bellamy, Original Lowis, Original Babington as well as an Original Hall mentioned in Subsidy Roll, Notts; and an Original Pearl of Lincoln. Since Rampton, Nottinghamshire is also where an Alexander JACKSON was the assistant churchwarden in 1596, clearly, it would be worth learning more about this line of Jacksons.

The Puritan connection to Original Jackson may not be farfetched. Many of the early Puritans were from families of literate yeoman farmers. They were successful financially, but were irked at the state control over religion. Many of them were educated at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. The Archbishop there was more set on persecuting Roman Catholics, and pretty much let the Puritans be.

The genealogist who did a wonderful bit of spade work for Christopher wondered it there might be two Original Jackson’s: one at Water Newton and one at Godmanchester. I can see why he (or she) thought that, but am pretty certain that they are one and the same:

• Original Jackson’s daughter Elizabeth lived at Water Newton after she married a George Palmer of Water Newton – probably about 1760, since she was born in 1733.
• Secondly, there is a lease and release which states: Jackson now of Water Newton, Esq; to Rev. Horace Hamond of Harpley, Norfolk, DD. £6,000 as in R4/2/11. SOURCE: National Archives R4/2/13 31st October-1st November 1768 

It seems reasonable that in 1678, three years before his death, that Original Jackson might be living with his daughter.  He would have been sixty-eight years old. In terms of possible connections between the Duddington and Godmanchester Jacksons, I also note that several of the Duddington Jacksons owned land at Castor. This is less than two miles from Water Newton.

From here, I want to share a little thinking out loud. There is a third tantalizing bit that begs to be understood:

Notes and Queries, March 21, 1885: St. Nicholas's Church, Whitehaven: April 9, 1787, Isabella Jackson, wife of Original Jackson, buried. 

The Original JACKSON (1697-1771) of Godmanchester was married and had children, but his wife was Sarah Dowsing, not Isabel. Also, St. Nicholas' Church is in Cumbria, nowhere near either Godmanchester or Water Newton.

So who was this other Original Jackson? In the 1700s, Whitehaven was a large port - second only to London. Interestingly, just down the coast is the town of St. Bees, another place that was thick with JACKSONs in the early 1600s. Of particular interest to me is Rev. Richard Jackson (1650-1738) who was schoolmaster at St. Bees for 52 years. SOURCE: The Ejected of Cumberland.

This Richard Jackson lived not too far distant from the Rev. Richard Jackson (1602-1680) of Kirby Lonsdale, the earliest known ancestor of the Jacksons of Coleraine – the ones who had a shoveller in their crest. As I said earlier: birds of a feather.

Other resources:

• The will of Original Jackson 
• The family tree of Original Jackson