The story of the Jackson family begins in 1753 with the birth of William Jackson in the little village of Upton Grey in Hampshire. It is a picturesque village, little changed for a century, in pretty rolling and well-wooded countryside about five miles from Basingstoke. In William’s time it was perhaps not quite so pretty - the thatched cottages were built only at the end of the nineteenth century by a local man with humanitarian principles. Many of the older houses are not whitewashed but are of brick with supporting inset wooden beams. Their proximity to London puts such houses into the luxury class today. Nothing is known about the cottage in which William grew up but no doubt it was smaller and more primitive, without running water and no lighting other than rushes dipped in oil.
William worked as an agricultural labourer and married twice. His first marriage was to Hannah Holdaway on October 10th 1776. The harvest would have been gathered in by then. They had two children. The first, Elizabeth, was christened on November 26th 1776 and died two years later, being buried in the little village church on February 1st 1778, aged 14 months. Three months later, on May 17th, their second child, Daniel, was christened. Hannah herself was buried in the same church on the first day of the next year, 1779.
Whether there were any of William’s family living around Upton Grey we do not know, but there were quite a number of Holdaways who appear in various marriage records alongside Longs and Bakers.
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Upton Grey William’s second wife, Ann, (surname unknown) was born in 1757 or 1758. The date of the marriage is not known at present, but although she was old enough to look after Daniel Jackson when his mother died it is more probable that he was brought up by one of his Holdaway relatives. Ann’s son George Jackson was christened on January 1st 1797, perhaps being several days old. Font |
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At that time all children, regardless of their parents’ religious persuasion, had to be christened in the parish church and all marriages had also to be conducted in the village church. George Jackson was a Catholic for most of his life, but whether he was brought up as one is not clear at present. The main difficulty faced by Jacksons in Upton Grey if they were Catholics would be the lack of religious support. The nearest chapel or resident priest (known at present) would be in Basingstoke, rather too far for regular attendance! However, there could well have been a number of itinerant priests, though they generally depended on some great house for the use of a chapel. Information is still being unearthed and the rapid growth of computerised records will undoubtedly shed more light on the subject in the future.
There must have been some form of village school available to George Jackson. He learnt to write a neat copperplate hand and to add up accurately. By the 1820’s he was ready to set off with his new wife and make his own way in the world, far from home, and not merely as an ‘agricultural labourer’.
George Jackson married Mary Anne of Nateley Scures, a neighbouring village. She was born in 1806 or 1807.
The only marriage so far found to fit the dates is one of a George Jackson and a Mary Anne White on June 24th 1826 in Brown Candover, a village equidistant from Upton Grey but in the opposite direction. Unfortunately Hampshire was rather inundated with George Jacksons, not to mention Mary Anns (or Annes) and the marriage records so far found do not quote the wife’s maiden name. Without further evidence this marriage cannot be taken for granted, even though it is quite possible. This George Jackson is quoted on the marriage record as being ‘of East Quantock Head’ (or Quantoxhead) in Somerset, which could simply mean that he was living there at the time.
George and Mary Anne’s first child, Emma, was born on May 25th 1827, in the tiny village of Washfield, a few miles from Tiverton in Devon. It is not known for sure what George’s particular occupation was at that time, but he would almost certainly have been already in the employ of the Chichester family of Calverleigh Court, who owned much of the surrounding land.