Frances Margaretta Jacson (born 13 October 1754 at
Bebington
Bebington () is a town and unparished area within the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral, in Merseyside, England. Historically part of Cheshire, it lies south of Liverpool, close to the River Mersey on the eastern side of the Wirral Peninsula. ...
,
Cheshire, died 17 June 1842 at
Somersal Herbert
Somersal Herbert is a hamlet and civil parish in Derbyshire, England, 2 miles northeast of Doveridge. Somersal Herbert Hall was built c.1564, incorporating an earlier building from c.1500, and is a Grade I listed building
In the United K ...
,
Derbyshire
Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands, England. It includes much of the Peak District National Park, the southern end of the Pennine range of hills and part of the National Forest. It borders Greater Manchester to the nor ...
) was an English novelist. Her work shows a strong moral purpose and insight into relationships and marriages.
Family commitments
Frances Jacson was one of five surviving children of the
Anglican rector
Rector (Latin for the member of a vessel's crew who steers) may refer to:
Style or title
*Rector (ecclesiastical), a cleric who functions as an administrative leader in some Christian denominations
*Rector (academia), a senior official in an edu ...
of Bebington, Rev. Simon Jacson (1728–1808), and his wife Anne Fitzherbert (c. 1729–1795), daughter of Richard Fitzherbert of Somersal Herbert. Her elder brother Roger succeeded his father as rector, after which the family moved to
Stockport and then
Tarporley
Tarporley is a large village and civil parish in Cheshire, England. The civil parish also contains the village of Rhuddall Heath. Tarporley is bypassed by the A49 and A51 roads.
At the 2011 census, the population was 2,614.
History
Tarporle ...
,
Cheshire, where her father became rector. She and her sister
Maria Elizabetha Jacson (1755–1829) remained single, and looked after their father after he was widowed in 1795.
While the family were at Tarporley, they became worried about Frances's other brother Shallcross (died 1821), also an ordained priest, who had taken to drink and horse-racing. The need to pay off his debts was the spur for the sisters to turn to writing. Frances completed two successful novels. On their father's death in 1808, they had to find a new home and accepted an offer made by their cousin
Lord St Helens to lend them
Somersal Hall for life. Shallcross's problems resurfaced, with debts totalling £1760. Francis paid these off with her earnings from two further novels and with help from Roger and Maria.
She was desolated by the death of her sister in 1829, but eventually resumed her social life among the county gentry and her extended family. Her favourite nephew
Henry Gally Knight
Henry Gally Knight, F.R.S. (2 December 1786 – 9 February 1846) was a British politician, traveller and writer.
Biography
Knight was the only son of Henry Gally (afterwards Gally Knight), barrister, of Langold, and was educated at Eton and T ...
(a
Tory
A Tory () is a person who holds a political philosophy known as Toryism, based on a British version of traditionalism and conservatism, which upholds the supremacy of social order as it has evolved in the English culture throughout history. The ...
) kept her in touch with politics, in which she was a firm
Whig and supporter of
parliamentary reform. She also remained a firm Christian.
Publications
Jacson's first novel, ''Plain Sense'' (1795; second e.: London: William Lane at the
Minerva Press
Minerva Press was a publishing house, noted for creating a lucrative market in sentimental and Gothic fiction in the late 18th century and early 19th century. It was established by William Lane (c. 1745–1814) at No 33 Leadenhall Street, Lon ...
, 1796; third e. 1799) was immediately popular and followed by a second, ''Disobedience'' (London: William Lane at the Minerva Press, 1797). These and her subsequent novels appeared anonymously.
''Things by their Right Names'' (London: George Robinson, 1812; second e. "by the author of ''Plain Sense'': London: G. & S. Robinson; Gale, Curtis & Fenner, 1814) was followed by ''Rhoda. A Novel'' ("By the author of ''Things by their Right Names''. London:
Henry Colburn
Henry Colburn (1784 – 16 August 1855) was a British publisher.
Life
Virtually nothing is known about Henry Colburn's parentage or early life, and there is uncertainty over his year of birth. He was well-educated and fluent in French and h ...
