Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Jackson, John (d.1807)
JACKSON, JOHN (d. 1807), traveller, was for at least six years before 1792 a wine merchant at 31 Clement's Lane, City. In 1786 he sent to Richard Gough [q. v.], the topographer, a description of Roman remains then lately discovered during some excavations in Lombard Street and Birchin Lane, which was printed, with plates, in ‘Archæologia,’ vol. viii. He was made a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, 15 March 1787. Some years afterwards he proceeded to India on private business; and on 4 May 1797 left Bombay by country ship for Bassora on his way home. He proceeded by way of the Euphrates and Tigris to Baghdad, and thence travelled through Kurdistan, Armorica, Anatolia, Bulgaria, Wallachia, Transylvania, reaching Hamburg on 28 Oct. the same year. He published an account of his travels under the title ‘Journey from India towards England …,’ London, 1799, in which he showed that the route he followed was practicable all the year round. In 1803 he communicated to the Society of Antiquaries an account of some excavations made under his directions among the ruins of Carthage and at Udena, published in ‘Archæologia,’ vol. xv., 1806. He also wrote ‘Reflections on the Commerce of the Mediterranean, deduced from actual experience during a residence on both shores of the Mediterranean Sea .. showing the advantages of increasing the number of British Consuls, and of holding possession of Malta as nearly equal to our West Indian trade,’ London, 1804, 8vo. He died in 1807 (Gent. Mag.)
[Lowndes's London Directory, 1789; List of the Soc. of Antiquaries of London, 1717–96; Index to Archæologia, vols. i–xxx.; Watt's Bibl. Brit.; Gent. Mag. vol. lxxvii. pt. ii. p. 785.]