The Jackson family of Lazenby and Lackenby

In the 18th and 19th centuries, a family called Jackson farmed at Lackenby and Lazenby, two small hamlets in the parish of Wilton, at the northernmost edge of the North Riding of Yorkshire.  This low-lying land, stretching northwards to the mouth of the river Tees – and later mostly covered by ICI Wilton – was once known as the Lowside.

We are so used to the view of the petrochemical complex that inspired the opening scenes of Ridley Scott's Blade Runner that it is hard to imagine how empty and beautiful the place once was.

Here it is – before the Tees became an industrial river – described by the Revd John Graves in his History of Cleveland in 1808:

The village of Wilton is small, and consists of a few houses, seated on the northern declivity of a hill, the summit of which being nearly level, has been brought into cultivation; while the sides, rising abruptly, are ornamented with young and thriving plantations.   

The grounds on the north from the village have an easy and gradual descent, and the prospect is extensive and pleasingly diversified: near at hand upon the right are seen the hospital and mansion, with the richly cultivated grounds of Kirkleatham, beyond which, tracing the circling line of shore to the left, the town of Hartlepool in a prominent position, with the bold figure of its church, affords a striking object; while the serpentine course of the river Tees, which on its approach towards the sea, expands itself into a fine extensive bay, is seen winding through a tract of rich and fertile grounds beneath, adding greatly to the beauty and interest of the general view. 

It was a small agricultural parish and, in 1801, consisted of 67 houses occupied by 74 families – a total of 328 people.

The lands within the parish consist nearly of an equal portion of arable, meadow, and pasture; and the soil in general a fertile clay; which, notwithstanding its northern aspect, and exposure to severe blasts from the sea, produces crops of wheat and other grain in great perfection, and the harvests in general are as early as in any of the more favoured parts of Cleveland.   

The low grounds near the river Tees are principally in grass; as was formerly an extensive tract, which lay in common open fields, stretching from the village in a direction north and south; but, by the late inclosure, has been brought into a more advantageous state of cultivation.

The Jacksons of Wilton were for the most part yeomen, that hardworking, prudent class that lay between the gentlemen and the petty farmers.

In the mid 20th century, a descendant of the Jacksons of Wilton compiled a family tree covering the 17th to 19th centuries, based on a collection of legal documents, information and artefacts that had remained in the family, and supplemented with research. 

It was subsequently examined and extended by the late Miss Grace Dixon, local historian of Guisborough, with assistance from the Kirkleatham Museum, and then Grace Dixon and I worked on some specific areas of the story. 

The early parts of the family tree remain imperfect, but nevertheless useful (perhaps particularly to those trying to disentangle the many Jacksons of Cleveland), and the later developments are very interesting.  Where I can, I indicate sources; it is obviously open to correction, but will at least point to areas of investigation.



Lawrence Jackson of Great Ayton, fl 1680 

The family tree begins with Lawrence Jackson of Great Ayton. 

In 1680, in the reign of Charles II, Lawrence Jackson made a marriage settlement on his only son and heir apparent John, who was to marry Ann, daughter of Robert Skelton of Appleton-in-the-Moor:

An Indenture dated 29 May 1680, between Lawrence Jackson and his wife (1) William Grey of Aislaby, gentleman, and Robert Skelton of Appleton-in-the-Moor (2) and John Jackson, son of Lawrence (3):
Lawrence granted divers freehold lands at Faceby, Picton and elsewhere upon trust for the benefit of John and his intended wife and their issue. 

An Indenture dated 31 May 1680: Lawrence granted and assigned lands at Picton held for a term of 500 years from the Wardens and Master of the Grammar School and Hospital of Jesus at Guisborough to his son John "for his preferment by way of marriage".

The lands at Picton would have been part of the original endowment of the Grammar School by Robert Pursglove, last prior of Guisborough, to whom Elizabeth I granted a licence to found a school and almshouse in the town.

There is in the Great Ayton Parish Registers an entry of burial of a Lawrence Jackson on 1 November 1682, which could be the same man.

