Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Jackson, Richard (fl.1570)
JACKSON, RICHARD (fl. 1570), ballad-writer, matriculated from Clare Hall, Cambridge, 25 Oct. 1567, proceeded B.A. 1570, and was shortly afterwards appointed master of Ingleton school, in the West Riding of Yorkshire. The authorship of the well-known ballad on the battle of Flodden Field, supposed to have been written about 1570, has been generally ascribed to him, either on the ground of vague tradition or from the fact that Ingleton borders on the Craven district, in the dialect of which the poem is written. Apart from its historical interest the ballad is valuable as a spirited example of early alliterative poetry. We gather from the opening lines that the author was no novice at ballad-writing, while the partiality constantly shown for the house of Stanley and the Lancastrian forces seems to indicate some connection between the author and the Stanley family.
The earliest existing manuscript of the ballad is in Harl. MS. 3526, with a long title commencing ‘Heare is the famous historie in songe called Floodan Field;’ it bears no date, but was probably written about 1636. The first printed edition was published under the title of ‘Floddan Field in nine Fits, being an exact History of that Famous Memorable Battle fought between the English and Scots on Floddan-Hill, in the time of Henry the Eight, Anno 1513. Worthy of the Perusal of the English Nobility,’ London, 12mo, 1664. In the copy of this edition at Bridgewater House there is a manuscript note by Sir Walter Scott to the effect that ‘this old copy is probably unique,’ but there are copies in the British Museum, the Huth Library, and elsewhere. Another edition (n. d.) was printed by Thomas Gent [q. v.] about 1756, and this version is of special interest as having been taken from a different source, a manuscript in the possession of John Askew of Pallingsburn, Northumberland. A third edition was printed by Robert Lambe, vicar of Norham-upon-Tweed, Berwick, 1773 (reprinted without alteration in ‘Ancient Historic Ballads,’ Newcastle, 1807), and a fourth by Joseph Benson, ‘philomath,’ 1774. Two valuable critical editions were subsequently published, one by Henry Weber, Edinburgh, 1808, and the other by Charles A. Federer, Manchester, 1884.
[Cooper's Athenæ Cantabr. ii. 118; Whitaker's Craven, ed. Morant, p. 326; Collier's Bibl. Account, i. 290; Watt's Bibl. Brit.; Weber's and Federer's editions of Flodden Field; Brit. Mus. Cat.]