Lives in Cricket No 43 - John Jackson

25 Early Career, Marriage and Family Swineshead, Lincolnshire on 29 December 1839. She was the daughter of Samual Revel, a publican, and his wife Ann. Mahala was eighteen years old when she married John Jackson, professional cricketer, at the parish church of Donington, Lincolnshire on 23 August 1857. Jackson had just finished a three day match at Grantham on 22 August and was due to play at Bramall Lane, Sheffield for the North against Surrey on 24 August, so the nuptials must have been short-lived, and any thoughts of a honeymoon must have been put on hold until the end of the cricket season as Jackson had few free dates. The wedding certificate states that Mahala was eighteen, with John said to be ‘of full age’ which would mean 24 if we accept 1833 as his most likely birth year. Mahala was the daughter of a publican and it is possible that the couple met when the cricketer went for a drink at her father’s hostelry at the end of a day’s cricket to quench his considerable thirst. The young publican’s daughter must have been impressed by the 6ft 1inch handsome gypsy, and his undoubted strength and obvious good looks would have helped cement their relationship. It is hard to know just how much of their married life could have been spent together. John was playing cricket full time from April until as late as early October each year and he toured America and Canada in the winter of 1859/60 and Australia in 1863/4. In the 1870s he spent a summer in Ireland as professional to Lord Massereene’s XI, and he had spells as a professional for two seasons at Burnley Cricket Club and fulfilled professional engagements at Cambridge and Richmond, North Yorkshire. A copy of John and Mahala Jackson’s marriage certificate – 23 August 1857.