Robert Skelton presumably came from what is now known as Appleton-le-Moor, near Pickering.


John Jackson of Great Ayton and Ann Skelton

John Jackson and Ann Skelton had two daughters: 

• Ann, who married Robert Jackson, yeoman of Great Ayton

• Mary, who is presumed to have married Richard Musgrave, Esq., of Nunthorpe.  Musgrave may have been from Nunthorpe near York, as there is no entry for Richard Musgrave in the 1673 Hearth Tax for Nunthorpe in Cleveland.  The Ayton registers are much damaged, but do contain one entry for Musgrove – for the baptism of Barbara, daughter of Richard Musgrave, in 1705.  Possibly Mary was now living nearer to her mother's childhood home near Pickering, but had come home for the birth or baptism of her child.

John Jackson granted the leasehold lands at Picton (which he had received from his father on his marriage in 1680) to Richard Musgrave of Nunthorpe, Esquire, and Robert Jackson of Lazenby, yeoman, by Indenture of 2 May 1709, in the marriage settlements of his daughters Ann and Mary.  [Hence the assumption that Mary married Richard Musgrave]


Ann Jackson and Robert Jackson of Great Ayton and Wilton

Ann Jackson and Robert Jackson had two children: 

• John Jackson, yeoman of Lazenby and Wilton (1715-84), who married Mary Lott

• Ann, who married John Wilson of Lazenby

Ann, wife of Robert Jackson, was buried at Great Ayton in 1715.  Her son John was born that year, so it appears that she died soon after the birth and was buried in her home parish. 
Robert Jackson died thirty years later on 17 March 1747 and was buried at Wilton.

Note:  from Ralph Jackson's Diaries:  

31 July 1769:  old Wm Richardson dined with us today & in the afternoon he & I settled a dispute between John Jackson (commonly called little Johney) of Lackenby & his Bro in Law, Jno Wilson of Lazenby

John Jackson, yeoman of Lazenby and Wilton (1715-84) & Mary Lott (d1774)

Ann and Robert's son John Jackson was born in 1715 in Lackenby.  He married Mary Lott, a farmer's daughter from Lackenby, at Marske on 10 July 1740 [Marske parish registers], and they had a large family. 

John is mentioned in the Will dated 5 July 1754 of his father's cousin George Jackson of East Coatham, yeoman, who left his hands at Lazenby to "John Jackson of Lackenby in Cleveland in the County of York yeoman son and heir of my late cousin Robert Jackson late of Lazenby yeoman deceased".

The children of John Jackson & Mary Lott:

• John (1741-83) married Dorothy Race

• Robert (1742-77) married Eleanor Stonehouse   

• Mary married Thomas Scarth   

• George (1746-1810) married Elizabeth King     

• Jane (b1748) married James Appleton   

• Ann    

• Elizabeth (b 1751) married Thomas Metcalfe    

• Frances    

• Dinah (1753-1819) married Robert King

Mary Lott was buried at Wilton on 18 February 1774.

John Jackson (1715-84) was buried at Wilton in September 1784.  The Inventory of his goods made in March 1785 records that he possessed:

purse and apparel £5.  One bed, bedding and furniture £9.  Money out at interest £75.  Total £89

I assume that this was indeed his inventory – however, his Will indicates that either he had expected to leave a larger estate, or that he had made some of the gifts before his death, as it provides:

to my two grandsons John and Robert, sons of my late son Robert Jackson deceased, £40 each at age 21 years, but no interest
to my three granddaughters Esther, Margaret and Eleanor, £20 each at age 21 years
to my four daughters Mary, Ann, Jane and Dinah £5 each
to my granddaughter Elizabeth £25 [bequests to daughters altered by Codicil to £33 each]
to my grandson John Jackson, son of my late son John Jackson deceased, my dwellinghouse and appurtenances and the orchard called Overgate in Lazenby and now in the occupation of John Jackson for his life, also £8 per annum for his life [by a Codicil this was altered to £6 p.a.] and after his death to my son George Jackson and his heirs forever
to my daughter-in-law Elinor Jackson widow 40/- per annum for life, if she remains unmarried [revoked by a Codicil]
All my messuage farm lands etc at Pickton to my son George
Remainder to George and his heirs for ever
George was the Executor

