(1692 - 1763), diplomat and merchant; m. Mary Joanna Riminaldi; cons. Genoa 1737 - 41; d. Ancona.
c.1713 - 63 Leghorn, Genoa (1729, 1737 - 41), Leghorn, Ancona (d. Nov./Dec. 1763)
His monument in Leghorn, erected by his wife and three sons Prosper, Peter and Frederick William, described him as having been consul at Genoa for two years 'after which he returned to Leghorn his former residence whence he carried on for about 50 years an extensive & successful Commerce. He dyed at Ancona the 23rd of November In the 72nd Year of his Age'.1 Another source gives his date of death as 5 December 1763, aged 71 years, 8 months and 9 days.2 Lord John Hervey had been attended by 'George Jackson, the British Consul' at Genoa in August 1729, and Horace Walpole later described Hervey (who d. 1743) as Jackson's patron,3 but Jackson seems officially to have taken up that post only in December 1737,4 remaining there until 1741.5 Lady Grisell Baillie commended him in 1740 as 'an honest, civil, good natur'd man'.6 Horace Mann commented in September 1741 that Jackson of Leghorn 'being concerned in commerce' was 'very attentive' to Jacobite manoeuvres.7 In 1742 Jackson was vainly trying to succeed as British representative at Leghorn.8 A Protestant, he had married an Italian Catholic lady, having obtained special dispensation from Cardinal Lambertini who acted as godfather to the Jackson's oldest son; in 1740 Lambertini became Pope Benedict XIV, and by 1746 had already given the son 'a good benefice'.9 Jackson's merchant business was run in partnership with Diharce (1736 - 44), Hart (1737 - 44), and Rutherfurd ( - 1753 - ).(10)
Jackson was well-known as a bibliophile and in 1756 published a catalogue of his library, Catalogus Librorum Italicorum, Latinorum, et Manuscriptorum, magno sumptu, et labore per triginta annorum spatium Liburni Collectorum; it listed 3000 books and 215 manuscripts, and an appendix of 1762 added 71 books and 40 manuscripts. The catalogues represented an attempt to sell the library, which passed to his eldest son, Prosper, who sold it in 1775 to the duc de la Valli?re (now Biblioth?que de l'Arsenal, Paris).(11) Jackson died in Ancona where his daughter Giovanna was a nun.(11)
1. Leghorn Inscr., 84. 2. Ibid., 117n. 3. Wal.Corr., 17:186. 4. SP 98/40 (Jackson, 2 Dec. 1737). 5. Wal.Corr., 17:138n58. 6. Baillie, Household Bk., 390. 7. Ibid., 145. 8. Ibid., 409, 430. 9. C. Butler, Life of Alban Butler, [1800], 178 - 9. Thorpe letters MSS (6 Dec. 1788). 10. Coutts ledgers (RBF notes). Wicklow MSS (J. Russel, 16 Jun. 1753). 11. P. Chetoni in Inglese a Livorno, 157.