Who is John Jackson?

[ReadBavinck]

Does anyone know who John Jackson is? I only know he was a member of the Westminster Assembly, lived 1600-1648, and wrote a book called The Key of Knowledge.

 

[bookslover]

Does anyone know who John Jackson is? I only know he was a member of the Westminster Assembly, lived 1600-1648, and wrote a book called The Key of Knowledge.

Hopefully not an ancestor of Michael...(heh)

 

[puritan628]

I've not heard of him, but would be especially interested in anything anyone finds out - I'll be doing some research myself and will post whatever I find. Do you have the text from The Key of Knowledge?

 

[VirginiaHuguenot]

His biographical sketch in James Reid's Memoirs of the Westminster Divines is very brief:

John Jackson, in the ordinance of the Parliament, for calling an Assembly of learned and godly divines, is said to be, John Jackson of Marske. In Mr Neal's list of that Assembly, he is styled, John Jackson, A.M. of Queen's college, Cambridge. Wood mentions several persons of the name, as John Jackson, M.A. of Cambridge, it seems, born in Lancashire, beneficed in Essex, and author of several tracts of practical divinity, as of A Taste of the Truth as it is in Jesus, &c. A John Jackson, who translated from Latin into English, a book entitled, De Immortalitae Animae. John Jackson, who has an exact Concordance of the Bible. Wood adds: "There was also one John Jackson, Parson of Marsh in Richmondshire, who hath written, The Faithful Minister of Jesus Christ, described by polishing the twelve Stones in the High Priest's Pectoral, &c. London, 1628. This John Jackson was one of the Assembly of Divines, in the year 1643, and Preacher at Grays-Inn." Mr Jackson is represented as constantly attending the Assembly during the session. I have not received any farther information respecting him.

From Peter C. Wallace's Bibliography of the Westminster Divines:

Jackson, John. (CA) 1600-1648
[dedicatory epistle to] The Morall Law expounded, etc. [by L.
Andrewes]. 4to. 1642. BM

The Booke of Conscience opened and read. In a sermon [on Prov.
xv. 15] preached at the Spittle on Easter Tuesday. 12vo. London,
1642. BM

Das Buch des Gewissens eröffnet durch J. J. . . . Zur Lehr der
Unwissenden, zur Warnung der Gewissenlosen, etc. übergesetzt
durch Z. Forsterum nebenst eine Vorrede G. Schachmanni. 12vo.
Bremen, 1668. BM

Ecclesiastes. The worthy Church-Man. London, 1628.

The Key of Knowledge. London, 1640.

The True Evangelical Temper. Preached in three sermons at S.
Martins in the Strand, upon the lucent Prophecie of Peace, and
Union, Esay. chap. 11. v. 6, 7, and 8. 8vo. pp. 233. R.
Milbourne: London, 1641. BM


Works likely by Jackson, according to Reid:
1. A Taste of the Truth as it is in Jesus, &c.

2. The faithful Minister of Jesus Christ, described by polishing
the twelve Stones in the High Priest's Pectoral, &c. London,
1628.

 

[puritan628]

I tried tracking some stuff on the Internet - got a few of the items of information listed by VirginiaHuegenot. I'd be very interested in reading some of his works. I did find The Key of Knowledge" in the WorldCat. I can request an interlibrary loan through University of Texas-Dallas, Northwestern University, and others.

FYI - the reason this person interests me is because he lived in the same region as several of the immigrants who sailed with John Winthrop on the Arbella to the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1630.

 

[VirginiaHuguenot]

I found a much more detailed biographical sketch of John Jackson in an 1881 edition of The Yorkshire Archeological and Topographical Journal, pp. 184-187. It can be found here.

 

[ReadBavinck]

Sweet! Thanks a lot. Let me know if you come across anything else.

Christopher

 

[VirginiaHuguenot]

There is also an entry on John Jackson in Paul Joseph Smith's dissertation, The Debates on Church Government at the Westminster Assembly of Divines 1643 - 1646 (1975), Appendix I, p. 541:

JACKSON, JOHN (1600 - 48?) Christ's Camb.
Rector (1623 - ?) BA (1617)
Marske, Yorkshire MA (1620)
By commons for Northumberland

(55) Son of John Jackson, rector of Melsonby, Yorkshire. He was preacher at Grey's Inn, 1642-44. On October 23, 1643, commons cited him to attend the assembly within fourteen days. He was suspected of speaking against the Solemn League and Covenant, and he felt compelled to vindicate himself in a speech before the assembly on October 19, four days before the citation. On the arraignment of the king, he retired to Barwick, Yorkshire, where he died.

 

[VirginiaHuguenot]

Another biographical entry on John Jackson is found in a dissertation by Larry Jackson Holley: The Divines of the Westminster Assembly: A Study of Puritanism and Parliament (1979), Appendix XX, p. 320:

John Jackson (1600-1648), was nominated by Commons for Northumberland. Jackson's father was rector of Melsonby, in the North Riding of Yorkshire and Jackson was born there. He matriculated to Christ's College, Cambridge in 1613 and took his B.A. in 1617. For the next two years he was Master of Richmond grammar school in Yorkshire; this school was some ten miles from his birthplace and perhaps where he himself had studied. Jackson commenced M.A. in 1620 and was ordained in 1624, the same year he became rector of Marske, Yorkshire and possibly Barwick-in-Elmet in the same county. He married the daughter of Ralph Bowes of St. Mary-le-Bow, Durham, in 1629 and from 1642-44 was preacher at Gray's Inn. [149]

[149] Al. Cant.* II, 445; Bartholomew's Survey Atlas, p. 74.

* John Venn and J.A. Venn, Alumni Cantabrigienses. A Biographical List of All Known Students, Graduates and Holders of Office at the University...to 1751.