John Jackson, son of John Jackson & Mary Lott was baptised at Wilton on 2 Aug 1741 and died on 10 Oct 1783.  He eloped in 1759 with Dorothy Race, and they were married in Edinburgh.  She sent her parents – or he sent his – an excise bond for 2lbs of tea as a peace offering. 

John and Dorothy had a son John, mentioned in his grandfather's Will (see above), who was born 29 Sep 1761 and died 16 Dec 1829.        

Robert Jackson, son of John Jackson & Mary Lott was baptised 10 or 16 Jan 1742 at Wilton. 
He married Eleanor Stonehouse of Marton in 1768, and they had five children: John, Robert, Esther, Mary and Eleanor. 
Robert Jackson died in 1777 and his widow is mentioned in her father-in-law's Will, as are the children (see above).  (There is no mention of Mary.  Possibly Mary had died, or the Margaret mentioned in the Will is Robert's daughter). 

John Jackson, son of Robert Jackson & Eleanor Stonehouse, was born at Acklam in 1769.  He married Jane Moody at Ormesby in 1795.

Their son Robert Jackson was born at Pittington, Co Durham in 1796 and married Elizabeth Buckton at Wilton on 28 Nov 1818.  They had children: Robert (b1819), John and Ann.  They farmed at Low Wilton Grange [1841 Census]

Mary, daughter of John Jackson & Mary Lott married Thomas Scarth.

Jackson graves at Wilton

George Jackson, son of John Jackson & Mary Lott was baptised at Wilton on 8 Apr 1746.

In April 1774 he married Elizabeth King of Brotton, daughter of Newark and Elizabeth King. 

Elizabeth King and George Jackson had three children: John (1772/5-1806), Thomas (1775-1834) and George (1776-1822).

[My notes show that Miss Grace Dixon left a query over the year of John’s baptism – either 1772 or 1775.  If 1772, he was born before his parents’ marriage; if 1775, he and Thomas were twins]

[Correction, 12 Feb 2015.  I think it likely that John was baptised 12 May 1774, George on 5 Sep 1776, and Thomas on 11 Sep 1778.  Thomas was therefore the youngest]

Elizabeth King was baptised 24 Aug 1752 and was buried with her parents in Skelton on 20 Feb 1782 [Miss G Dixon], leaving George Jackson with their three young children. 

George died on 4 Dec 1810 and his Will was proved 19 Feb 1811.  The photograph above was taken by Miss Grace Dixon some years ago.  On the reverse she has written:

From left to right:
1.  George (d 1822), Margaret & William
2.  George (d1810, father of above)
3.  then John (d17--)

A mention of "a half share of the freehold farm in Pickton”, which was presumably part of the original settlement of 1680 by Lawrence Jackson, reveals that it was “now in the occupation of Wm Dobie."

Jane, daughter of John Jackson & Mary Lott was born in December 1748.  She married James Appleton, a butcher of Eston, and had a large family. [Kirkleatham Hall museum]

Elizabeth, daughter of John Jackson & Mary Lott was born in September 1751 and married Thomas Metcalfe of Eston, a butcher & farmer, and they also had a large family.
[Kirkleatham Hall museum]

Dinah, daughter of John Jackson & Mary Lott was born in October 1753 and on 4 Feb 1783 married Robert King, a farmer from Brotton.  Dinah King was widowed early, and appears as a widow in the 1798 Land Tax.  It seems that she was tenant of Lackenby Low Farm until her death in 1819 aged 65. 

