he distinguished surname Jackson first emerged in the borderlands between England and Scotland. The name is related to the personal name Jack, a pet form of the popular "John," meaning "God has favoured," and refers to "a son of Jack." The ruins of tall craggy towers and castles are still scattered

along the Scottish/English border, home to this notable surname Jackson. Their ancient history is closely woven into the rich fabric of the border chronicles.

Through diligent research amongst some of the most ancient manuscripts such as the Exchequer Rolls of Scotland, the Inquisitio, the Ragman Rolls, the Domesday Book, baptismals, parish records, tax records and cartularies, researchers found the first record of the name Jackson, in Northumberland, where the Jackson family was seated from early times. The first records of the surname Jackson appeared on the early census rolls taken by the early Kings of Britain to determine the rate of taxation of their subjects.

The name, Jackson, occurred in many references, and from time to time, it was spelt Jackson, Jaccson, Jacson, Jacksone, Jackston, as well as other ways. Scribes and church officials spelt the name as it sounded, and frequently the spelling changed even during the person's own lifetime.

The family name Jackson is believed to be descended from the Boernicians, an ancient founding race of the English/Scottish border dating from about the year 400 A.D. The border was home to Clans such as the Sturdy Armstrongs, the Gallant Grahams, the Saucy Scotts, the Angry Kerrs, the Bells, the Nixons, the Famous Dicksons, the Bold Rutherfords, and the Pudding Somervilles.

From these war-like clans of the border the surname Jackson was found in Northumberland, where the family was recorded one of great antiquity, seated with manor and estates in that shire. Over the years, the family branched south to Durham, Yorkshire, and Lancashire, and north into Scotland, where they held the manor of Balbrogy, as well as Tubermore and Fort William in the north. It was from this latter branch that General Andrew Jackson, President of the U.S., traced his ancestry. Meanwhile, Colonel John Jackson was Chief Advisor to King Charles I of England in his struggles against Cromwell. On the king's defeat, he changed his politics and settled in Ulster, Ireland. General Thomas Jonathan Jackson, popularly called "Stonewall Jackson," acquired his nickname due to his resistance at the Battle of Bull Run in the American Civil War. Notable amongst the family name during the early history was General Andrew Jackson (1767-1845), the 7th president of the United States, as well as John "Gentleman" Jackson (1769-1845), an English boxer and teacher of self-defense who was immortalized in verse by Lord Byron, one of his students.

Clan feuds became so intense that in 1246 A.D., six Chiefs from the Scottish side and six from the English side met at Carlisle and created a set of laws acceptable to the border territory and its people. These were unlike any laws prevailing in England or Scotland or, for that matter, anywhere else in the world. For refusal of assistance when called, a person could be hanged on the instant, without a trial. While clans were on this "hot trod" to recover stolen property,(from which we get the modern expression "hot to trot"), they were protected from almost all eventualities.

When the Crowns of England and Scotland were united under James VI of Scotland in 1603 the Border Clans were dispersed to England, northern Scotland and to Ireland. Some were banished directly to the Colonies.

In Ireland, they were granted lands previously held by the Catholic Irish. They signed an "Undertaking" to remain Protestant and faithful to the Crown. The Jackson family was among these migrants to Ireland, settling in Ulster in Armagh and Down.

The New World beckoned settlers from Ireland (who would come to be known as the Scotch/Irish), as well as from the Old country. They sailed aboard the armada of sailing ships known as the "White Sails" which plied the stormy Atlantic. Some called them, less romantically, the "coffin ships." Among the early settlers bearing the Jackson surname who came to North America were: John, Margaret, Robert and Henry Jackson,

who all settled in Boston, Massachusetts in 1635; Abram Jackson, who arrived in Virginia in 1667; Ann Jackson, who immigrated to Maryland in 1744; Daniel Jackson, who was recorded as a runaway servant, convict, or apprentice in Maryland in 1772; David Jackson, who was naturalized in Pennsylvania in 1777; Edwin Jackson, who arrived in New York in 1820; and Adam Jackson, who sailed from Ireland to St. John's, Newfoundland on the brig Thomas Farrell in 1825.

In America, these pioneers became the nucleus of the first settlements from Maine to the Cumberland Gap, from Nova Scotia to the Prairies.

In more recent times, many of the family name Jackson have achieved prominence. Among them were: Andrew Jackson (1767-1845), American politician, President of the United States (1829-37); Charles Thomas Jackson (1805-1880), American chemist, geologist, inventor, and physician, who claimed credit for discovery of ether anesthesia and disputed with Samuel Morse over invention of the telegraph; Joseph Jefferson "Shoeless Joe" Jackson (1887-1951), a famous baseball player who, despite being regarded as baseball's greatest "natural" hitter, remains ineligible for election to the Hall of Fame due to an accusation of conspiring to lose the 1919 World Series; Glenda Jackson (b.1936), a British actress and politician; as well as Alan Eugene Jackson (b.1958), American country singer.

The coat of arms found for a bearer of the Jackson surname did not include a motto. Under most heraldic authorities, a motto is an optional component of the coat of arms, and many families have chosen not to display a motto.

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