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This section focuses on the ancestors of William (Bill) Jackson (1879-1944) and Sarah Wilkinson Jackson (1879-1942), both born in Lancashire, England. Bill and Sarah moved to America in 1923 and 1924. Bill Jackson's family originated in Cumberland, England, and was joined through marriage to the Cumbria family of Francis James (1793-1865). Bill and Sarah were among only a few in their families to go to America. Details of their lives and the lives of their descendants are provided in another section of this account. This section focuses on their ancestors in England and the confluence of events that led them to travel to America. This presentation includes: Summary
of the Lives of Bill and Sarah Jackson in America
George Jackson of Workington, Cumberland Edward Jackson (1813-1857) of Bridekirk A Note on Bridekirk and Cockermouth Edward Jackson (1847-1910) of St. Helen’s Genealogical Charts on these Families OTHER LINKS: The Family of William and Sarah Jackson in America The Family of Francis James of Cumberland The Wilkinson Family of Leigh, Lancashire The Hayes Family of Leigh, Lancashire The Casson Family of Ulpha, Cumberland The Boyers of Easton Neil Boyer's Home Page A Brief Summary of the Lives of Bill and Sarah Jackson Bill Jackson, of Phillipsburg, New Jersey, was born in England on May 20, 1879, and went to the United States in 1923, at the age of 44. His wife Sarah Wilkinson Jackson, at age 45, followed a year later with their two surviving children, Annie and Jack. Sarah had been born on February 8, 1879. Two of their four children had died young, before Bill left for America. Eleanor Jackson, the first, born in Leigh, Lancashire, in 1905, died of "jawlock" on June 23, 1916, at the age of 11. Ada Jackson, their third child, born in Leigh in 1918, died at home of the flu on March 4, 1919, at the age of nine months. Both Eleanor and Ada are buried in Leigh Cemetery in Grave No. P 37.G 22. There is no marker. On June 30, 1923, Bill sailed on the RMS Celtec of the White Star Line for America. On October 11, 1924, Sarah took her other two children, Annie Jackson, born on Christmas Day 1912, and then aged 11, and John Edward (Jack) Jackson, born March 17, 1923, and then only 19 months old, to join her husband. They sailed on the S.S. Adriatic of the White Star Line, arriving in New York on October 20, 1924. Bill went first to Pawtucket, Rhode Island, to make contacts with relatives of his wife. Shortly thereafter, he moved to the area of Easton, Pennsylvania, apparently hoping he could find foundry work such as he had done as an iron molder in Seacombe, near Liverpool. He first was employed in Warren Foundry, and later as a die caster with Ingersoll‑Rand Company, both in Phillipsburg, New Jersey, just across the Delaware River from Easton. After Sarah and the two children arrived, the family went to the house he had found on Morgan's Hill in South Easton, and shortly thereafter they moved to Phillipsburg. Annie (later called “Anna”) worked for a time at the Dixie Cup Company in Easton, beginning about 1930, when she was 18. It was through a friend at Dixie that she was introduced to Lewis Arthur (Art) Boyer, of Easton, born in 1909. After Anna married Art in 1935, they lived in various homes in Phillipsburg, and then in 1951 they moved to Wilson Borough, part of Easton. They had two children – Neil Boyer and Ann Lee Boyer Parks. Art died in 1985 at the age of 76. Anna died in 2006, at age 93, at Moravian Hall Square retirement center in Nazareth, Pennsylvania, about eight miles from Easton. Anna's brother, Jack Jackson, served in the Navy in World War II after graduating from Phillipsburg High School. Jack entered the television and recording industries and lived in New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey, California and Washington State. In 1957, he married Dorothy (Dee) Rostron. Dee, born on October 20, 1930, lived in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, and was a friend of Jack's cousins, Hilda and Mildred Hodgson. Jack died in 2000 at his home in Kirkland, Washington. He was 76. Jack and Dee had four daughters – Lynn, Sarah, Eleanor and Lizabeth Jackson. (More of this family appears in a separate section.) Bill and Sarah Jackson had hoped to return to England some day, but Sarah died of cancer on October 25, 1942, at the age of 63, at her home in Phillipsburg, and Bill died of atherosclerosis on February 20, 1944, at the age of 64, in Delaware Water Gap, Pennsylvania. They were buried at Straw Church Cemetery, just outside Phillipsburg. Between them, Anna and Jack had six children, and in early 2005 there were ten grandchildren, three for Anna and seven for Jack. The following account explores the family origins that led to their presence in America – focusing on four English families ‑‑ Jackson, James, Wilkinson and Hayes. Genealogical charts