A descendant of English Quakers who settled in Ireland in the early 17th century, Jackson’s father was a land waiter (customs official) in Cork. His father-in-law was a once prosperous wine merchant, whose business ended in failure. Jackson had been involved in the business (‘behind the counter’, so his enemies claimed, of ‘a mean little shop’
Having been schooled firmly in the Protestant evangelical tradition in Cork and at Trinity College, Dublin, Jackson became secretary of the Kildare Place Society shortly after its establishment in 1812. There he strengthened the Protestant influence and obtained a parliamentary grant for the body in 1816.
An active Conservative, he was well-known as a ‘zealous propagandist of Scriptural Toryism’ and described as being ‘intolerant in political polemics’.
In the Commons, Jackson ‘broke tongue’ in the debate on Sir John Campbell’s execution of wills bill, and soon after followed Louis Perrin on the report on the church establishment, presenting a constituency petition for measures to protect the Irish Church.
It was, however, his fierce attack upon Lord Mulgrave’s Irish administration on 7 February 1837 that made him the toast of the Carlton and established him as the unofficial leader of Irish Conservative opinion.
A stout defender of the established church on the temporalities question, he was also intensely critical of the role taken by the Catholic clergy in electoral politics.
Jackson was a conscientious attender of debates and the most vocal parliamentary opponent of Irish corporate reform. Pointing, in 1836, to the differences between the relevant English and Irish legislation, he used the issue as the springboard for his attack on the Irish government in 1837.
As the Conservative’s electoral expert in Ireland, Jackson opposed any extension of the franchise.
Given his unsuccessful venture into trade, Jackson was sensitive to attacks upon his background and private character.
Jackson was re-elected for Bandon by a comfortable margin in 1837 and prior to the 1841 general election The Times stated that a contest against him ‘would be almost an act of insanity’.
These fears were misplaced, however, as Jackson’s good-natured and ‘gentlemanly presence’ in the House was widely appreciated. Being personally amiable and courteous, he was never known to display political or religious feeling either in his social habits or his professional conduct.
Upon taking office, Jackson avoided a by-election at Bandon and was returned instead on a vacancy for Dublin University in February 1842, and resigned that September when appointed justice of common pleas in Ireland. Even former political critics conceded that his performance on the bench ‘gave general satisfaction’. Being ‘merciful and humane’, he frequently undertook ‘the part of the prisoner’s advocate’ and so dispensed justice with ‘an impartiality and … a clemency which won for him the approbation of all’. While critics gave Jackson no credit for ‘brilliancy of language’, scholarly and literary attainments, ‘or deep legal acumen’, they did concede that ‘he was patient, attentive, painstaking, courteous and honest’. Having made his mark at the bar, house and bench, it was thought that he might have risen higher if not for ‘such a galaxy of legal talent’ then available to the government.