Research Notes and References:
Jameson-Church-Duke-Bower Families



Other Jameson Families and Possible Cousins
1. William Jameson - born ca 1625 in Leith, the port town of Edinburgh, Shire Midlothian, Scotland.  William's wife's name is unknown (maybe Sarah Price). In any event, he and his family moved in about 1685 to Omagh, Tyrone County, Province of Ulster, Ireland, due to persecution as he was a Protestant Covenanter*.  He was very religious at least in his support of the Covenanter (Presbyterian) philosophy and he is said to have been a Scottish Highlander. He had 4 male children: Robert, Henry, William and John.  Robert and Henry emigrated from Ireland to American in 1708 and landed in Philadelphia.  William and John (with their families) emigrated to America in 1718 (see #2 John below).
2. John Jameson - born in circa 1680 in or around Leith, Scotland, he moved at a young age with his father William and his family to Northern Ireland.  There he married Rosanna Irwin who was presumably Irish as she was said to be a "native" of Omagh. In any event, she was born 1685 in Omagh, County Tyrone, Ulster, Ireland.  Later John and Rosanna emmigrated to Boston, Mass and arrived on 4 Aug 1718 with their family and his brother William and his family. In the Fall, William removed with his family to Falmouth, Maine where he settled and became the honored head of a long line of "worthy and respected" Jamesons.  In 1719 John Jameson removed with his family to Milton, Norfolk County, Massachusetts which was only about 10 miles from Boston. John bought land in Voluntown, Connecticut in 1725 and moved there with his family.  He presumably engaged in his trade which was the manufacture of linen by the use of a hand-loom or spinning-wheel until his death. John and Rosanna both died in Voluntown, Connecticut between 1731 and 1734.  John and Rosanna had 8 children, one of whom was #3 Robert Jameson.
3. Robert Jameson - Born in 1714 at Omagh, Ulster, Ireland. Robert, after immigrating with his father from Ireland, was living in Voluntown, CN, at the time of his father's death in 1734.  Robert married Agness Dixson on 24 November 1748 at the Congregational Church in North Stonington, New London County, Conn. In 1744 he had been elected Lister of Voluntown, and later was also at different times Conveyor of Highways, Constable and Fence Viewer. Later still he was Voluntown's "agent" to appear at the Connecticut General Assembly.  He was also an elected official responsible for collecting taxes for the King’s Colony of Connecticut in the Voluntown area with the title of Collector of Colony Rates.  In conjunction with this office he was also city Treasurer.  It was not a good time to be the city Treasurer as the city was broke.  Further, it was said that "Robert Jameson was a kind-hearted, easy-going man and when he found out that many of his neighbors and friends were unable to pay their taxes upon demand - largely because of drought and the failure of the crops - he readily indulged their requests for more time...".  Regrettably the government men in Hartford didn't see it that way and they put Robert in jail for 2 years when he didn't come up with the tax money. When the townspeople finally got him out with the help of William Williams (one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence), the Colonial government commission on the matter took almost all of his land.  It is said that he could have gotten out a year earlier, but that he was "...possessed in full measure of that Scotch-Irish "sturdy stubbornness" or "dourness"...and so, even in the face of the judgment of the Superior Court and the resolves of the General Assembly, he neglected and refused to pay to the Colony the amount of taxes claimed to be due".  Robert in fact had told a representative of the General Assembly after the first year that he would "...rot in jail, before he would give in!".  Unfortunately it was another full year before he came to his senses.
       However, he was out of jail and he was an original signer of the Connecticut Susquehanna Company that claimed ownership of a large part of Central Pennsylvania.  King George had apparently given much of Pennsylvania to both William Penn and also to the Colony of Connecticut. Therefore after his release from jail, he moved from Connecticut to the Wyoming Valley of Pennsylvania with his 6 sons and 5 daughters in 1776.
 In 1778, he and his family found themselves in the middle of the Wyoming Massacre.  The British and Indians killed 300 at the fort near Wilkes-Barre, including one of Robert's 4 sons that was defending the Fort. Those that had survived the original battle and surrendered were tortured and killed in a most gruesome fashion, including women and children. Many were burned alive inside the Fort. Captain Bidlack who had been captured was bound, tortured and then thrown into a bonfire and held there by Indians with pitchforks until he died. It was Robert Jameson Sr.’s son Robert Jr. that died at the Fort (although it is not know by this writer how his death resulted), while his sons John Jameson, William Jameson and younger son Alexander Jameson ( the latter of whom may have been at the river fort with his mother as he was only about 14 years of age), escaped the main Fort and joined the rest of their family and their father at another smaller Fort near the Susquehanna River, called Shawnee Fort.  The entire family, along with Martha Espy Stewart (wife of Captain Lazarus Stewart, who died leading the charge out of the Fort against the Indians) then fled by boat and foot down the Susquehanna river and river bank to Fort Augusta at Sunbury, PA, where they stayed for a few days.  Then they proceeded on to Lancaster County (actually perhaps now Derry Twp of Dauphin County), near Harrisburg where they had other family and friends.  Martha Espy Stewart was accompanied on this journey by her young daughter Elizabeth, who would later marry Alexander Jameson (#4 below) and have a child by the name of Daniel Jameson (#5 below).Two of Robert Jameson’s sons returned to the Wyoming valley within a short time and two more within a year. The other members of the family didn't return until 1781.  Their houses and contents had been burned by the enemy in 1778, but in 1780 and 1781 John Jameson with the help of his other brothers erected a large log house on the site of their ruined homes which the families occupied upon their return while the other properties were restored.
