Emanuel and Hannah Jackson
Long before Derby became known around the world for Rolls-Royce and powered flight, the town had already played its part in the earlier age of aviation. In the Victorian period, gas and hot air balloons were objects of wonder, drawing huge crowds wherever they appeared. One of Derby’s best-known figures in that world was Emanuel Jackson, the celebrated “Midland Aeronaut”.
Emanuel Jackson was born in 1818. By trade he was a throwster at Derby Silk Mill, where his knowledge of fabric and manufacturing helped lead him towards balloon construction. In 1845 he married Hannah Poyser, a Derby milliner, and later established his own fabric factory in the town. Through experiments with strong fabric and rubberised coatings, he developed material suitable for ballooning and began making and testing his own balloons.
Ballooning was already a popular spectacle in Derby. The Derby Arboretum Festival, held each summer from the opening of the park in 1840, regularly featured balloon ascents. Jackson was present at that first festival as a young man, and it seems to have made a lasting impression. By 1860 he had made his first major public performance as a balloonist, and he soon became a local celebrity. He secured an annual contract at the Arboretum Festival and went on to make public ascents at fairs, fêtes and gatherings across the country.
Jackson styled himself the “Midland Aeronaut”, and the name was well earned. He made close to 400 balloon ascents during his career, travelling not only around Britain but also abroad. His fame even took him to Australia, where on New Year’s Day 1875 he made a highly praised ascent at Ballarat, Victoria. At a time when flight still seemed miraculous to many people, men like Jackson were public entertainers, experimenters and daredevils combined.
His balloon ascents were not without danger. Rough landings, difficult weather and unpredictable take-offs were part of the aeronaut’s life. Some admired his courage; others thought him reckless. After a troubled ascent at Ilkeston in 1879, the Derby Daily Telegraph suggested that the line between bravery and bravado was a narrow one. Yet Jackson continued to draw crowds, and his appearances remained a highlight of Derby’s summer calendar.
By 1883 Emanuel Jackson was 65 years old and a veteran of the ballooning world. He was living with Hannah at 102 Burton Road, Derby. He had also been under strain, reportedly troubled by financial worries connected with a shop-building scheme in St Peter’s Street. On Monday 25 June 1883, Festival Day at Derby Arboretum, he left home for what he told his wife would be his last flight.
That evening, after a hot June day and despite stormy conditions, Jackson ascended in his balloon Evening Star, accompanied by his 22-year-old daughter Maria. It was his 394th flight. The balloon landed safely at Rough Heanor Farm, near Chain Lane in Littleover. As a ballooning performance, it was another success.
The tragedy came the following morning. On Tuesday 26 June 1883, at the family home on Burton Road, Emanuel Jackson shot his wife Hannah and then himself. Hannah died instantly. Emanuel died early the next day without regaining consciousness. The inquests returned verdicts of wilful murder in Hannah’s case and suicide while in a temporary state of insanity in Emanuel’s.
In Victorian terms, that distinction mattered. The verdict meant that Emanuel was not treated in the same way as someone judged to have died by deliberate self-murder, and it allowed him to be buried with Hannah and with the children who already lay in the family grave at Nottingham Road Cemetery.
The deaths shocked Derby. Crowds gathered to see the funeral procession, and there was an unusually large attendance at Nottingham Road Cemetery. Emanuel and Hannah Jackson were buried together on 29 June 1883 in plot 11190. (A34).
They were not the first members of the family to be buried there. Two of their children, who had died years before their parents, were already in the same grave. Their shared family grave was marked by a slender obelisk, reaching upwards in a poignant reminder of Emanuel Jackson’s life in the skies.
The Jackson family’s connection with ballooning did not end with him. His sons Frederick and Emanuel junior continued the tradition, and Frederick later added parachuting to his displays. The family’s ballooning story continued into the early 20th century, long after Emanuel’s death.
Today, balloons over Derbyshire are usually seen as peaceful and graceful. In Emanuel Jackson’s time they were thrilling, dangerous and extraordinary. His life links Derby’s industrial skill, Victorian entertainment, early aviation and personal tragedy. At Nottingham Road Cemetery, the Jackson family grave reminds us not only of the fame of the “Midland Aeronaut”, but also of Hannah Jackson and of the family tragedy with which his life ended.
This biography draws in part on research by Peter Seddon, whose article on Emanuel Jackson was published in Derbyshire Life in January 2015 and is used here with permission.