are also presented on these four families. George Jackson of Workington, Cumberland (b. about 1793) Bill Jackson’s ancestors came from Cumberland, a county that encompassed the “Lake District” in northwest England, especially in the area near Cockermouth. The name "Cumbria" had been used for the region for centuries, and the people there were known as “Cumbrians.” In 1974, the British government restructured the counties in England, and a formal county called Cumbria was created, covering the traditional counties of Cumberland and Westmoreland, plus the Furness part of Lancashire, and a protrusion of Yorkshire. The county names “Cumbria” and “Cumberland,” nevertheless, tended to be used interchangeably. Throughout Cumbria, “Jackson” was a popular name. In 1988, a review of the telephone directory for Cumberland and North Lancaster revealed more than 950 listings for Jacksons. The earliest known Jackson in this line is George Jackson, who was Bill’s great-grandfather. He is known only through the 1813 baptismal record of his son Edward, shown in the “International Genealogical Index” and reported by the Cumbria Council Archive Office, in Carlisle. This document describes George as a "husbandman," or farmer, in Workington. The town is on the west coast of Cumberland, about halfway between Maryport and Whitehaven, and about eight miles due west of Cockermouth. George’s wife’s name is given as Jane. No other records are available on George or Jane or on any children other than Edward. If we assume that George was at least 20 when Edward was born, George would have been born about 1793. See a genealogical chart on the Jackson family. Edward Jackson of Bridekirk (1813-1857) Edward Jackson, grandfather of Bill Jackson, son of George and Jane Jackson, was baptized at St. Michael’s Church in Workington on May 9, 1813, and presumably born in the same year. Edward was the only verified child of George and Jane Jackson. However, there is a possibility that he had at least one brother. There is a John Jackson in the 1861 census, born in 1815 in Moresby, which is about 15 miles south of Workington. He is described as a stone mason, living at 65 King Street in Workington. Edward was born in 1813, apparently in or near Workington, since he was baptized there. One must presume his parents, George and Jane, lived near the town. The connection is tenuous, given the large number of Jacksons in Cumberland, but John could have been a younger brother of Edward. The 1861 census showed that John Jackson was married to Frances, born in 1803 in Winscales, Cumberland, and that they had two children, William Jackson, born in Workington in 1843, and Thomas Jackson, born there in 1845. Edward was married to Agnes James, the first among eight children of Francis James and Ann Casson James. A church record shows their daughter Agnes was baptized at Ulpha, on April 12, 1814. (The 1851 census record says that Agnes was 37 in that year, which indicates she was born early in 1814.) Census records for 1851 show that Edward and his wife Agnes, three children and a servant, lived at Westray, a farm about three miles east of Cockermouth. Edward, then 38, was a farmer of 54 acres. Agnes was 37. Also living there were their daughter Mary, age 10, son Francis, age 8, and son Edward, age 4, as well as John Ray, 16, a servant from Eaglesfield. All the Jacksons were listed as being from Cumberland. Edward and Agnes Jackson do not appear in the census records for Gale House in 1851, although Agnes’ family was then living there, or for Blindcrake in 1871, where Agnes’ family had relocated. Nevertheless, Edward and Agnes apparently lived together with the James family at Gale House for a few years. Edward died there on August 21, 1857, aged only 44. The census of 1861, after Edward died, shows that Agnes, then 46, was head of the household and the farmer of 20 acres (not 100, as was attributed to her father, Francis James) at Gale House, and the site was occupied by Agnes and two children, Mary, 20, and Edward, 13. Between the census records of 1861 and 1871, Agnes left Gale House and moved to the Mountain View section of Cockermouth. The 1871 census showed her at 1 Henry Street, living with her daughter Mary Jackson, 30, and a lodger, William Williams, 32, of Ireland, the vicar of Christ Church. Agnes’ son Edward Jackson, then 24, was not mentioned. Agnes was still identified as a farmer, although she lived on Henry Street, and Mary as her assistant. Burial records show that Agnes died at her home on Henry Street on January 5, 1889. She was 74. (More information on Gale House and Bridekirk is here.) Edward Jackson was buried on August 23, 1857, in the graveyard at Bridekirk Church, near the center of the village. Agnes was buried there on January 7, 1889. The tombstone of Edward and Agnes is on the right side of the path as one enters the churchyard, just before reaching the church.
