Patrick Tracy Jackson

Patrick Tracy Jackson (August 14, 1780 – September 12, 1847) was an American manufacturer, one of the founders of the Boston Manufacturing Company of Waltham, Massachusetts, and later a founder of the Merrimack Manufacturing Company, whose developments formed the nucleus of Lowell, Massachusetts. Early life and education He was born in Newburyport, Massachusetts, the youngest son of Jonathan Jackson and his second wife, Hannah Tracy Jackson, who was the daughter of Irish-born merchant Patrick Tracy. He enjoyed more schooling than most young men in post-Revolutionary America, attending Newburyport public schools as well as the private Dummer Academy. Growing up in a commercial family, however, Jackson was anxious to prove his business acumen, so in 1795, at the age of fifteen, he served as an apprentice clerk to William Bartlett, a wealthy Newburyport merchant, and as captain's clerk to his elder brother Henry. He spent several years at sea on behalf of Bartlett and his brother Henry from 1799 to 1808, impressing experienced merchants and sea masters with his drive and knowledge of navigation and maritime commerce. He completed four trading voyages abroad between 1800 and 1807, which gave him the opportunity to gain "experience in the Eastern trade and a respectable capital base".