& Co., 1816
wo eds, for which she turned to one of the foremost London novel publishers. It is considered "the more accomplished" of the two. The second pair of novels were wrongly ascribed to the Scottish writer
Mary Brunton
Mary Brunton (née Balfour) (1 November 1778 – 7 December 1818) was a Scottish novelist, whose work has been seen as redefining femininity. Fay Weldon praised it as "rich in invention, ripe with incident, shrewd in comment, and erotic in i ...
. Jacson's authorship was not suggested until 1823. There were further false attributions in the early twentieth century to
Alethea Lewis
Alethea Lewis (born 19 December 1749, buried 12 November 1827) was an English novelist, born at Acton, near Nantwich, Cheshire. She also used the pseudonym Eugenia de Acton. Her subject-matter centres on her profound Christianity and her belief i ...
.
Despite the financial motives behind her writing activity, Jacson never abandoned her moral purpose, so that her novels are
didactic, all featuring a heroine in relatively high society. Through them she shows strong creative insight, especially into burgeoning relationships and marriage. In most cases her heroines discern flaws in the perceptions of themselves and others. There is much irony in the portrayal of several minor characters. ''Rhoda'' was preferred to Jane Austen's ''
Emma'' by
Maria Edgeworth
Maria Edgeworth (1 January 1768 – 22 May 1849) was a prolific Anglo-Irish novelist of adults' and children's literature. She was one of the first realist writers in children's literature and was a significant figure in the evolution of the n ...
, from whom the Jacson sisters received a social call in 1818.
[Maria Edgeworth wrote to Miss Waller (aunt of her stepmother) on 24 November 1818, "We have not yet seen any visitors since we came here and have paid only one visit to the Miss Jacksons ic Miss Fanny you know is the author of Rhoda – Miss Maria Jackson the author of Dialogues on botany...]
Retrieved 19 November 2010.
/ref> It was also recommended by Sydney Smith
Sydney Smith (3 June 1771 – 22 February 1845) was an English wit, writer, and Anglican cleric.
Early life and education
Born in Woodford, Essex, England, Smith was the son of merchant Robert Smith (1739–1827) and Maria Olier (1750–1801) ...
. ''Isabella'' ("By the author of ''Rhoda''": London: Henry Colburn & Co., 1823) was written in a calmer period of Jacson's life. The "self-righteous loquacity" of Mrs. Nesbit has been compared to Mrs. Norris in Jane Austen's ''Mansfield Park
''Mansfield Park'' is the third published novel by Jane Austen, first published in 1814 by Thomas Egerton. A second edition was published in 1816 by John Murray, still within Austen's lifetime. The novel did not receive any public reviews unt ...
''. The French translation of this by Mme Collet in 1823, ''Isabelle Hastings'', was wrongly ascribed to William Godwin. Even her diaries, kept from 1829 until her death, were thought for a time to be her brother's.
Jacson is also known to have written a religious pamphlet, ''Every Day Christianity'' (1816).
See also
* Maria Elizabetha Jacson
References
Bibliography
*Chawton House
Chawton House is a Grade II* listed Elizabethan manor house in Hampshire. It is run as a historic property and also houses the research library of The Centre for the Study of Early Women's Writing, 1600–1830, using the building's connectio ...
Library: ''Isabella''
PDF
; ''Things by their Right Names''
PDF
. Both retrieved 29 September 2022.
*Orlando Project
Retrieved 19 November 2010. Subscription required for most information.
*
*Percy, Joan. "An Unrecognized Novelist: Frances Jacson (1754–1842)." ''The British Library Journal'' 23.1 (1997): 81–97. Reproduces an 1814 water colour portrait of Frances Jacson.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jacson, Frances
1754 births
1842 deaths
18th-century English novelists
19th-century English novelists
18th-century British women writers
19th-century English women writers
English women novelists
Pseudonymous women writers
Anglican writers
People from Bebington
18th-century English women
18th-century English people
18th-century pseudonymous writers
19th-century pseudonymous writers