THE LIFE AND TIMES OF John Peter Jackson, Bargeman

BIRTH John Peter Jackson was born on the on the eighteenth of June, 1861, to Martha Jackson at Amwell End, Ware, in the county of Hertfordshire, in England. Martha’s maiden name was Timson, and her parents were Henry Timson (a Bargeman) and Rebecca Chapman.

Martha married Joseph Jackson on 4th December 1843, and the couple had four daughters (Jane Hannah 1846-1924, Susan 1849-1865, Maria 1851-1915, and Rosa 1851-1852) prior to Joseph’s untimely death on 22nd of December, 1852 from mitral disease of the heart, or ‘dropsy’. Records indicate he was 37, but Betsy Chapman (we believe Betsy to be a relation of Martha’s mother Rebecca Timson, nee Chapman?) who was present at and informant for the death, gives his age as thirty-three. Joseph’s address is not given on the certificate, but the family were living at Sam’s Yard, Amwell End, in the 1851 census.

John Peter Jackson’s father is not named on his birth certificate:

Online publication – Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2006.Original data – General Register Office. England and Wales Civil Registration Indexes. London, England: General Register Office. © Crown copyright.

Prior to John Peter Jackson’s birth in 1861, but after the death of her first husband, Martha had two more sons, who were also given her widows’ surname of Jackson: Harry 1854-1924 and Joseph 1856 – 1923. The father’s name was left blank on their birth certificates, too.

At some point following the death of Joseph, Martha and her children went to live with Martha’s widowed mother, Rebecca Timson (nee Chapman) at Dickinson’s Yard, Amwell End, Ware. Twin Rosa (born in Dec 1851) is absent, so it must be assumed Rosa died bore 7th April 1861, when the census was taken. Her twin Maria is shown as being 9 years old. No record of her death has yet been found.

John’s grandmother, Rebecca Timson, died on 26th September 1862. Almost a year later, on 6th September 1863, his mother Martha married John Springham. It was at this point we began to wonder if Springham was father to the three boys born after Joseph Jackson’s death …. When Harry was born in 1854, Springham had been married barely a year to Naomi Edwards, with whom he had two daughters; Emma b March 1854, and Mary Ann, who was born in March 1857 but died in June the same year. Naomi died in September 1857.

Another son was born to Springham in August 1856. If Springham was the father of John’s brothers Harry and Joseph, then it seems that John and Martha were in a relationship when Springham was still living with Naomi. Could this explain why Springham and Martha did not appear to live together or to marry until after Martha’s mother Rebecca had passed away? Perhaps Rebecca disapproved. We will probably never know.

DNA matches have confirmd that John Springham is definitely John Peter Jackson’s father. But as of May 2025, no DNA matches have yet appeared to confirm (or otherwise) that Springham was the father of Harry and Joseph.

In the 1871 census, all the children are given the surnam of Springham (mistranscribed ‘Stringham’) although John Peter never used the surname. Rebecca and Peter, the children born after Martha and John Springham married, were always known as Springhams. Harry and Joseph also kept their birth surnames of Jackson.

John Springham and Henry Timson (Martha’s father) both worked on the malt barges, as did John Peter Jackson. In the 1881 census, John Peter age 19 and his half-brother Peter age 13 are the only children still living with Martha and John Springham. John is described as a ‘step-son’ – so did John not know that Springham was his father, or was this for propriety’s sake? If John Peter’s son Peter Charles Jackson ever knew that his grandfather was John Springham, he does not seem to have mentioned it to his own family… perhaps because when John Peter Jackson married Martha Bennett in January 1882, John gives his father’s name as ‘John Jackson, Bargeman, deceased’. So it would appear that he was not aware that Springham was his father…

OCCUPATION: John Peter Jackson was a bargeman at 19. At 29, he is described as a ‘Wholesman – Malt’ – so probably working in the malthouses . Ten years later he is back on the barges. In 1911 he is still a Bargeman – Malt, living at 6 London Road, Ware.

John died on 13th July 1915 at 70, Vicarage Road, Ware, of carnima of the liver. This was most likely brought about by heavy drinking, which family history indicates came about following an accident on the barges when he dived into the water to save a boy from being crushed by the barges, only to be injured himself. The story goes that a fellow worker tried to hook John out of the water with a boat hook but injured him in the process. No record has been found of this incident, so it is not known when it took place.

It is also known that John was a pugalist – bare knuckle fighter. He was born, lived and died in his home town of Ware.

CHILDREN John Peter Jackson and Martha Bennett had six children:

John William Jackson 1882–1916

Sylvesta (Sylvia) Catherine Jackson 1883–1925

Edith May Jackson 1886–1941

Peter Charles JACKSON 1892–1974

Ernest Edward Jackson 1895–1916

Hetty Maria Jackson 1898–1899

John died in July 1915 and Martha in September of the same year, so they never knew that two of their sons, John William and Ernest Edward, died within months of each other in France during the First World War.

John William Jackson married Caroline Elizabeth Mallier in October 1901, and the couple had three children:

Elizabeth Doris May Jackson 1904–1937

John Herbert Jackson 1907–1984

Rose Winifred Maud Jackson 1913–1962

John and Martha’s daughter Sylvester (Sylvia) married twice: John William Parnell in 1907 (the couple had three daughters, Phyllis, Gladys and Lillian) and following the death of her first husband in 1913, Sylvia married John Pratt in 1916. The couple had two daughters, Ruby and Ivy. Syliva died in 1925 of mitral regurgitation.

Edith May emigrated to Canada in 1912 and married John Arthur Mummery in 1913. .The couple had a son and a daughter, Dulcie and Leslie.

Peter Charles married Mabel Edith Thain in June 1922, and the couple had three children:

Nora Kathleen Jackson 1923-2018

Ernest Wilfred Jackson 1926 – 2016

Ian Robert Jackson 1929 – 2010

John and Martha’s last-born child Hetty died at six months old in 1899, cause not known.