Originally part of the Cambridge Patent granted by King George III in 1761, the land that is now Jackson was later separated into towns, with Jackson, Cambridge, and White Creek initially part of a single town, named Cambridge. In 1815 old Cambridge was split into three separate towns, with Jackson named for General Andrew Jackson, the victor in the 1813 Battle of New Orleans. Jackson is now bounded by New York State Routes 372 and 313, and by the Battenkill River that flows out of Vermont into the Hudson River about ten miles to the west of Jackson, near the site of the 1777 Battle of Saratoga.