William Jackson

Large-scale attorney and slave-owner in Jamaica, with two natural children in London and Cumbria and other family in Yorkshire and Cumbria at the time he made his will in 1839.

1. Will of William Jackson of St Dorothy Middlesex [Jamaica] [made 21/08/1839] proved 19/11/1840. Under the will he left his real estate and personal estate in trust, with £7000 in 3% reduced consols. to be laid out in the purchase of a landed estate in England, for the benefit for life of his natural daughter Elizabeth Jackson lately residing with him at Bygraves but then in London, and then to her children if any. He left £150 to his half-sister' ____ Armstrong daughter of Matthew Armstrong of Ormsby in Yorkshire', and £100 each to all the children of his late brother Ralph Jackson of Estin [sic] in Yorkshire except Mrs Mary Gillbanks and his nephew Robert Jackson. He left annuities of £15 p.a. each to two daughters and £50 p.a. to one son of William Pearson of St Dorothy, £40 p.a. to Johnny Leishman then living with him (together with 3 acres of land at Annan Mount), and £5 currency p.a. to a woman named Nanny Higgins. He left further annuities of £15 p.a each to Elizabeth Butterfield of Durham and Elizabeth Jackson widow of his brother Richard Jackson now residing in Birmingham. He left £1000 currency to his nephew Robert Jackson residing on Rock River estate, and £1000 currency also to Robert's sister Mary Gillbanks wife of Joseph Gillbanks of Whitefield House in Cumberland. He left personal effects to his natural son William Thomas Jackson then in Cumberland. Other than the £7000 to his daughter Elizabeth Jackson, he instructed that none of these legacies and annuities were to be secured on his real estate, but if his personal estate was insufficient he made them payable from his Cedar Mount estate. He pledged the rest of his real estate for the benefit of his natural son William Thomas Jackson (who was permitted to leave his wife a £300 p.a. annuity from the estates) and then to William Thomas Jackson's heirs, failing whom the beneficiaries were the children of his late brother Ralph Jackson of Eston.

2. The will of William Jackson's natural son William Thomas Jackson of Whitefield House Cumberland [made in 1845] was proved 02/03/1847. He left all his estate to his father's niece Mary Gilbanks [sic], wife of Joseph Gillbanks (q.v.): he was obviously living with the Gillbanks.

1. PROB 11/1936/168.

2. PROB 11/2057/350.