General Notes

b. St Dunstans, Stepney, London, Middlesex, England
cr. 6 Jun 1603 St Dunstans, Stepney, London, Middlesex, England
bur. 1674/1675 Centre St., Newton, Middlesex, Ma

John Jackson's purchase of 18 acres of land and a dwelling house in
what was then Cambridge Village, now Newton, MA, was the first viable
settlement of that town. He is alleged to have brought a "good estate"
with him from England. He bought the property from Miles Ives of
Watertown, situated on the Roxbury road, very near the line which
divided Newton from Brighton in 1854. He took the Freeman's oath in
1641 and was one of the first Deacons of the church. He gave one acre of
land for the church and cemetery, upon which the first meeting house
was erected in 1660 and which is the oldest part of what was the Centre
Cemetery in 1854. His old home was pulled down about 1800, on land
occupied by Edwin Smallwood in 1854. He was a proprietor of the
Cambridge lands and, in the division of 1662, he had 3 acres, in 1664 he
had 30 acres. In the division of the Billerica lands in 1652 he had 50
acres. He petitioned the General Court and others to have Cambridge
Village esablished as a separate town, but died before this was
accomplished.