(1758 - 1829), diplomat, 4th s. of the composer William Jackson of Exeter; Exeter Oxf. 1777; BD 1796; sec. Munich 1780 - 2, sec. 1783 - 98 and min.plen. 1799 - 1800 Turin; his sis. m. the artist John Downman.
1783 - 98 Turin
1799 - 1806 Turin (1 Sep. - 4 Nov. 1799), Florence (10 Nov.), Turin (18 Dec. 1799 - 1 Jun. 1800), Rome (9 Oct.), Naples (1801 - 2), Rome ( - Feb. 1806)
Jackson was secretary to John Trevor in Munich 1780 - 2 and again in Turin 1783 - 96. He acted as charg? d'affaires during Trevor's absences in July - October 1785, February 1787 - October 1788 and July - October 1789.1 In the first of these periods Jackson's father came to visit him in Turin, see William Jackson. After Trevor's departure Jackson was again in charge, from 6 May 1797 to 11 December 1798, when he returned to England following the French invasion. Diplomatic relations were suspended in 1798 - 9, but on 1 September 1799 Jackson returned to Turin as minister plenipotentiary; he left on 4 November and arrived in Florence on 10 November, where the King and Queen of Naples were in exile. He returned to Turin on 18 December 1799 and withdrew with the Sardinian court on 1 June 1800. They arrived in Rome on 9 October 1800 and were in Naples from 2 June 1801 - 3 August 1802. Jackson left Rome for England in February 1806.2
Thomas Brand met Jackson in Turin in February 1787 and described him to Robert Wharton; there was in him a 'tendency to greatness', but he was a friend with whom Brand 'often [had] a string quartett of Haydn or quintett of Bocherini'; Jackson was 'an excellent Base player & has great skill on the Piano forte, at all which as well as the Coxcomical shades of his Character you will wonder the less when I tell you he is son to Mr Jackson of Exeter'.3 Jackson was also an amateur artist, and an album of some sixty of his wash drawings, made mostly in the neighbourhood of Turin and dated between 1791 and 1794, was sold in 1988 (Christie's, 19 Jul.).
1. Horn, 1:127. 2. Horn, 2:119. G. Jackson, English Miscellany, 22[1971]:282 - 8. 3. Brand letters MSS d (18 Feb. 1787).