Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/Jackson, John
JACKSON, JOHN (1833–1901), professional cricketer, born at Bungay, Suffolk, on 21 May 1833, was taken to Nottinghamshire in infancy and was brought up near Newark, where in the hunting season he was wont to run barefoot after the hounds. He learned his early cricket at Southwell, and after engagements as a professional at Newark, Edinburgh, and Ipswich, he joined the Notts XI, whom he served for ten years. He first appeared at Lord's for the North v. South in 1866, and in 1857, when he captured 8 wickets for 20 runs in the same match, was the most prominent bowler in England. In 1858, when helping Kent v. England, he took 9 wickets for 27 runs at Lord's, and 13 wickets for 90 runs at Canterbury. His highest batting score in first-class cricket, when scores were rarely very high, was 100 for Notts v. Kent in 1863. From 1859 to 1864 he played in twelve matches for the Players v. Gentlemen, and in the match at Lord's in 1861 he and Edgar Willsher bowled unchanged through both innings of the Gentlemen. In 1859 he went with the first English team to America, meeting with great success against local teams. He was a member of George Parr's All England XI and visited Australia with Parr's team in the winter of 1863. In 1866 his career was out short by an accident to his leg while playing for Notts v. Yorkshire. From 1870 till his death he lived mainly at Liverpool, where from 1870 to 1872 he was professional at Princes Park, and in 1871 caterer, groundman, and bowler to the Liverpool club. In 1875 he was employed in a Liverpool warehouse, but in later years he fell into poverty, and died in Liverpool workhouse infirmary on 4 Nov. 1901.
Fully six feet in height, and weighing over 15 stone, Jackson was a first-class round arm bowler, with an easy action, combining variety and accuracy with tremendous pace, which gained for him the title of the 'demon bowler.' Jackson figures in many of Leech's famous 'Punch' cricket sketches, where the village cricketer is seen bandaged after bruises inflicted by Jackson's lightning deliveries, but showing pride in his sufferings (see Punch, 29 Aug. 1863).
[The Times, 9 Nov. 1901; Wisden's Cricketers' Almanack, 1902, lxvi.; Read's Annals of Cricket, 1895; Haygarth's Cricket Scores and Biographies, v. 199-200; W. Catfyn's Seventy-one not out, 1899; pp. 72-4, passim; notes kindly supplied by Mr. P. M. Thornton.]