Thomas Jackson

Thomas Jackson (c.1715–1781) was an organist and composer. Little is known of his early career, but in 1739 he was elected to the Royal Society of Musicians, and he had become a member of the king's band by 1767. In April 1768 he was appointed organist and master of the song school at Newark-on-Trent, Nottinghamshire, a sought-after post offering a salary of £36 a year, with a house in the churchyard of St Mary Magdalene. Jackson was married: his wife, Mary, was buried at St Mary Magdalene, Newark, in 1772. As a composer Jackson was best known for his Twelve Psalm Tunes and Eighteen Double and Single Chants, published in London around 1780, which sold over 300 copies. Many of these four-part pieces were included, invariably in association with different texts, in numerous similar collections up to 1820. In January 1780 he advertised a proposal to publish by subscription Sixteen Marches, in Seven Real Parts, but this project never came to fruition. Jackson died in office at Newark. He was buried there on 11 November 1781.