Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/Jacks, William
JACKS, WILLIAM (1841–1907), iron-master and author, born at Cornhill, Berwickshire, on 18 March 1841, was son in a family of six children of Richard Jacks, shepherd, by his wife, Margaret Lamb. After attending the village school of Swinton, Berwickshire, he became an apprentice in Hartlepool shipyard. Presently he was advanced to the counting-house, where his growing knowledge of continental languages and his business tact led to more responsible occupation. Having managed the Seaham engine works at Sunderland for a time, he was appointed in 1869 manager for Messrs. Robinow and Marjoribanks, ironmasters of Glasgow. On 6 Dec. 1880 he established on his own account at Glasgow a concern which speedily developed into the well-known firm of William Jacks and Co., iron and steel merchants, of Glasgow, Middlesbrough, Sheffield, and Grangemouth, In 1893 he was president of the British Iron Trade Association.
Jacks was elected in the liberal interest M.P. for Leith Burghs in 1885. Unwillingness to accept Gladstone's Irish policy cost him his seat at the general election of 1886, but he represented the county of Stirling as a liberal from 1892 to 1895. Thenceforth he gave his leisure to literary work. He had shown scholarship and taste in a translation of Lessing's 'Nathan the Wise,' which appeared in 1894 with an introduction by Dean Farrar. 'Robert Burns in other Tongues' (1896) presented and discussed versions of the Scottish poet in sixteen foreign languages. 'The Life of Prince Bismarck' (1899) and 'James Watt' (1901) are compact biographies. 'Singles from Life's Gathering' (1902; 2nd edit. 1903), with an introduction by Dean Farrar, who suggested the book, is largely autobiographical, 'The Life of his Majesty William II, German Emperor' (1904), brought a hearty acknowledgment from the Kaiser, with a signed portrait.
Jacks was a D.L. for Stirlingshire, and in 1899 he was created LL.D. of Glasgow University. He died on 9 Aug. 1907 at The Gart, Callander, and was interred in Callander cemetery. He bequeathed 20,000l. to Glasgow University, for the endowment of a chair of modern languages to be named after him. To the Glasgow Athenæum Commercial College and the Glasgow Chamber of Commerce respectively he left 1000l., and he bequeathed 1000l. each to the Edinburgh Border Counties Association and the Glasgow Border Counties Association to establish scholarships to be called by his name. Jacks married on 23 Oct. 1878 Matilda Ferguson, daughter of John and Emily Stiven, Glasgow. His wife survived her husband, but there was no family.
[Information from Mr. H. Arnold Wilson, of Messrs. William Jacks and Co.; Who's Who, 1906; Glasgow Herald, 10 Aug. 1907; Chambers's Journal, April 1902; Scottish Field, Dec. 1906; personal knowledge.]