Robert Houghwout Jackson was born in Spring Creek, Pennsylvania, in 1892. The son of William Eldred and Angelina Houghwout Jackson, he grew up in Frewsburg, New York. The last person to serve as associate justice on the Supreme Court without obtaining a law degree, Jackson passed his bar exam after two years apprenticing for a law firm in nearby Jamestown, New York, and taking a year of course work at Albany Law School in Albany, New York. Following a successful career in private practice, Jackson in 1931 accepted a nomination from then governor Franklin D. Roosevelt to serve on the New York State Commission to Investigate the Administration of Justice. This was to prove formative for his career, much of which focused on the problems inherent in the criminal justice system, such as equality before the law and the pursuit of justice and truth rather than simply pursuit of convictions.