Jacksonian Professor of Natural Philosophy

It was founded in 1782 by a bequest from the Reverend Richard Jackson of Tarrington, Herefordshire.

He left a fifth of the income from his estate to the head gardener of the university's physic garden and the remainder to found the Professorship of Natural and Experimental Philosophy that now bears his name.

His will specified the details of the professor with much precision, including that preference should be given to candidates from Trinity and men from Staffordshire, Warwickshire, Derbyshire and Cheshire, and that any holder must search for a cure for gout.

[2] The will also stated that his lectures should promote "real and useful knowledge" by "showing or doing something in the way of experiment upon the subject undertaken to be treated," and its early holders consequently tended towards the experimental end of the field, such as chemists and engineers.

The first holder of the position was the mathematician and chemist Isaac Milner, elected to the post in 1783.