Hall Jackson was an American physician and surgeon.
Background
Jackson was born on November 11, 1739, in Hampton, New Hampshire, the son of Dr. Clement and Sarah (Leavitt) Jackson of Portsmouth, New Hampshire. He was a great-grandson of John Jackson, yeoman, who in November 1679 came to New England from Dartmouth in the Hannah & Elizabeth, with his wife and children. After living a short time in Cambridge, Massachussets, he removed to Portsmouth, New Hampshire, where his son Clement became a prominent shipping captain and merchant and the father of several children, among them Dr. Clement, the father of Hall Jackson.
Education
Jackson commenced the study of medicine in the office of his father in Portsmouth, which experience he enriched by attending for three years lectures in the public hospitals of London, where he came to enjoy not only the friendship of several well-known surgeons of that time but also the acquaintance of David Garrick, the actor, and the scientists Erasmus Darwin and William Withering.
Career
While in London Jackson became interested in performing the operation known as cataract-couching and also received honorable mention from the faculty for an ingenious invention by which a ball was extracted from a gunshot wound which had baffled the attending surgeons. He is not credited with introducing the operation of cataract-couching into America but he is known to have been one of the earliest surgeons to perform it here. After his stay in London, where he specialized in the study of smallpox, he returned to Portsmouth and established himself as a physician and surgeon. From this period forward, his progress was marked.
In 1764 he was summoned to Boston to perform the duties of inoculation, the town being in the throes of a smallpox epidemic. Returning to Portsmouth, he, with three others, opened a smallpox hospital on Henzell's Island. About this time or a little later he also established a hospital on Cat Island in Marblehead harbor. Five days after the battle of Concord and Lexington, he offered his services in the raising of a company of minute-men. On June 19, 1775, he was summoned to Boston to attend soldiers who had been wounded at the battle of Bunker Hill. He remained in the vicinity of Boston and Cambridge throughout that summer and, during the autumn, under orders from General Sullivan, recruited a company of artillery. In the same autumn he was appointed surgeon of a regiment commanded by Pierce Long which was among those engaged in the capture of Fort Ticonderoga under Gen. Ethan Allen.
On November 14, 1775, the Provincial Congress of New Hampshire voted its thanks to Dr. Jackson and authorized his commission as chief surgeon of the New Hampshire troops in the Continental Army, with the rank of colonel. This position he held during the duration of the war. He was among the first to introduce foxglove (digitalis) into the New World, raising it from seeds given him by his friend, Dr. Withering. He sat for John Singleton Copley and the painting portrays him in a long, brown periwig. Jackson died on September 28, 1797.
Achievements
Jackson is best remembered as the pioneering surgeon, who introduced foxglove (digitalis) into the United States.
Religion
He was an honorary member of the Massachusetts Medical Society, a charter member of the New Hampshire Medical Society, and a prominent Mason, being, in 1790, grand master of the Grand Lodge of New Hampshire.
Membership
Jackson is known to be an honorary member of the Massachusetts Medical Society and charter member of the New Hampshire Medical Society.
Connections
On December 1, 1765, Jackson was married to Mrs. Molly (Dalling) Wentworth, daughter of Capt. Samuel Dalling of Portsmouth and widow of Lieut. Daniel Wentworth. They had one son and one daughter.
