Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Jackson, George (1785-1861)
JACKSON, Sir GEORGE (1785–1861), diplomatist, born in October 1785, was youngest son of Thomas Jackson, D.D. [see under his brother, Jackson, Francis James]. He was intended for the church, but his father's death in December 1797 changed the plans of the family, and in 1801 he joined the diplomatic mission to Paris under his brother Francis James as an unpaid attaché. In October 1802 he accompanied his brother to Berlin, and in 1805 was presented at the Prussian court as chargé d'affaires, and was sent on a special mission to Hesse Cassel. In 1806 diplomatic relations were broken off by Great Britain in consequence of the occupation of Hanover; but later in the year overtures were made by the Prussians for a renewal of friendly relations, and when Lord Morpeth [see Howard, George, sixth Earl of Carlisle] was sent to conduct the negotiations at Berlin, Jackson, then a very young man, with pleasing manners and a good diplomatic training, was sent into the north of Germany to pick up what information he could. He returned home in February 1807, with a treaty signed at Memel by Lord Hutchinson [see Hely-Hutchinson, John, second Earl of Donoughmore], and was sent back with the ratification of the treaty, and instructions to Hutchinson to appoint him chargé d'affaires on leaving. Diplomatic relations were suspended after the treaty of Tilsit, and Jackson returned home by way of Copenhagen, bringing with him the news of the seizure of the Danish fleet on 7 Sept. 1807. In 1808–9 he was one of the secretaries of legation with the mission under John Hookham Frere [q. v.] to the Spanish junta, and was subsequently appointed in the same capacity to Washington, where his brother Francis James was minister plenipotentiary, but diplomatic relations with the United States were broken off before he could join. He subsequently did duty with the West Kent militia, in which he held a captain's commission from 2 July 1809 to 1812. In 1813 he accompanied Sir Charles Stewart (afterwards third marquis of Londonderry) to Germany; was present with the allied armies in Germany and France during the campaigns of 1813–14, and entered Paris with them. On the return of the king of Prussia to Berlin, Jackson was appointed chargé d'affaires, with the appointment of minister at the Prussian court, and remained there until after the battle of Waterloo. In 1816 he was made secretary of embassy at St. Petersburg. In 1822 he was sent by Canning on a secret and confidential mission to Madrid, and the year after was appointed commissioner at Washington, under article 1 of the treaty of Ghent, for the settlement of American claims. This post he filled until 1827.
Jackson's later services were in connection with the abolition of the slave trade. In 1828 he was appointed the first commissary judge of the mixed commission court at Sierra Leone. Afterwards he was chief commissioner under the convention for the abolition of the African slave trade at Rio Janeiro from 1832 to 1841, at Surinam from 1841 to 1845, and at St. Paul de Loando from 1845 until his retirement on pension, after fifty-seven years' service, in 1859.
Jackson was made a knight-bachelor and K.C.H. in 1832, and died at Boulogne, 2 May 1861, aged 75. He married (1) in 1812 Cordelia, sister of Albany Smith, M.P. for Okehampton, Devonshire—she died in 1853; (2), in 1856, at St. Helena, Catherine Charlotte, daughter of Thomas Elliot of Wakefield, Yorkshire, who survived him.
His widow published selections from his ‘Diaries and Letters,’ London, 1872, 2 vols.; and a contunuation entitled ‘Bath Archives,’ London, 1873, 2 vols.
[Dod's Knightage, 1861; Foreign Office List, 1861; Lady Jackson's publications cited above; Gent. Mag. 3rd ser. x. 699; see also Foreign Office Correspondence in Public Record Office, London.]