Jackson will document dated 1707
Whilst researching the Jackson historical link with my own High Blantyre home, I uncovered various documents that may be of interest to anybody with the surname ‘Jackson’ with links to Blantyre. The ‘Jacksons’ were such an important and prominent family living in the area from the mid 1500’s, their ancestral local home being at Bardykes Farm. (More commonly known these days as Wilkies Farm). Their community involvement, donations and building projects throughout the growing Parish, helped establish the town we know today. They supplemented their farming income by trading in tea, all over the world. Their extensive family married into other heritors of Blantyre, settling and building other large houses in the area, including Park, Croftfoot and Old Place.
This particular interesting document is just over 300 years old. It is the last will and testimony of Mr John Jackson leaving money and property of Bardykes to his brother William Jackson. (the custom then was most certainly to leave your property and money to males in the family, for fear of females remarrying and other males intervening). John just didn’t own property at Bardykes. He was also heritor of land at Barnhill on behalf of Lord Blantyre. He was in effect the landlord of those Barnhill properties and sublet them to various other people. The will permitted the continued subletting of those properties to George Moorhead and John Coats at Barnhill as agreements made in the year 1585. At the time, the population of Blantyre was only around a couple of hundred people, perhaps just over two dozen families.
The Jacksons continued to reside at Park, Croftfoot and Old Place until the turn of the 1900’s, but incredibly lived at their Bardykes farm (including the subsequent current large house) well into the 20th Century, some 500 years after moving to the area. Over several Centuries, the Jacksons donated money to assist the development of important public buildings including Churches and halls. They also assisted the building of infrastructure, upgrading public roads with kerbstones.
I remember my father’s family (Jacksons) talking about the Jacksons of Bardyke (and Barnhill), among other things, notably, that in lieu of feu-duty, a red rose had to be presented to the Lord of the Barony. My father, James Jackson, was one of ten children, of George Jackson and Isabella (nee Clark) who farmed at Woodhead, Chryston until the early 1920’s. Three of the sons emigrated to Canada, as was often the case. William, older than my father, was an accountant in Glasgow and my father travelled south, incomprehensibly, to Leeds, of all places, where he also practised as an accountant. He had five children, three sons and two daughters, of whom I am one. One of the sides of the family was the Grahams, who had three sons, I think, one of whom was a publican, and one a plumber, in Chryston, I think, which eventually grew into quite a big concern, Graham Gratrix. I would welcome any comments from anyone who reads this.