Arthur Jackson

Arthur Jackson (1593?-1666) was an English clergyman of strong Presbyterian and royalist views. He was imprisoned in 1651 for suspected complicity in the ‘presbyterian plot’ of Christopher Love, and ejected after the Act of Uniformity 1662.

Life He was born at Little Waldingfield, Suffolk, about 1593. He early lost his father, a Spanish merchant in London; his mother (whose second husband was Sir Thomas Crooke, bart.) died in Ireland. His uncle and guardian, Joseph Jackson of Edmonton, Middlesex, sent him to Trinity College, Cambridge, where he graduated BA in 1614 and MA in 1617.

In 1619 he left Cambridge, married, and became lecturer, and subsequently rector, at St. Michael's, Wood Street, London. There he remained amidst his flock during the plague year of 1624. He was also chaplain to the Clothworkers' Company, preaching once a quarter in this capacity at Lamb's Chapel, where he celebrated the communion on a common turn-up table. He declined to read The Book of Sports. William Laud remonstrated with him, but took no action against him. He retired to Hadley, Middlesex, afterwards moving to his son's house at Edmonton. He then devoted himself to exegetical studies. He died on 5 August 1666, aged 73.