The Jackson Children. Children of Edward and Agnes had three children -- Mary (1841-1903), Francis (1843-?), and Edward (1847-1910). 1. Mary Jackson was born in 1841 in Rottington. She lived in Cumberland, at Gale House, for a few years with her family. After her father, Edward, died and her mother, Agnes James Jackson, moved to Cockermouth, Mary moved to Cockermouth to live on Henry Street with her mother. When Agnes died in January 1889, Mary continued to live there, being visited on census day in 1891 by her brother, Francis Jackson. In the 1891 and 1901 censuses, under the heading for “occupation,” Mary, age 50 and 60 in the two reports, is described as "living on her own means." (Possibly she was helped by money she had received from her uncle, Francis James, brother of Agnes, when he died in 1884.) Mary died on January 25, 1903, at her home in Cockermouth, at age 62, apparently living alone for 14 years after her mother died. She was buried with her parents in Bridekirk Cemetery. 2. Francis Jackson, who presumably was named for his grandfather, Francis James, was born in 1843. The 1871 census says he was born in Tottington, Cumberland. The 1891 and 1901 censuses say he was born in St. Bee's, Cumberland. Francis was not living with his family at the time of the 1861 census, when he was 18, and perhaps was living on his own. Francis married Isabella Moscrop in the middle of 1869, when he would have been 26 and she 28. The 1861 census shows that she was born in 
Holm Cultram, Cumberland, in 1841, one of six children of Richard and
Susana Moscrop. In 1861, the Moscrop family lived in Dovenby,
Cumberland, and Richard was a farmer of 158 acres. The 1871
census shows Francis, 28, and Isabella, 30, living in the township of
Blindcrake, Isel and Redmain, in Cumberland. Francis is
described
as an agricultural laborer. The 1881 census, taken in April
of
that year, shows Isabella, 40, and Francis, 38, living at 49
Park
Lane, Cockermouth, with her sister, Mary Moscrop, age 42.
Isabella died later that year. The tombstone in Bridekirk
churchyard, at right, says "Isabella, beloved wife of Francis Jackson
of
Cockermouth, who died September 11th, 1881, aged 40
years."
Apparently, Francis and Isabella had no children. When Francis James Jr., the brother of Agnes and the uncle of Francis Jackson, died in 1884, three years after Isabella died, his very long will left outright bequests of money to nieces and nephews and other family members, including the children of his sister, Agnes James Jackson. Edward and Mary Jackson were to receive 100 pounds each, but their brother Francis Jackson only 12 and a half pounds. Further, the will -- which was written in December 1882, a year after Isabella died -- established a trust, the balance of which was to be distributed seven years after his death, in equal shares, to a long list of family members, except that his nephew Francis Jackson was to receive only half the amount distributed to the others. This second provision, however, was reversed by a codicil signed in January 1884, eight months before Francis James died. No explanation of this display of emotion was given. Perhaps Francis Jackson had offended Francis James, and then perhaps been forgiven. It may be noted that both Francis Jackson (and Isabella) and Francis James Jr. were living in the Ecclesiastical District of St. Michael in the small village of Blindcrake at the same time, when the 1871 census was taken, and some offense may have occurred about that time. They lived close together. Francis and Isabella Jackson lived at No. 11 Blindcrake Village. Francis James and his mother, Ann James, lived at No. 15. Francis Jackson, aged 38 when Isabella died, appears to have started a second family. No marriage date has been located, but the 1891 census shows that on the day of the census, Francis, age 48, was visiting his sister Mary Jackson, 50, at her home on Henry Street in Cockermouth, and joining them was someone named "Isabella Jackson," age 5, described as born in Maryport, Cumberland, in 1886. This indicated that Francis had remarried after the death of his wife Isabella, and rather oddly named his first child by his