Lives in Cricket No 43 - John Jackson

26 He can’t have been at home a great deal and this may have helped keep the marriage going. When his cricket career finished, his marriage followed soon after. The couple produced seven children. The eldest, Elizabeth, born in 1858, did not survive her teenage years but the others all grew up healthily. The eldest son, John, was born on 19 June 1861, followed by Kate (born 12 September 1863), Harry (born 29 March 1866), Samuel (born 1870), Lucie (born 16 January 1875 and Harold (born 1886). From Census returns we can track Mahala living at 47, Wilson Street, Retford, Nottinghamshire in 1861, with her first born, Elizabeth, then aged two and John’s mother, Margaret, whose age is given as 66, also resident there. John was not resident there at the time of the Census and may have been in Ireland at the time with the All-England Eleven, or perhaps at Cambridge coaching the students. The growing Jackson family stayed at Retford until 1870 when John found work as a caterer/groundsman/ professional cricketer at the Dingle Club in Liverpool. The family moved to Merseyside where their last two children, Lucie and Harold, were born. They appear on the 1871 Census living at 26, Smith Lane, Toxteth. Samuel, the latest addition to the family, was just six months old. John’s mother, still lodging with them, is given as aged 82 which is clearly not correct as she was only 66 ten years earlier according to the 1861 return. By the time of the 1881 Census the family were living at 23, Carlton Hill, Toxteth Park, Liverpool. Elizabeth had died by then and so had Margaret. The eldest son, John, now aged 19, was working as a labourer on the Liverpool docks, and Harry, 15, was a milk seller. Samuel, 11, and Lucie, 7, were still at school. John Jackson’s cricketing career had by now run its course. He was close to 50 years of age and had never learnt to do anything other than play cricket. He was employed as a labourer in one of the warehouses on the Liverpool docks. This last, sad phase of his life will be dealt with in a later chapter. We must get back now to his cricket. Early Career, Marriage and Family Birth certificate of Kate Jackson. Jackson is described as ‘One of the Eleven of All-England Cricketers. He was not trained to do anything else.