JACKSON, JOHN (1785-1862)

JACKSON, JOHN, sexton; b. Westmoreland, England, c1785; m. 1st, Ann - , and 2nd, 1827, Elizabeth Ann Freeman; d. Chatham, 8 May 1862.

John Jackson, who settled at Douglasfield as a farmer around 1819, was a vestryman of St Paul's Church at Chatham Head, which was built in 1823, and he was appointed as its first sexton. Tradition states that on 7 October 1825 he struggled successfully to save the church from the Miramichi Fire, but that when he went home to Douglasfield he discovered that his wife and three of his children had perished. Three more of the children died later from their injuries. The facts are starkly told on a tombstone in the churchyard:

SACRED TO THE MEMORY OF

ANN

WIFE OF JOHN JACKSON & SIX OF THEIR CHILDREN

THE MOTHER AGED 41 YEARS AND THREE OF HER CHILDREN

JOHN AGED 15 YEARS

MARGARET AGED 6 YEARS & ANTHONY AGED 10 MONTHS

PERISHED TOGETHER IN THE FLAMES

ON THE MEMORIAL NIGHT OF THE 6 OF OCT 1825

THE OTHERS DIED IN CONSEQUENCE OF THE INJURIES

THEY SUSTAINED BY THE FIRE

ROBERT DIED ON THE 11 OF OCT AGED 12 YEARS

WILLIAM DIED ON THE 14 OF OCT AGED 15 YEARS

AND

JOSEPH DIED ON THE 25 OF OCT AGED 9 YEARS

FORESTS WERE SET ON FIRE - BUT HOUR BY HOUR

THEY FELL AND FADED - AND THE CRACKLING TRUNKS

EXTINGUISHED WITH A CRASH - AND ALL WAS BLACK

ALL THE EARTH WAS BUT ONE THOUGHT - AND THAT WAS DEATH

Jackson continued as sexton of St Paul's until 1862. A son, William Jackson, was sexton from 1862 to 1906; a grandson, John Richardson Jackson, from 1906 to 1934; and a great granddaughter, Janie (Jackson) Trevors, from 1934 to 1964.