new wife after his first wife. The 1901 census shows that Francis, 58, his new wife Hannah Jackson, 48, and their three children were living in the Netherhall part of Maryport, near Cockermouth. Francis is described as a miller's laborer. Hannah Jackson is shown as having been born in Maryport in 1853. Their daughter Isabella A. Jackson, then 15, born in Maryport in 1886, is described as a school teacher. A record of births in Ancestry.com gives her name as Isabella Agnes Jackson, suggesting that her first name was the name of the first wife of Francis, and her middle name was the name of her grandmother, Agnes James Jackson. Also living with Francis and Hannah were a second daughter, Frances J. Jackson, 13, born in Maryport, in 1888, and a son, William E. Jackson, 12, born in Maryport in 1889. Thus it appears that Francis Jackson had no children by his first wife, Isabella, but three by his second wife, Hannah. 3. Edward Jackson, the third child of Edward and Agnes Jackson, and the father of Bill Jackson, born in 1847, is described below. Bridekirk and Cockermouth
Edward Jackson (1847-1910) of St. Helen’s Edward Jackson, the third child of Edward and Agnes Jackson, was the father of the Bill Jackson who sailed to America in 1923. Edward was born in Cumberland (now called Cumbria), probably in Cockermouth, in the second quarter of 1847. No exact date was available. Census reports show different places for his birth: Embleton in the 1861 report, Westray 1871, Cockermouth 1881, Cockermouth 1891, and Cockermouth 1901. He was baptized at Embleton, about four miles east of Cockermouth, on June 6, 1847. Edward’s father died in 1857 when Edward was only 10. In the 1861 census, when the family still lived at Gale House in Bridekirk, 13-year-old Edward is described as a “draper’s apprentice.” Presumably Edward moved with his mother to Cockermouth in the 1860s. Edward does not appear in Cockermouth in the 1871 census, but rather he was in Windle, in the town of St. Helens, in Lancashire County. There, at age 23, he was living with nine other young men, aged 17 to 23, in what appears to have been a boarding house. Each person in the house is described as an “apprentice” or a “shopman” (Edward was the latter), all working for a draper. It thus appears that Edward, drawing on his youthful experience in Bridekirk and Cockermouth as a draper’s assistant, went to seek a better life working for a draper in St. Helens. The town is about 105 miles to the south of Cockermouth, about six miles north of Leigh and 18 miles northeast of Manchester. There, it appears that Edward met Mary Barton, who had been born on December 22, 1853, on Westfield Street in Eccleston, Lancashire. Her father, John Barton, was a bricklayer. Her mother was Ann Smith. Their marriage certificate shows that John Barton and Ann Smith lived in Sutton, Lancashire, and were married in the Church of Rainhill in the county of Lancaster on October 10, 1847. Both were recorded as of "full age." Their fathers, Thomas Smith and John Barton (same name), were recorded as laborers. John Barton (Mary's father) signed the marriage registry in 1847, while Ann Smith provided only a mark. Mary Barton was described in the 1871 census as a 17-year-old “tailoress” in St. Helens. Perhaps they both worked for the same draper. Marriage records show the wedding in June 1872 of an Edward Jackson and (separately) a marriage in June 1872 of a Mary Barton, both in Prescott, which is a political subdivision that incorporates St. Helens. These references are on different pages of Volume 8b of the marriage records for Lancashire, page 1013 for Edward and 1016 for Mary. Mary Barton Jackson is shown in the photo at left, with Nellie Jackson, the youngest of her nine children, about 1917. According to the census, Mary Barton was one of seven children of John and Ann Barton. The first child of Edward and Mary Jackson, also named  Mary, was born in
1873, when Edward was 26 and Mary was 19.
At
the time of the 1861 census, they lived at 100 Westfield Street,
Eccleston Parish, in the town of St. Helens. At the time of
the
1871 census, they lived at 93 Lowe Street, in Windle, a borough of St.
