JACKSON, WILLIAM, who alone is almost sufficient to refute the opinion too generally entertained even in this oouutry, that the Eoglish have no school of music, was born in 1730, at Exeter, of which place his father was a highly respectable tradesman. lie there received a liberal education, and having evinced distinct proofs of musical genius, was placed under the tuition of the organist of the cathedral, but completed his professional studies in London, under the celebrated Travers, of the Chapel-Royal. He returned to and settled in his native city, and in 1777 was appointed sub-chanter, orgauist, lay-vicar, and master of the choristers of the cathedral.
Jackson first made himself known as a composer by the publication of 'Twelve Songs,' which immediately spread his fame throughout the kingdom. His next work was 'Six Sonatas for the Harpsichord ; ' but this proved unsuccessful: his power was in vocal musio—in giving melodious expression to good lyrio poetry, of which he always made a judicious choice. His third work, 'Six Elegies for Three Voices,' completely established his reputation ; they are, and will continuo to be, admired by all who have a cultivated unprejudiced love of the art. This was followed by his Opera rv., consisting of twelve more songs, among which is, if we mistake not the very lovely air, ' Go, gentle Gales;' and subsequently he published two other sets of the same number of songs in each, many of which deserve to be rescued from that neglect to which fashion—that is, the rage for novelty—has con demned them. His Twelve Canzoneta for Two Voices,' all of them more or less ingenious and pleasing, were once the delight of every musical circle. Of these, Time has net Thinned my Flowing Hair'
has lost none of its charms ; and Love in thine Eyes for ever Plays' is a duet familiarly known to most, if not all, persons of taste in the British Isles. Of his three dramatic compositions, ' The Lord of the Manor' alone survives. The exquisitely tender air in this, ' Enema pass'd in an Angel'e Frame,' is one among the many admirable things in the opera; the words by General Burgoyne, who in a preface to the drama pays a well-deserved compliment to the composer.
Jackson of Exeter, as he is usually called, was not only a musician aud composer of great originality and grace, but an able, though somewhat caustic, musical critic, and a writer of no ordinary powers. His 'Thirty Letters on Various Subjects,' aud his 'Pour Ages, together with Essays on Various Subjects,' exhibit a very unusual reach of thought and extent of knowledge, and in them may be found the germs, and sometimes much more than the germs, of much that has gained later writers credit for acuteness and even profundity. He writes in a pleasing and perspicuous style, and the works are in every way of a superior order of merit.
Jackson was no mean proficient in the sister art of painting. Ile chiefly employed his pencil in landscapes, making his friend Gains borough his model; and it has been said, perhaps lather hyperbolically, that he occasionally imitated him so well as almost to become a kind of rival. Jackson died in 1803, at the age of seventy-three.