| AdminHistory | Benjamin Daydon Jackson (1846-1927) was a botanist, taxonomer and fellow of the Linnean Society.
He was born to Benjamin Daydon Jackson (Sr.) and Elizabeth Gaze on 3 April 1846 in Southwark, Surrey and started his career in secretarial and accountancy work. His interest in botany, however, led to his involvement with Kew and the British Museum where he collected specimens for them. At the age of twenty-two he was elected into the Linnean Society in 1868 and became the Society's Botanical Secretary from 1880 to 1902, the General Secretary from 1902 to 1926 and the Curator of Linnean Collections in 1926. He was well known for his literature and works of reference on the subject of Botany including the 'Guide to the Literature of Botany,' 'Vegetable Technology: a Contribution towards a Bibliography of Economic Botany' and the 'Kew Index,' as well as being an authority on Carl Linnaeus. In 1907 he received an honorary Ph.D. and A.M. from Uppsala University, Sweden, and the Order of Knighthood of the Polar Star in recognition of his achievements. Jackson passed away on 12 October 1927 in Westminster Hospital due to injuries he suffered from being hit by a motor-car on Buckingham Palace Road.
The Index Kewensis was published by Jackson between 1893 and 1895. It was intended to be an index recording all the scientific names of flowering plants from the time of Carl Linnaeus to the year 1885 according to their species and genera. The project was directed by Joseph Dalton Hooker (1817-1911), a fellow botanist and director of the Royal Botanical Gardens in Kew, and funded by Charles Darwin (1809-1882), who had expressed an interest in funding a project devoted to biological science before his death. The first version of the index contained 400,000 names, but further supplements were published to compensate for the addition of new plant names. |
| Description | Miscellaneous letters from the family and friends of Benjamin Daydon Jackson, dated 1863-1867. The contents of many of the letters are generally about the activities and wellbeing of Jackson and his family, friends and acquaintances. Other topics mentioned include job vacancies, plans to meet, funeral arrangements and payments for purchase orders and rent. Correspondents, listed in alphabetical order, include:
- Collins, Henry E. (1 letter) 10 [Aug] 1866
- Collins, Henry E. (1 letter) 27 [Aug] 1866
- Crisp, Frank (1 letter) 20 Oct 1866
- Diplock, W. (1 letter) 15 Jun 1865, includes a letter dated 16 Jun 1865 from Jackson addressed to [Jane Smith], his aunt
- Diplock, W. (1 letter) 27 Sep 1866
- Diplock, W. (1 letter) 4 Mar 1867
- Gaze, [P.] (1 letter) not dated [likely to be before 24 May 1867 as reference is made to 'John' being 'still poorly' and is presumably referring to John Gaze who passed away on 24 May 1867 - see memorial card below]
- Gaze, [P.] (1 letter) 27 May 1867
- Gaze, [P.] (1 letter) 28 May 1867, attached to the letter is a memorial card for John Gaze
- Gravely, F.W. (1 letter) 5 Oct 1864
- Hall, G.H. (1 letter) 11 Jun 1867
- Harwood, W.N. (1 letter) 7 May 1867
- Jackson, Daydon (2 letters) 21 Nov 1866 [the layout of the letters is quite confusing as some of the writing is written upside on some pages and it is also possible that the some of the pages are drafts]
- Jackson, Louisa, aunt of Jackson (1 letter) 10 [Oct] 1863
- Jackson, Louisa (1 letter) 10 Apr 1867
- Jackson, Louisa (1 letter) 30 Apr 1867
- Jackson, Louisa (1 letter) 16 May 1867
- Jackson, Sam [Robert], uncle of B.D. Jackson (1 letter) 21 July 1863
- Jackson, Sam [Robert] (1 letter) 27 Aug 1863
- Jackson, Sam [Robert] (1 letter) 28 Oct 1863
- Lower, Reuben William (1 letter) 1 April [1861]
- Lower, Reuben William (1 letter) 2 Apr 1863
- Lower, Reuben William (1 letter) 17 Aug 1863
- Memorial card for Lower, Reuben William, husband of Rebecca Lower (1 letter) 31 Oct 1863
- Memorial card for Lower, Rebecca, aunt of B.D. Jackson and widow of Reuben William Lower (1 letter) [27 Feb] 1865
- Mason, [Joseph] H. (1 letter) 2 Sep 1864
- Mason, [Joseph] H. (1 letter) 14 Mar 1865
- Mason, [Joseph] H. (1 letter) 3 May 1865
- Mason, [Joseph] H. (1 letter) 2 Jun 1865
- Mason, [Joseph] H. (1 letter) 5 Jun 1865
- Mason, [Joseph] H. (1 letter) 30 Apr 1867
- Mason, [Joseph] H. (1 letter) 21 May 1867
- Mason, [Joseph] H. (1 letter) 23 May 1867
- [Munnroy, I. Vale] (1 letter) 18 Dec 1866, request to Jackson to meet with the committee of The Book Society for Promoting Religious Knowledge among the Poor
- Norgate, John, [Cousin of Jackson] (1 letter) 27 Jul 1865
- Norgate, John (1 letter) 7 Oct 1865
- Norgate, John (1 letter) 15 Oct 1866
- Norgate, John (1 letter) 10 Dec 1866
- Norgate, John (1 letter) 21 Dec 1866
- Norgate, John (1 letter) 24 Apr 1867
- Norgate, John (1 letter) 26 [Apr] 1867
- Norgate, John (1 letter) 14 May 1867
- Norgate, John (1 letter) not dated
- [Petil], William (1 letter) not dated
- Pewtress, J.W. (1 letter) 15 Nov 1866
- Rhodes, [I.G.] (1 letter) 29 May 1867
- Sage, John (1 letter) 17 Oct 1866
- [Stow, George] (1 letter) [Aug 30 1866]
- [Tommy the Captain] (1 letter) 4 Mar 1867
- Vince, John S.K. (1 letter) 23 May 1867
- Name illegible (1 letter) 27 Oct 1863
- Name illegible (1 letter) [1 Jan] 1864
- Name illegible (1 letter) 20 Oct 1866
- Name illegible (1 letter) [25 Mar 1867]
- Correspondent not listed (1 letter) 3 Apr 1867
- Name illegible (1 letter) [29 Jun]
The file also includes:
- two autobiographical notes made by Jackson about his family, education, places visited, employment and other life events;
- a written copy of the Jackson family tree made by J.S. Crisp;
- an obituary for Jackson taken from the Journal of Botany, dated November 1927;
- a marriage certificate for Benjamin Jackson [Jackson's grandfather] and Elizabeth Daydon [grandmother], dated 8 March 1799
- miscellaneous documents including lists of items, mathematical sums, a booklet of rules and programme for the Hastings and St. Leonards Christian Association, letters, a chant and a timetable for classes at the Hastings and St. Leonards School of Art and Design. |