Dinah and Robert King had one child, Ann, who was baptised at Wilton on 24 Jan 1785, after the death of the child's grandfather John.  Ann married George Hart, a farmer of Eston, in August 1805 and had a family [Kirkleatham Hall]

George Jackson (1746-1810) and Elizabeth King (1752-82)

George and Elizabeth had three children: John (1772/5-1806), Thomas (1775-1834) and George (1776-1822) [Miss Grace Dixon; cf note above re John’s birth]

John, son of George Jackson and Elizabeth King was baptised at Wilton on 12 May 1772/5 [probably 1774] and died in 1806 in the West Indies.  By his Will, he set up a charity to benefit the poor of Lackenby, Lazenby, Wilton and Eston.

Thomas (1775[probably 1778]-1834), son of George Jackson and Elizabeth King married Mary Lamb on 24 April 1804.  They had two children: Ann (1805-78) and John (1808-94)

Thomas's wife Mary Lamb was the daughter of Thomas Lamb of Lackenby and his wife Ann Cass of Broughton.  They were married at St Augustine's, Kirkby in Cleveland, on 4 May 1775 and were buried there.  Their headstone reads, 

"Erected in Memory of Thomas Lamb, late of Lackenby, who died 9 Jan 1814 aged 82.  Also Ann, wife of above, died […] 1837". 

According to the Parish Registers, Ann Lamb was 84 years old at her death.

Next to the graves of Thomas and Ann Lamb, and a few steps away to the left of the Church door, is that of their elder daughter Ann:

"Erected in Memory of Ann, the daughter of Thomas and Ann Lamb of Lackenby, who died 23 Oct 1805 aged 29 years
A soul prepared needs no delays
The summons come, the Saint obeys
Swift was the Flight and short the Road
She closed her eyes and saw her God."

Thomas Jackson and Mary Lamb’s children, Ann and John, did not marry.  After their father’s death in 1834, the brother and sister continued on the farm at Lackenby.  Their mother lived with them until her death, some 25 years later.

They remained at Lackenby for the rest of their lives. 

In the 1861 Census, John was farming 196 acres at Old Lackenby.  He employed 5 men and one boy.  Ann was his housekeeper.
By 1871 John seems to have retired – they were then living at New Hall, Lackenby (which may have been in the old village street) and John is described as a Land Agent.
In the 1881 Census John is alone, aged 72, and described as a Farming and Land Agent.
He is listed in the 1891 Bulmer's Directory as "John Jackson, land agent, Lackenby" and as the nephew, heir at law and one of the trustees of John Jackson's Charity.
He died in 1894.  By his Will he left everything to "my cousin" James Metcalf Appleton, Doctor of Medicine at 45 Curzon Street, Mayfair.  His estate was valued at £154.  The beneficiary was possibly a descendant of John's grandfather's sister, Jane Appleton, or possibly her sister Elizabeth Metcalfe.

George (1776-1822), son of George Jackson and Elizabeth King, married Margaret Rowland and had six children.

George Jackson  (1776-1822) of Lackenby and Margaret Rowland (d1854)

George Jackson was born in Lackenby on 2 September 1776.  In 1807 he married Margaret Rowland (d1854), daughter of William and Ann Rowland.  The Rowlands' grave is in Wilton churchyard, close to the Jackson gravestones pictured above.

George Jackson and Margaret Rowland had six children:

• Elizabeth  (1808-79) married Rev Thomas Todd

• John (1810-72)

• Anne (1812-80) married William Weatherill

• George b1814

• Margaret (1815-98) married Thomas Weatherill

• William b1819

The youngest, William, was only three years old when his father died.  Margaret died 32 years later, in 1854.

Elizabeth, daughter of George Jackson and Margaret Rowland married the Revd Thomas Todd of Stokesley and had seven children who survived to adulthood: Edward, Margaret, Isabella, Rhoda, George, Herbert and Frederick. 

Revd Thomas Todd's grave at Kildale: taken by Grace Dixon

Mr Todd was, according to White's Directory 1840, curate of Stokesley and headmaster of the Preston Free Grammar School in the town.

He was rector of Kildale from 1842 until his death in 1860; he is buried there.  A small stone marked " T.T" near the east end of the chancel, the traditional place for burials of clergy, marks the place.

