Copyright © 2008-2025 Normanby Local History Group - All Rights Reserved
www.normanbyhistorygroup.co.uk
Copyright © 2008-2025 Normanby Local History Group - All Rights Reserved
www.normanbyhistorygroup.co.uk
Journals of William Ward Jackson senior from 1817 to 1824
Manuscripts and Transcriptions
CONTENTS
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INTRODUCTION
Background
"Gallantry in the Face of the Enemy, William Henry Short VC" .
Our group was assisted in their research for this by Teesside Archives .
After the project finished group members continued to visit the Archives and in 2017 Sylvia Fairbrass, the group’s Vice Chairperson, found information in a Normanby minute book of 1884 that proposed that the boundaries of the local board district (the ancient boundaries of Normanby) be walked.
Our group revived this tradition in September 2018 with a Group Walk of the Normanby Boundary .
In 2018/19 during visits to the Archives we had the opportunity to examine the 1839 Tithe Map which showed the ancient boundaries and area in more detail. This led to us wanting to discover more about the period so we started collecting information from William Ward Jackson senior’s journals.
Click on the following links to display a family tree of the descendants of:-
- Ralph Jackson and Mary Lewin
- Ralph Ward
- Richard Lewin and Mary Brown
Wiiliam Ward Jackson senior built the New Normanby Hall to a design of Ignatius Bonomi between 1819 and 1826, though later alterations were made. The old Hall was demolished when the railway branch line was built but the new Hall still exists today though it is now unoccupied and in a sorry state of repair.
William’s father Ralph Jackson kept a journal for over 40 years (see our Publication of Extracts ). William, like his father, also meticulously kept a journal from 1817 till just before his death in 1842. These original journals can be accessed by appointment at Teesside Archives . They give a fascinating insight not only to life in Normanby but also events nationally and internationally from a local personal perspective.
At times William’s handwriting was difficult to read and one of us (though we are not quite sure who) thought others would find transcriptions of them useful. Also some of the journals have already had to be conserved by the Archives. The availability and use of transcripts would further help preserve the originals that are more than 200 years old by reducing the need to handle them.
Project Team and Progress to March 2025
An initial team of Paul Boden, Janet Coulson, Sylvia Fairbrass, Sue Keegans, Sheila Nicholson and Sandra Portas was formed. Our team was joined later by Lynn Lamport The format of transcription was decided and trial transcriptions carried out. Paul then began the laborious task of scanning the original journal pages so that we could use the scanned copies to transcribe at home rather than having to visit the Archives.
Then in 2020 Covid struck and our History Group was unable to hold its regular meetings. So, during our enforced lockdowns some of the group continued to transcribe the journals.
Thankfully Paul had been busy and scanning faster than we could transcribe! Throughout lockdown Sylvia continued to transcribe and Sheila began the task of proof reading the transcripts. Others continued to work on private research.
The first Journal B (Ref: U/WJ 21) covering 1st January 1817 to 31st December 1818 was completely transcribed and proof read by September 2020.
So that the work could be made available on our website Mike Wheatley (Group's WebMaster) joined the team to carry out the laborious task of making this happen. A basic prototype webpage was set up to evaluate how best to display the journals.
However the Covid virus continued through into 2021 and there were both lockdowns and restrictions to how people could meet indoors and outdoors. So we had not been able to meet as a transcription group nor to meet Mike Wheatley to discuss putting the transcriptions onto our website.
Our group meetings finally resumed in September 2021 and our research was discussed in our November 2021 meeting. Unfortunately, we were still unable to visit Teesside Archives as it remained closed. A decision had been made to move it from Exchange House to Dorman Museum in Middlesbrough with a subsequent transfer of its stock to commercial storage.
Eventually we were able again to visit Teesside Archives and discuss our experience of transcribing. From those discussions came agreement that our transcriptions needed to be readable for all.
We further refined our crib sheet including the layout of pages. Many abbreviations that we had been italicising in the text had become increasingly obvious with experience and we made the decision that these no longer needed to be italicised in subsequent transcriptions and could be written out in full. As a consequence, the format of the transcription of U-WJ-21 on our website will appear slightly different from subsequent journal transcriptions. We did not feel that we should go back and revisit to change things but rather to plough on.
