Jackson, Thomas

JACKSON, THOMAS: The name of two English theologians.

1. Church of England divine; b. at Witton-on-the-Wear (10 m. s.w. of Durham) Dec. 21, 1579; d. Sept. 21, 1640. He studied at Queen's and at Corpus Christi College, Oxford (B.A., 1599; M.A., 1603; B.D., 1610; D.D., 1622), where he was made probationer fellow in 1606 and subsequently repeatedly elected vice-president of Corpus Christi. At Oxford he won a reputation for his theological learning and delivered weekly lectures on theology both at Corpus Christi and at Pembroke. In 1623 he was instituted to the living of St. Nicholas, Newcastle-on-Tyne, and in 1625 he was presented to the living of Winston, Durham, which he held with Newcastle. About the same time he was made a royal chaplain. In 1630 he became president of Corpus Christi, a post which he filled till his death. In 1632 he was presented to the crown living of Witney, Oxfordshire, which he resigned in 1637. He became prebendary of Winchester in 1635, and dean of Peterborough in 1639. He was originally a Calvinist of Puritan leanings, but later became an Arminian. He ranks high as a theologian, and his theology has particularly commended itself to modern High-churchmen. His great work was his Commentaries on the Apostles' Creed (12 bks., London, 1613-57), of which books ten and eleven were edited by Barnabas Oley. Book twelve first appeared in

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complete form in Jackson's Works (3 vols., 1672-73). Jackson also published three collections of sermons, Nazareth and Bethlehem (Oxford, 1617); Christ's Answer unto John's Question (London, 1625); and Diverse Sermons (Oxford, 1637). His Theological Works, with the Life of Jackson by Edmund Vaughan, have been reprinted at Oxford (12 vols., 1844).

BIBLIOGRAPHY: A. � Wood, Athenae Oxonienses, ed. P. Bliss, ii. 664, and Fasti, i. 281, 299, 339, 401, 4 vols., London 1813-20; DNB, xxix. 107-108 (where notices of scattered references are given).

2. English Wesleyan; b. at Sancton, near Market Weighton (18 m. e.s.e. of York), Yorkshire, Dec. 12, 1783; d. at Shepherd's Bush, London, Mar. 10, 1873. He joined the Methodist Society in 1801, his education having been attained through reading. From 1804 till 1824 he was an itinerant in the Wesleyan connection, occupying important circuits. He was editor of the connectional magazines, 1824-42, and professor of divinity in the Theological College at Richmond, Surrey, 1842-61. His more important works are: The Life of John Goodwin (London, 1822); Memoirs of the Life and Writings of the Rev. Richard Watson (1834); The Centenary of Wesleyan Methodism (1839); The Life of the Rev. Charles Wesley (2 vols., 1841); The Life of the Rev. Robert Newton (1855); The Institutions of Christianity (1868); and Recollections of My Own Life and Times (ed. B. Frankland, 1873). Jackson also edited numerous works, including The Works of the Rev. John Wesley (14 vols., 1829-31); A Library of Christian Biography (12 vols., 1837-40); The Lives of the Early Methodist Preachers (3 vols., 1837-1838; 3d ed., 6 vols., 1865-66); Anthony Farindon's Sermons (4 vols., 1849); and The Journal of the Rev. Charles Wesley (2 vols., 1849).

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Consult, besides the Recollections, ut sup., DNB, xxix. 108-109.