near
Stockton, England. The family came of prosperous merchant stock and dated back
to an ancestor who had been knighted by James 1. They were an enterprising and
adventurous family; Port Jackson in Australia is named after one of them. Ralph
was educated at Rugby and decided to become a solicitor.At the age of sixteen he commenced study of law at Preston in Lancashire. After his first year he took over the management of the conveyancing department of a large solicitors and remained there for four years.
In 1829 a Mr Joseph Brown took him into partnership and in the same year he married Susannah Swainson. In 1838 he and others in the banking world decided to extend and connect the Clarence Coal Railway with the old port of Hartlepool. Ralph made the decision to start a dock and harbour at West Hartlepool. It was said that if it had not been for the obstructive attitude of the Hartlepool Dock and Railway Company, which discouraged the shipping of coal from new districts by other railways in their dock, the independent port of West Hartlepool would not have been created.
In 1846 he was urged to become managing director of the West Hartlepool harbour and docks undertaking then in course of construction and in 1848 he became managing director of the Stockton and Hartlepool Railway. In 1847 the harbour was opened. The following year a second dock was opened and a year later Jackson applied for a Town Improvement Commission, to govern the port.
In 1854 he was elected the first Improvement Commissioner and later was elected first Chairman of the Board. He was supreme on the Board of Directors and to encourage trade they invested their capital in collieries and to dispose of their coal they bought a fleet of steamers and when they were short of capital they borrowed money. Hartlepool became a prosperous port. Unfortunately a Benjamin Coleman brought about Ralph Ward Jackson's downfall by calling for an investigation into Jackson's operations, which were beyond the limits of their authorisation.
He was dispossessed of his authority, to the indignation of the people. Later the people showed their appreciation of him by electing him as their first member of parliament, a post he held for six years.
He died on the 6th august 1880 age 75 years at 9 St Albion Street, Hyde Park