Pulling Threads

One of the goals of this blog is to add stories for which there was no room in the book and to pull at small threads to see where they go. This post is one example.

On page 28, there is a single mention of David Jackson. He was a middle level farmer, rather like James Harshaw, who fell on hard times during the famine. As a result, the agent for the owner, Robert Mauleverer attempted unsuccessfully to seize his cows and collect the overdue rent from their sale. There turned out to be a very interesting story behing David Jackson and his family. Much of the information for this story comes from a wonderful blog about the Jackson family run by writer and genealogist Sharon Oddie Brown at the Silver Bowl.com.

David Jackson and his wife had a large family. One of the children, Thomas was only 9 years old when Mauleverer was murdered. Sharon has a wonderful tale of a gypsy fortune teller that involved both Thomas and Mauleverer on her blog.

Thomas should have been as little known as his father David was. But that wasn't at all what happened. Thomas left the family farm near Crossmaglen and moved to Portadown where he got a job in a bank there. His talents were soon recognized, and before he was 20 years old, he moved to Belfast and joined the Bank of Ireland.

Just 4 years later, he moved to Hong Kong for a much more important position at the Agra and Masterbank. Just a year later he joined the Hong Kong Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC) as an accountant. He would soon be the most influential and important international banker for the most important bank in Asia. He was considered both cautious and brilliant.

Thomas had a very well thought out business plan. He approached banking as the farmers he had known as a child approached farming. Always plan for times of scarcity. Care for your workers. Don't export profits. Remember to be a steward. His principled career was rewarded with a knighthood in 1902.

The amazing story of the Jackson family's importance also connected to another of the small players in my book. David Jackson had a sister Margaret. She married well, a charismatic and well educated Presbyterian minister named Daniel Gunn Brown. Rev. Brown was very active in the struggle to gain recognition of tenant rights. He too makes an brief appearance in Dueling Dragons. He gave a number of speeches in support of these efforts. His remarks at one of them, a meeting in Armagh, was mentioned on page 45. George Henderson offered a harsh critique of the meeting and the lack of quality of the leaders. Given Rev. Brown's great academic achievements, George was wrong to disparage Rev. Brown.