Page:Dictionary of National Biography, Second Supplement, volume 2.djvu/375

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Jacks
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Jackson

to an extent as exceptional as it was, owing to his own modesty and reticence, unsuspected by the outside world. A 'genial giant' of exuberant vitality, he was welcome in every society, while his generosity, especially to the less successful members of his own profession, was unbounded.

Iwan-Müller died in London, unmarried, on 14 May 1910, and was buried at Brookwood. An excellent oil portrait by Hugh de T. Glazebrook belongs to the artist.

[Personal knowledge; Musings without Method, in Blackwood's Mag., July 1910, pp. 143-146, a brilliant and appreciative sketch. See also The Times, 16 May 1910, and Daily Telegraph, 10 May 1910.]

M.

J

JACKS, WILLIAM (1841–1907), iron-master and author, born at Cornhill, Berwickshire, on 18 March 1841, was son in a family of six children of Richard Jacks, shepherd, by his wife, Margaret Lamb. After attending the village school of Swinton, Berwickshire, he became an apprentice in Hartlepool shipyard. Presently he was advanced to the counting-house, where his growing knowledge of continental languages and his business tact led to more responsible occupation. Having managed the Seaham engine works at Sunderland for a time, he was appointed in 1869 manager for Messrs. Robinow and Marjoribanks, ironmasters of Glasgow. On 6 Dec. 1880 he established on his own account at Glasgow a concern which speedily developed into the well-known firm of William Jacks and Co., iron and steel merchants, of Glasgow, Middlesbrough, Sheffield, and Grangemouth, In 1893 he was president of the British Iron Trade Association.

Jacks was elected in the liberal interest M.P. for Leith Burghs in 1885. Unwillingness to accept Gladstone's Irish policy cost him his seat at the general election of 1886, but he represented the county of Stirling as a liberal from 1892 to 1895. Thenceforth he gave his leisure to literary work. He had shown scholarship and taste in a translation of Lessing's 'Nathan the Wise,' which appeared in 1894 with an introduction by Dean Farrar. 'Robert Burns in other Tongues' (1896) presented and discussed versions of the Scottish poet in sixteen foreign languages. 'The Life of Prince Bismarck' (1899) and 'James Watt' (1901) are compact biographies. 'Singles from Life's Gathering' (1902; 2nd edit. 1903), with an introduction by Dean Farrar, who suggested the book, is largely autobiographical, 'The Life of his Majesty William II, German Emperor' (1904), brought a hearty acknowledgment from the Kaiser, with a signed portrait.

Jacks was a D.L. for Stirlingshire, and in 1899 he was created LL.D. of Glasgow University. He died on 9 Aug. 1907 at The Gart, Callander, and was interred in Callander cemetery. He bequeathed 20,000l. to Glasgow University, for the endowment of a chair of modern languages to be named after him. To the Glasgow Athenæum Commercial College and the Glasgow Chamber of Commerce respectively he left 1000l., and he bequeathed 1000l. each to the Edinburgh Border Counties Association and the Glasgow Border Counties Association to establish scholarships to be called by his name. Jacks married on 23 Oct. 1878 Matilda Ferguson, daughter of John and Emily Stiven, Glasgow. His wife survived her husband, but there was no family.

[Information from Mr. H. Arnold Wilson, of Messrs. William Jacks and Co.; Who's Who, 1906; Glasgow Herald, 10 Aug. 1907; Chambers's Journal, April 1902; Scottish Field, Dec. 1906; personal knowledge.]

T. B.


JACKSON, JOHN (1833–1901), professional cricketer, born at Bungay, Suffolk, on 21 May 1833, was taken to Nottinghamshire in infancy and was brought up near Newark, where in the hunting season he was wont to run barefoot after the hounds. He learned his early cricket at Southwell, and after engagements as a professional at Newark, Edinburgh, and Ipswich, he joined the Notts XI, whom he served for ten years. He first appeared at Lord's for the North v. South in 1866, and in 1857, when he captured 8 wickets for 20 runs in the same match, was the most prominent bowler in England. In 1858, when helping Kent v. England, he took 9 wickets for 27 runs at Lord's, and 13 wickets for 90 runs at Canterbury. His highest batting score in first-class cricket, when scores were rarely very high, was 100 for Notts v. Kent in 1863. From 1859 to 1864 he played in twelve matches for the Players v. Gentlemen, and in the match at Lord's in 1861 he and Edgar Willsher bowled