Discussion between the team and Teesside Archives was also required regarding the copyright requirements for displaying the scanned images of the original journal pages on our website. A solution has been found which requires watermarking the scanned journal images to show Teesside Archives ownership. Mike established a method to do this that is not too time-consuming.
Work on subsequent transcriptions continues. A volunteer from the Archives (Lynn Lamport) has been assisting us and has completed first drafts of 2 journals for proof reading. We are grateful for her help.
The transcription and proof reading of the second Journal C (Ref: U/WJ 22) covering 1st January 1819 to 31st December 1821 has been completed ready for processing before uploading to our website.
The third Journal D (Ref: U/WJ 23) covering 1st January 1822 to 31st December 1822 has been transcribed and proof reading has commenced.
Project Progress from March to November 2025
Work has continued with Sylvia Fairbrass transcribing and Sheila Nicholson proof reading. Janet Coulson has also started transcribing again.
A copyright agreement has been agreed and signed with Teesside Archives to permit the display of scans of the original journal pages with watermarks.
Mike Wheatley has continued with work to develop the prototype article on our website, uploading the scans and transcriptions as they become available. This article has been reviewed by Sylvia and Sheila and identified issues resolved.
Journal D (Ref: U/WJ 23) and fourth Journal E (Ref: U/WJ 24) covering 1st January 1823 to 7th August 1824 have been uploaded to the website. This made 4 completed transcriptions in all ready for the website article launch which followed History Group agreement on 26th November 2025.
An enormous amount of work has taken place since those early days back in 2020. At times we despaired that we would ever complete the project of getting any transcriptions onto our website so that all could share them. We have cleared another hurdle with the launch of this Article on our website but the job to complete more transcriptions continues.
Further Project Progress since November 2025
The fifth Journal F (Ref: U/WJ 25) covering 8th August 1824 to 31st October 1826 has been transcribed, proof read and uploaded to our website on 28th January 2026.
Further Work on Journals
Work is now continuing on the transcription and proof reading of subsequent journals.
These will be added to this Article as and when they are ready.
Our plan is to eventually make all of them available on our website for access by everyone.
We hope that others will find them as fascinating as we have.
ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPTS OF JOURNALS OF WILLIAM WARD JACKSON SENIOR
Form and Layout of the Manuscripts of Journals
The original manuscript Journals are held by Teesside Archives and an appointment has to be made to request and view them (as they are now stored off-site).
The Journals are hand-written in several volumes covering different time intervals Each volume consists of up to a few hundred paper pages bound together with covers of usually leather over board or card with impressed pattern around edge. Sometimes the covers are simply hand-marbled paper over board or card. Most volumes are around A5 size though a few are very small notebook type. Strangely some volumes (eg U-WJ-23 Journal C) appear to have blotting-paper for alternate pages!
William Ward Jackson usually wrote his journals starting on the right side of each Page Spread (ie pair of facing pages). When he made later additions for that days entry he entered the new text on the left side of the Page Spread with annotation marks to show where the new text should be inserted (not always very clear!). However when using the volumes with pages of blotting-paper William wrote on the alternate left and right sides avoiding the blotting-paper except for occasional notes which smeared and bled-through badly.
These later additions often concerned horticultural events on his land and notes about his tenants but also included notes of national and international events on the left hand page opposite the date on right hand page (eg deaths of famous people, Manchester riots, events in Parliament).
Occasionally William included hand-drawn diagrams to better illustrate his descriptions. They are often informative eg a drawing of a coach of the time or a description of a new technique for treating horse’s hooves.
List of Scanned Images of Manuscripts of Journals
Guidelines for Viewing the Scans of the Manuscripts of Journals
To view the images just click on the links in the list of Journals above to display the scans
of each ’Page Spread’ (ie pair of pages) of the selected original journal (opens in a new window).
From that display page you can:-
1) browse through each Page Spread of that journal via the ’Next’ and ’Previous’ buttons
2) jump to a specific Page Spread by entering its number then Clicking the button ’Go to Page Spread’
3) for each Page Spread you can display a larger higher-definition view of just the Left or Right Side of the Page Spread
by use of the ’Left’ or ’Right’ buttons.
NB These images require downloading large files which can take a while on a slow internet link.
4) from the Left/Right Side Page Spread view you can:-
a) use button to display the corresponding Left or Right side of the Page Spread or
b) use button to re-display the full Page Spread or
c) use scroll-bar at bottom of Left Side of the Page Spread to reveal hidden part to the right.