Helens. John had been born in Windle in 1827, and was 34 in
1861. Ann had been born in Rainhill, near St. Helens, also in
Lancashire, in 1826, and was 35. The census described John as
a
bricklayer; family members referred to him as a
“builder.” The children in 1871 were Alice Barton,
22, a machinist; Thomas
Barton, 21, a bricklayer; Eliza Barton, 19, a
tailoress; Mary Barton,
17, a tailoress; Catherine Barton
(later
called Kate), 12, a scholar; Sarah
Barton, 10, a scholar; and Beatrice
Barton, 7, a scholar. All the children had been
born in
Eccleston, Lancashire, except for Beatrice, who had been born in Windle.On August 31, 1872, when he was 25, the same year he was married, Edward gave his address as 17 Talbot Street, St. Helens. That address was given in an application for employment in the Lancashire Constabulary, which was submitted at the town of Preston, between Blackburn and Blackpool, north of St. Helens. According to his application for employment, Edward was 5 feet, 8 ¼ inches tall, with fair complexion, gray eyes and dark hair. He said he was married and described his occupation as a “draper,” possibly meaning he was a clothing salesman or dealer in dry goods. He was employed by Porter and West, Drapers, in St. Helens. In his application, he said that he had never been employed in the police service. At the time, St. Helens was a town of around 70,000 people, dominated by the coal and glass industries. A history of St. Helens reported that the town got its first railway in 1833 and its first police force in 1840. In mid-century, it (like other 19th century towns) was dirty, crowded and unhealthy, which led to outbreaks of cholera in 1849 and 1854. It was incorporated with a mayor in 1868. Edward was hired as a policeman and continued in that position from 1872 to September 30, 1897, a period of 25 years. The constabulary record provided by the archivist of the Lancashire County Council shows that he was promoted to policeman second class in 1873, first class in 1875, first rate in 1878, and sergeant in 1883. In 1889, he was promoted to the Class of Merit, and in 1891 to a higher rate of pay. When he left the service in 1897, at the age of 50, he was pensioned at a rate of 52 pounds, 16 shillings per year. However, he was still described as a “police constable” at the time of the 1901 census, when he was 53. Apparently, the family moved to different sites in Lancashire county while Edward was a constable. Their first child, Mary Jackson, was born in St. Helens in 1873. In the 1881 census, the family address was 249 Station Road in Hapton, about 15 miles from St. Helens, and children Thomas, William, Edward, Beatrice and Hannah were all born in Hapton. Children Agnes, John Arthur and Eleanor were born later in Leigh, and the address was 83 Church Street. Edward died in Leigh, Lancashire, on February 2, 1910, at the age of 62. At the time of his death, his address was given as 7 Endsleigh Gardens, Leigh. His wife Mary lived for 23 more years, dying in Leigh on March 29, 1933, at the age of 79. Both were buried in Leigh Cemetery. It was remembered that Mary Barton Jackson kept a very large family Bible that once belonged to her father, and in it recorded all of the marriages, births and deaths of the family, but the Bible had been misplaced. After Edward Jackson died, two of their children, Agnes and John, lived with their mother until she also died. It was recalled by family members that Mary was very much opposed to her son Bill going to America, no doubt fearing that she would never see him again, which turned out to be correct. Children of Edward and Mary Barton Jackson The Next Generation: Edward and Mary Jackson, it is believed, had nine children. See the genealogical chart on the Jackson family. The children were: 1.
Mary Jackson (1873-1918)
2. Thomas Jackson (1877-1947) 3. William (Bill) Jackson (1879-1944) 4. Edward Jackson (1881-1919) 5. Beatrice Jackson (1884-1909). 6. Annie Jackson (Littler) (1888-) 7. Agnes Jackson (Hall) (1891-1950) 8. John (Jack) Jackson (1894- ) 9. Nellie Jackson (Smith) (1897 - ) Five of this family are buried in Plot 11, F.30, in Leigh Cemetery: father Edward, buried February 2, 1910, at age 62; mother Mary, buried April 1, 1933, at age 79; daughter Beatrice, buried September 17, 1909, at age 25; daughter Mary, buried June 1, 1918, at age 45; and daughter Agnes Hall, buried December 23, 1950, at age 59.
