My Sporadic Journal

         My people, those folks from whom I am descended are for the most part very common folk. They are dirt farmers, preachers, lawmen, and a few outlaws; consequently, I am not wrong when I profess that my family’s core is from the common working class of this country. Therefore, I was somewhat surprised and a tad bit amused to find nobility lurking in one of my family lines—my mother’s paternal line actually.
         Sir Anthony Jackson lived on the other side of the pond (Atlantic Ocean) and, although there are several of my ancestors who were born on the other side, he is the first of which I have any significant accounting of history there. By no means was he a common man. He moved in the strata of the nobility, associating with the kings of England. In 1650 he was knighted by King Charles II of England for his bravery during the Battle of Breda in Holland. He was awarded land holdings in England and was an associate of the King’s court.
         Sir Anthony lived at a pivotal time in the history of England. We Americans are familiar with our Civil War. What few of us Americans realize is that England also had a Civil War. Sir Anthony lived in the midst of that conflict, playing an active role. He was an active supporter of King Charles II during this period, and if you know your English history you would know he came out on the losing side, which had dire results for him and his family. So much so, that eventually his descendants would leave England and begin anew in the fledgling Colonies.
         He was born in Yorkshire, England in 1599, the son of Richard Jackson and Ursula Hildyard, whose family ancestry through convolutions includes lords, kings, and eventually even King Charlemagne. Nevertheless, Anthony was born into the gentry, just a small step beneath the nobility. As such he received the privilege that was accorded to his status. He became a member of the Bar in 1635, and advanced through the ruling medium to become a Bencher (the rough equivalent of a judge.) He was also a gentleman in the Privy Chamber of King Charles I of England. After the death of Charles I, he served as the Herald proclaiming Charles II as King of England in 1650.
         In the mid-17th Century, England endured a Civil War to establish who would rule England. Would the monarchy headed by the Stuarts (Charles I and Charles II) or the Parliament led by Oliver Cromwell govern England and its commonwealth including Ireland, Scotland, and Wales? Those who fought for the King were known as Royalists and those who favored the opposition were known as the Parliamentarians. Anthony Jackson’s allegiance was with the King and the Royalists. His commitment to the Stuarts found him participating in the Battle of Breda and the Battle of Worcester. In the earlier battle he acquitted himself quite well and was knighted by the King for his bravery. In the second battle he was taken prisoner. It was this second battle that sealed the fate of the monarchy, for Charles II was defeated and exiled to the Isle of Wright. Anthony managed to escape from his captors only to be recaptured and committed to the Tower of London, where the charge against him was treason “for invading the nation with Charles Stuart.”
         In 1658 Charles II, who had been exiled in 1651, was reinstated as King of England. His father, Charles I, had been executed following the Battle of Worcester—the same battle in which Anthony had been captured. Soon after Charles II’s reinstatement, Anthony was released from the Tower (1659.) He was given fifty pounds at his release—however, his property and wealth were gone. Although penniless and without means, he apparently was not without influence. In 1660, a mere year after he was released from the Tower of London, Sir Anthony became a Bencher, having the equivalent prestige of Federal judge, for it was an appointment for life. He died six years later and was buried at the Temple Church on October 14, 1666.
         Sir Anthony’s descendants remained in Ireland, where he retreated during the war, with the exception of Isaac Joseph Jackson. It is Isaac who took the family from England early in the 18th Century and settled in the Colonies in the vicinity of North Carolina. Soon after their arrival in the new land, the Jackson family would again fight in a war with England. And, again England would lose the war and the Jackson family would come out on the winning side. Out of this loss the United States of America would be born, leaving our titles and our claims to nobility back in England