Thomas Todd had been born in Whitehaven.  His sister Mary Todd married a Manx timber merchant, Robert Quiggin, and their widowed mother and unmarried sisters had followed Mary to the Isle of Man.

After Elizabeth was widowed in 1860 she returned to Guisborough, where she took up teaching, as did three of her daughters. 

However, she was not to settle there – in 1864, her daughter Margaret married a Manx cousin, William Thomas Quiggin, and at some point between the 1861 and 1871 censuses, Elizabeth moved from Guisborough to join them. 

The 1871 census shows that Margaret and William’s household in Douglas IoM included their three little boys, her mother Elizabeth, and the two small children of Margaret’s brother Edward.

Edward Todd, a chemist & druggist, had then been widowed five years, following the death of his wife Elizabeth Mary Poynter.  In 1876 he married Margaret Griffiths and had two more children.  His son by his first marriage, Richard Ord Todd, moved to Australia and became a minister.

Isabella Todd never married.  She emigrated to Australia in 1880, where she lived with her nephew Richard Ord Todd, and died there in 1907.

Rhoda Todd had joined her mother and sister on the Isle of Man by 1881.  She ran a school for girls there and died in 1920.

George Todd married Louisa Elizabeth Lake and had four children.  He became manager of the National Provincial Bank in Bideford, Devon, and died there in 1890.  One of his sons, Herbert Lake Todd, emigrated to Canada in 1890.

Herbert Todd married Annie Birkett Bell and had two children.  They lived in South Shields, where he died in 1922.

Frederick John Todd was a master mariner.  He lived in South Shields and married, late in life, his brother Herbert’s sister-in-law, Alice Margaret Bell.  Frederick was captain of the SS Arequipa, and he and his wife died in 1903 when his ship sank in Valparaiso Bay, Chile. They had no children.

Elizabeth Todd died in Douglas on 24 April 1879

[With many thanks to a Jackson descendant in Canada, from whom I recently received most of the above information on the Todd family]


William, son of George Jackson and Margaret Rowland died in Hong Kong at a young age, not long after Britain acquired the island in 1842.

John, son of George Jackson and Margaret Rowland was born on 10 Jan 1810 and died in 1872. 
He became a solicitor and practised in Stokesley; in 1846 John Walker Ord in his History of Cleveland refers to him as the trustee of John Jackson’s Charity.

In the 1861 census he is 60 years old, unmarried and lodging with the family of Abraham Trousdale, relieving officer and registrar.  John died in 1872 and was buried at Wilton. 
His Will, made on 8 March 1870, left his "freehold dwellinghouse in Stokesley recently bought of William Hodgson" to his brother George Jackson, and the bulk of his estate to his sister Elizabeth Todd, having taken into account the fact that his sisters Ann and Margaret were already in more comfortable financial circumstances than their siblings. 

George, son of George Jackson and Margaret Rowland was born on 23 Jan 1814.  He was evidently alive in 1870 when his brother John's Will was made, but otherwise nothing is known of him.

However, my correspondent in Canada has found a probable match for him in the 1851 Census: George Jackson b. abt 1815 in Wilton, Yorkshire, gaoled for debt in Newcastle upon Tyne.  In the court documents he is described as “late of the Low Fell, Gateshead, Durham, Ship and Insurance Broker”.  He had only been in gaol a matter of weeks – but we have no information as to how long he remained there.

Ann 1812-80, daughter of George Jackson and Margaret Rowland married William Weatherill, solicitor of Guisborough (1807-73).
She was the mother of Helen Weatherill, who married Henry Savile Clarke.

Margaret 1815-98, daughter of George Jackson and Margaret Rowland married William’s brother Thomas Weatherill, brewer of Guisborough (1809-76).
She was the mother of Anne Weatherill, whose diary of 1863 is to be found in a blog post dated 1 Dec 2012.


... ... more is to follow on the subject of John Jackson (1772/5-1806)  ... ... ...