1. Mary Jackson, born in 1873 in St. Helens, was described as a tailoress in the 1891 census, when she was 18, and as a laborer in the 1901 census, when she was 28. She died single in 1918 at the age of 45. She was known as “Aunt Polly” and is buried with her parents in Leigh Cemetery. 2. Thomas Jackson was born (according to information from his daughter Edna) on July 17, 1877, at Hapton Bridge, Padiham, near Burnley, Lancashire. The census reports also say he was born at Hapton. He was described in the 1891 census, at age 13, as a moulder’s apprentice (iron), and in the 1901 census as a laborer relating to coal. He died on May 5, 1947, at the age of 69. Thomas had married Harriet Daintith, who came from Warrington, an area populated by many of the Daintith family. Harriet’s ancestors were reported to have moved from France to England after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685. Many families named Daintith lived within 20 miles of Warrington, Lancashire, the home of Harriet. Thomas and Harriet had six children:
A.
Edna Jackson, the eldest of the Thomas Jackson family, was
born March 8, 1906, in Leigh and in her later years lived at Cardrona
Court in Grange‑over‑Sands, on the southern end of Cumbria.
There
were few Jacksons who had international career experience, but Edna,
the oldest child of Thomas Jackson and Harriet Daintith certainly was
one who did. She left Leigh in 1924 when she was 18 years old
and
became a state certified midwife in both Scotland and England and was a
member of the Royal Society of Children's Nurses.
In 1945 she joined the Department of Health, and in 1950 was detailed as a consultant to the World Health Organization in Geneva. That began an involvement with WHO similar to the one of Neil Boyer, the son of Edna's cousin Annie Jackson Boyer, from 1979 to 1999. Among Edna's activities for WHO was a study for the International Refugee Organization concerning unexplained deaths among children in transit from Germany through Italy to Australia. Edna visited transit camps, ports of embarkation, traveled on ships with the refugees, and reported on her findings to WHO.
In 1956 she visited the United States and Canada on a scholarship awarded by the British Commonwealth and Empire Nurses War Memorial Fund, and in 1957 she was selected for the prestigious Order of the British Empire (OBE) by Queen Elizabeth II and invested in the Order by the Queen Mother at Buckingham Palace. The honor was duly recorded in a newspaper. At that time, and until she retired in 1966, Edna served as Deputy Chief Nursing Officer in the Department of Health. Included in WHO records is an address given by Edna to a WHO conference in Helsinki, Finland, in August 1958, on the subject of public health nursing (WHO records EURO 132/12). In 1987, she wrote to Neil of her work involving WHO and the United Nations. “I look back to my many interesting and demanding activities,” she wrote, “and have joy in remembering the many splendid people with whom I have been privileged to work.” Edna lived in Grange-over-Sands in Cumbria, near a place where her cousin Marian Magilton and husband Vic often took holiday with a caravan. “We spent a lot of time in Grange,” Marian wrote. Neil tried in 1988 to visit Edna at her home, but she declined, saying she was not receiving visitors. She died on December 2, 1995, at the age of 89 at Boarbank Hall Nursing Home, where she had resided for several months before her death. A funeral service took place at St. Mary's Church, Allithwaite, on December 12, 1995, followed by committal of her body at Lancaster and Morecambe Crematorium. Her ashes were buried in the cemetery at Allithwaite. B. Frank Jackson was born in 1908 and died March 3, 1962. C. Beatrice Jackson was born in 1910 and died in 1927 at age 17. D. Annie Jackson was born in 1912 (the same year as her cousin, Annie Jackson Boyer). This Annie Jackson was not married, and died in 1978. E. Dorothy Jackson was born in 1915 at Leigh and married Austin Newns in 1946. They lived in 1985 at Great Sanky, Warrington. She died in October 1985. In 1948, Dorothy and Austin had a son, John Edward Newns. John married Jean Marjorie Dickenson in 1969, and they had two daughters, Helen Angela Newns, born in 1972, and Claire Louise Newns, born in 1975. John Newns and family lived at in Fearnhead, near Warrington, in 1987. F. Kathleen Jackson was born at Leigh in 1917 and married Frank Hampson in 1941. In 1961 the family moved to Whitchurch, Shropshire, then in 1965 to Tamworth, Staffs, and then in 1968 to Mickleover, Derby, in connection with Frank's employment with the General Post Office. Frank died about 1986. In 1987, Kathleen lived at Flat 10, the Dovedales, on Park Road, Mickleover. Kathleen and Frank had a daughter, Susan Hampson, born at Leigh in 1953. Susan married James Arthur Heath, at Derby, in 1972. They had two children, Richard James Heath, born in 1976, and Alison Louise Heath, born in 1978. 