John was born on the 18th of May 1853 at the family home of 24 Lyon Street in the Bank Top area of Blackburn, Lancashire. He was the fifth of six children born to Thomas Jackson, an Outdoor Labourer, and his wife Mary (nee Barton). Unusually for that time, his christening¹, at the church of St Mary the Virgin (now Blackburn Cathedral) didn't take place until the 24th of July, over eight weeks after his birth.

In May 1859, just 4 days after John's sixth birthday, his mother, who was only 33 years old, died of Tuberculosis. Two years later, when the 1861 census was taken on the 7th April, the family had moved again, this time to number 34 Lyon Street. John, who was 7 years old, was attending school, probably at the nearby Wensley Fold National School. It must have been very crowded in that terraced house, which was probably only a two-up two-down, as the census shows eleven people living there; the family and four boarders.

By April 1871, John was working as a Bread Baker and living with his three older brothers at 52, Brunswick Street, about a half-mile from their father in Lyon Street. The area was known as 'The Wrangling' as it was next to King Street Railway Sidings and the Cattle Yards.

By January 1873, John was 'courting' a girl called Mary Ann Alston. Mary Ann had lost both of her parents a few years earlier and was living, in nearby Moor Street, with her sister Hannah, who had married the year before. Sometime before Easter that year, Mary Ann would have told John that she was pregnant. After banns had been read they were married on the 16th of June at St Paul's Church in Blackburn. Despite both of them having attended a school at some time, neither were able to sign their name on the marriage certificate, placing a cross mark instead. John gave his occupation as a Card Grinder and Mary Ann as a Tenter². Mary Ann's sister Hannah was one of the witnesses, the other was William Scarr, presumably a friend of John. Amusingly, Mary Ann's residence at the time of her marriage was in Mary Ann Street in Blackburn.

The couple were able to set up home in one of the newly built terraced houses in Oxford Street, which was part of a large housing development in the Audley district in the 1870's. Their house was number 6, a two-up two-down, close to Audley Range. The baby, a boy, was born on the 13th of October 1873 and baptised a month later at the church of St Mary the Virgin in Blackburn. (St Matthew's Church on Oxford Street, wasn't built until 1886). Around 1889, the family moved from number 6 to number 42 at the top of that section of Oxford Street. John was briefly promoted to Card Master² but by 1891 was working as a Cotton Carder and later as a general labourer.

In the 1911 Census, John and Mary Ann state that they had thirteen children, of which four had died. Only twelve children have been identified to date, of which two (James and Richard) died in infancy and Alice died at the age of 18 in 1910.

Joseph Jackson 1873-1953
William Jackson 1875-1956
John Jackson 1876- ??
Ellen Jackson 1878-1953
Mary Jackson 1881-1955
Celia Jackson 1883-1959
Thomas Jackson 1885- ??
James Jackson 1888-1888
Thurston Jackson 1890-1965
Alice Jackson 1892-1910
James Jackson 1895- ??
Richard Jackson 1897-1897

John and Mary Ann remained at number 42 Oxford Street for the rest of their lives. John died on the 24th of April 1927 at the age of 73 and was buried on the 29th of April at the old Blackburn Cemetery on Whalley New Road.

Notes

1. The entry in the Baptism Register on the 24th of July 1853 records a birth date of 11th of May. However, the actual Birth Certificate shows the date as 18th of May.

2. A Grinder in a Cotton Mill was a semi-skilled job, who used grinding tools to cut the metal teeth on the cards for staightening the cotton fibres prior to spinning. A Tenter was someone who looked after a machine, such as a carding machine. A Card Master would supervise all operations in the Card Room of a Cotton Mill.