Author: Jackson, Ferdinando
Biography:
JACKSON, Ferdinando (1773-1840: ancestry.co.uk)
He was baptised on 24 Jan. 1773 at Rainow, Cheshire, the son of Joseph Jackson and his wife Anne (maiden name unknown). He submitted several poems to the Macclesfield Courier and Herald and their reception, sometimes comparing him to John Clare (q.v.), encouraged him to publish the volume listed here, Poems, Descriptive and Miscellaneous (1829). He stated that he was “merely a Calico Weaver:--his education has been limited . . . and suffering at times from the distress under which the class of operatives to which he belongs has long laboured” he could only write in “hours of idleness” which was probably code for unemployment (Preface). Several poems treat of the wonders and mysteries of the universe, his poetic vocation, and his poverty. There are no occasional family poems to indicate he had a family but it is possible he married Elizabeth Potts at Prestbury on 18 Sept. 1806. However, there is nothing to corroborate this and there was a surprising number of Ferdinando Jacksons in the area. He died on 16 Mar. 1840 at Bollington, aged 65 (sic), and was buried two days later at Prestbury. (ancestry.co.uk 1 Oct. 2022; findmypast.co.uk 1 Oct. 2022; Macclesfield Courier 21 Feb. 1829; Liverpool Albion 30 Mar. 1840; John Hunt Cooke, Bibliotheca Cestriensis [1904], 67; Johnson, item 485) AA