3. William Jackson (1879‑1944) was born in Hapton, Lancashire, on May 20, 1879. He appears at age 1 in the April 1881 census, living with the Jackson family on Station Road in Hapton. At age 11, in the 1891 census, he is described as a scholar, living with his family at 40 Henrietta Street, in Pennington parish, Leigh. He does not appear (or at least cannot be found) in the 1901 census. He was not living with the rest of his family, which was then at 83 Church Street in Leigh. And although there are hundreds of people named William Jackson in England in the 1901 census, none of them seems to be this one. Two years after the 1901 census, in September 1903, Bill reappeared in the records when he married Sarah Ann Wilkinson (1879-1942) in Leigh. Bill and Sarah had four children: Eleanor (1905‑16); Annie, born in 1912; Ada (1918‑1919); and John Edward (Jack) Jackson (1923-2000). Details on these four children are in this section.
Bill presumably met Sarah in Leigh, where both of their families resided. Bill worked in iron foundries in the heavily industrialized part of England, near Manchester. Among other places, he worked at Wigan and in Scotland, as well as near Leigh. Perhaps he was in Scotland during the 1901-03 period when he did not surface in the English census; he would have been aged 21-23. He was living at 50 Bark Street, in Bolton, when his daughter Annie was born in 1912. In 1988, many of the houses of Bark Street had been torn down, and the site where No. 50 would have been located was occupied by a large new department store, Marks and Spencer. For a time, Bill also worked as an iron molder in Seacombe, just across the River Mersey from Liverpool. Seacombe was then reached by a ferry from the Liverpool docks. The Jackson family lived there, at 9 William Street, just ten minutes walk straight up the hill from the ferry dock, one block beyond the church on the right. The family also lived on Mark Street, one block further, but in 1988, the houses on Mark Street, and the street itself, had been destroyed to make way for a new school. Bill’s daughter Anna remembered that, around 1920, he visited Scotland and surprised the family on his return by having shaved off his mustache and put on a kilt. Bill then apparently decided to change his life and move to America. It was a bold move for him to begin a new life at age 44. He traveled second class on the RMS Celtec of the White Star Line, sailing on June 30, 1923, for New York. Sarah and their children Annie and Jack moved to America the following year. (Accounts of their families in America are in a different section of this report.) 4. Edward Jackson was born at Hapton Bridge on February 22, 1881. Edward's sister Annie proudly noted later in life that he was the third Edward Jackson in successive generations. This Edward Jackson appeared in the 1881 census at age 1 month, in the 1891 census at age 10 as a scholar, and in the 1901 census, at age 20, as a collier. When he was young, he was a coal miner hewer at Grimsthorpe Colliery, as shown in the 1911 census. On April 24, 1905, he was married to Annie Kimber. Annie's father, John Kimber, was identified as a soldier. Annie had been born at Shorncliffe, Kent, about 1888, and she was shown in the 1901 census as a domestic servant in St. Lawrence, York. On October 1, 1914, when he was almost 34, Edward joined the 4th Barnsley Depot of the 22nd Durham Light Infantry. The military record said he was 5 feet 7 and one half inches tall, 117 pounds, and had a dark complexion, grey eyes and dark brown hair. He was assigned to the Mediterranean from December 1915 to March 1916. He was in France from March to July 1916 and again from December 1, 1916, to November 1917. He fought at Ypres and was mentioned in a dispatch on December 21, 1917, for gallantry on the field. He was awarded the 1914-15 star medal, the British War Medal, and the Victory Medal. Edward was discharged from the military on April 8, 1918, in ill health. The reason given was rheumatism. He said that when in the trenches, he was exposed to wet and cold conditions and was seized with pain in his hands and feet, which became swollen. He was in the sick bay for ten days, but after he returned to the trenches, his condition worsened and he was sent home. He died on September 13, 1919, only 18 months after his discharge, from Bright's Disease (kidney disease), leaving his widow, Annie, and five young children. He was 39. Annie received a pension of pounds 3.4.5 per week. In 1921, she married Walter Bagshaw. Edward and Annie Kimber Jackson had five children: -- Edith Jackson was
born on June 16, 1906, in Wombwell, Darfield. On August 11, 1927, she
married Cecil Frank
Holder at St. Gregory the Great in Canterbury. Cecil was
identified in a census as a billiard
marker.