Note that the scanned manuscript images are displayed in a new window.
Then you can view the transcriptions of the corresponding journal in another window (see next section below).
Placing these windows alongside each other enables the manuscript image and its transcription to be compared.
TRANSCRIPTIONS OF JOURNALS OF WILLIAM WARD JACKSON SENIOR
Introduction
The digital scans of the original journal manuscripts were transcribed by members of the Project Team following an agreed set of Guidelines . These guidelines were revised after the first journal was transcibed so it differs slightly from the rest.
William Ward Jackson usually wrote his journals starting on the right side of each Page Spread. When he made later additions for that days entry he entered the new text on the left side of the Page Spread with annotation marks to show where the new text should be inserted.
To make the trancriptions more readable it was decided to merge the new/additional text from the left side into the text at the indicated place in the right side of the Page Spread.
However William used a variety of annotation marks including crosses, crosses with dots, circles and lines in the margins. It is often difficult to work out exactly where he intended text on the left side to correspond within the right side. Where it is obvious from the text content we have transposed the text into the right side and annotated with "symbol" (left side) and "Insert symbol" plus the text (right side). Where it is not obvious or it is just text opposite a date we have made the note that this text is "level with date".
Occasionally William sketched diagrams to better illustrate his descriptions. So these have been extracted from the scanned images and inserted into the transcription near the appropiate place. For clarity some diagrams have been enlarged.
List of Transcriptions of Journals
Guidelines for Viewing the Transcriptions of the Journals
Just click on a link in the list of Journals above to display the transcription of the selected original manuscript Journal.
From that display page you can use the Scroll-Controls or Page-Up/Page-Down Keys to see all the pages of the selected transcript (in a PDF file).
Note that the transcription images are displayed in a new window.
Then you can view the scanned manuscript images of the corresponding Journal in another window (see previous section).
Placing these windows alongside each other enables the manuscript image and its transcription to be compared.
Use the Search facility (magnifying-glass icon) to search for any text (eg a name of a specific person, place names, occupations, etc) and so find whether it occurs in the Journal transcript.
PEOPLE MENTIONED IN JOURNALS OF WILLIAM WARD JACKSON SENIOR
Whilst generating the transcriptions Sylvia Fairbrass also compiled a list of the people mentioned in the Journals.
The list is in alphabetical order of forenames within surnames - except that the Jackson surnames come first.
It should be noted that William was not consistent with his spellings with many variations although he pays more attention to spelling once he becomes a Magistrate.
The Notes column includes additional information that Sylvia has researched.
This document will be updated as further transcriptions are covered.
Please use the Scroll-Controls or Page-Up/Page-Down Keys
to see all the pages of the document.
If the above is too difficult to read then please Click on the Button below
to display in a new window that can be expanded to a full screen width.
List of People in Journals
Guidelines for Using the List of People Mentioned in the Journals
Use the Search facility (magnifying-glass icon) to find whether a specific name of a person appears in the list above.
Then you can similarly Search for that name in each of the Transcriptions of the Journals listed above.
A similar method can be used to search for any text (eg Place Names or Occupations) in the above list as well as directly in any of the Journal Transcriptions.
Be aware of spelling variations and inconsistencies! We cannot guarantee complete accuracy!
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Thanks to all those who helped and contributed to the project:
Teesside Archives for permission to scan the original journal manuscripts, for provision of the facilities to do so, and for the licence agreement giving permission to display the Journal scans of the original manuscripts on our website.
The transcription team for all their dogged efforts deciphering difficult script and sometimes archaic phrasing! This team consisted of members of our group - Paul Boden (who did all the scanning), Janet Coulson, Sylvia Fairbrass, Sue Keegans, Sheila Nicholson and Sandra Portas. A volunteer transcriber at the Archives (Lynn Lamport) who transcribed 2 of the later journals - thanks Lynn.
Our group’s WebMaster (Mike Wheatley) for forming, editing, coding and testing this Article to display the products of the transcription team’s efforts on our website for all to see and hopefully enjoy.
And last but not least our thanks to William Ward Jackson senior for his careful and diligent efforts in writing his Journals! William continued the tradition of his father Ralph in writing a journal
- together they reflect the life and times of our Normanby in the 18th & 19th centuries.
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