Edith and Cecil Holder had seven children. Edith died on July 12, 1970,
and Cecil on March 16, 1971, both in Canterbury. (Much of
this
section on Edward Jackson was developed by Carol Whiteside, a relative
of the Holder family.)
-- Arthur Jackson was born on March 10, 1911, in Conisborough, Yorkshire. -- John Edward Jackson was born on September 28, 1912, in Conisborough. -- Thomas Jackson was born on December 7, 1914, in Barnsley, Yorkshire. -- William Edward Jackson was born on November 8, 1916, Barnsley. 5. Beatrice Jackson was born in Hapton in 1884. She is mentioned in the 1891 census at the age of 8. In the 1901 census, she is described, at the age of 18, as a tailoress. She died single in 1909 at the age of 25 and was buried with her parents. 6. Annie Jackson apparently is the person identified in 1891 and 1901 census reports as “Hannah Jackson,” who was born in Leigh in 1888. She was 3 at the time of the 1891 census and 13 in 1901. In the 1901 census, when she was 13, she was identified as a cotton weaver. Annie was married to Jack Littler, a policeman. Jack served for a time at Radcliffe, near Manchester, and later on the police force at Formby, near Liverpool. They had two children. Anna Jackson Boyer recalled that during World War II, thought was given to sending the girls to New Jersey to stay with the Boyers for their safety, but the idea never saw fruition.
A.
Hilda Littler, born in 1929, married Ernest
Tomlinson.
They were teachers and lived in Kenya. Hilda became ill there
and
died in England after her husband brought her home. Hilda and
Ernest had one son, John
Tomlinson, born in 1951.
B. Irene Littler married Alan Corkhill. The Corkhills had two children: Geoffrey Corkhill, who married Kathleen Beryl Bradshaw, and Gillian Corkhill, who married Malcolm Stephen; Geoffrey and Gillian were both married in 1977. In 1984, Gillian and Malcolm Stephen lived in Trimlays, St. Mary's, Suffolk. Many of the recollections in this account come from Annie Jackson Littler, who long corresponded with Anna Boyer's mother, Sarah Wilkinson Jackson, and after Sarah's death with Anna herself. After Annie Littler's death, Anna continued to correspond with her daughter, Irene Corkhill. Irene died on October 19, 1981.
7. Agnes Jackson was born in 1891 in Leigh and married John Hall. She died in 1950 at the age of 59 and is buried with her parents in Leigh Cemetery. 8. John Arthur (Jack) Jackson was born in Leigh in 1894. He was 7 at the time of the 1901 census. Jack was married to Margaret, and they had a son Roy Jackson. In 1984, aside from Bill's son Jack, Roy Jackson was believed to be the only surviving male in the Jackson family line. Roy and his wife Joan, who came from a farming family, were living in Glazebury, England, and had one daughter. 9. Nellie Jackson is apparently the sibling known in the census records as “Eleanor Jackson.” She was born in 1897 in Leigh, and was 4 at the time of the 1901 census. She married Albert Smith. LINKS: The Family of William and Sarah Jackson in America The Family of Francis James of Cumberland The Hayes Family of Leigh, Lancashire The Wilkinson Family of Leigh, Lancashire The Casson Family of Ulpha, Cumberland A Note on Bridekirk and Cockermouth Genealogical Charts on the Jackson, James, Hayes and Wilkinson Families The Boyers of Easton Neil Boyer's Home Page Back to the Top of this Page |
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