       One of Robert's said sons, William Jameson, was in the 5th Company, 24th Regiment, Connecticut Militia and fought with his company in the fort at the Wyoming Massacre in July of 1778.  He was wounded and had the lock of his gun shot off, but managed to escape from the field of battle with the aid of his brother John Jameson. He was among the first Jamesons to return from Lancaster County and then joined Lieut. Colonel Butler's detachment of militia in August of that year.  On 14 Oct 1778, while on his way from the garrison in WilkesBarre to the ruined homes of his father and brother in Hanover, in order to ascertain the condition of things there, he was "...shot by Indians near where the bridge crosses Buttonwood Creek.  Being wounded, he fell from his horse, and attempted to gain the woods, but was overtaken, tomahawked and scalped by his foes.  Although a portion of his brain was dashed out by the blow of the tomahawk, nevertheless he lived for two days in that condition -- dying on the 16th of October, 1778."   It is said that his scalp was particularly prized because he had escaped from the Fort at the Wyoming Massacre. William at the time was 26 years old and never married.  A marble pillar was errected by the Hon. Stewart Pearce ( a decendent of the family) in 1879 near the spot where William fell and is presumably still there. 
       On Monday, 8 July 1782,  John Jameson, a neighbor by the name of Asa Chapman, and John's younger brother Benjamin Jameson , who was then 14, were approaching the Hanover Meeting House on horseback, about 3 miles South of the village of WilkesBarre. As they got closer to the meeting house, John Jameson exclaimed "There are Indians!" Before he could turn his horse, he was shot by three rifle-balls and fell to the ground dead. Chapman was wounded but clinging to his horse escaped to WilkesBarre, where he died the next day.  Benjamin's horse, wheeling suddenly about carried him back in safety to his home.  The scalp of John Jameson was taken by the Indians, who then hastily retreated from the ambush site, leaving his dead body in the road.  In any event, all historians agree that he was the last person scalped by Indians in the Susquehanna valley.  An oil painting of the ambush of John Jameson (done in the 1800's) hangs in the Luzerne County Historical Society building in or near Wilkes Barre.  There is also a monument to Lieut. John Jameson along the trail (now a paved road) where John was killed at Hanover Church.  John left behind his wife, Abigail Alden Jameson, and their 3 children.  Abigail was the daughter of Captain Prince Alden who was the  grandson of John Alden of Mayflower fame.  Abigail continued after John's  death to reside in Hanover, and although a widow with 3 young children was made the victim of many persecutions and hardships as a result of the Pennamite wars (Conn vs. Penn land claimants) particularly in 1783 and 1784. 
       In1783 and 1784 the Yankee and Pennamite War continued to rage and Robert Jameson's family suffered much along with the other Connecticut settlers in this regard as aforesaid.  On May 13th and 14th, 1784 at least one hundred and fifty families were dispossessed of their homes, robbed of their property, and driven into the wilderness by soldiers with bayonets.  This happened to Robert Jameson's entire family including Abigail and the other widows and their children.  They were not allowed to use the river or the roads for their departure, but were required to go through the Lackawanna "Great Swamp" a total of 80 miles to the next inhabited place.  It is said that upwards of 500 women and children were required to travel the muddy trail, cross rivers and swamps without shelter and on foot. Many took sick and died.  Robert Jameson and his family, after spending about a month in the wilderness near the Delaware River, quietly returned to his home.  However, he was captured and jailed in the guard house at Ft. Wilkes Barre.  Notwithstanding his age, he was "kept bound and closely confined" for a number of days.  During which time, his wife Agness who was sick and bedridden from the wilderness trek, was "...hove out of the house in her bed by a party of assassins by Colonel Armstrong's orders" along with Abigail and her children. In October, 1784, and after being thrown out of her home because she was attempting to take food to her jailed father-in-law Robert Jameson, Abigail journeyed 60 miles to Easton, Northampton county to lodge with the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania a complaint against her persecutors. When asked by the presiding Judge, the  Hon. George Bryan whether she had an attorney, she replied that "all the "Aldens are lawyers, I will attend to my own case".  After presenting her case, the Judge ordered a warrant for the arrest of Captain Patterson who was the leader of the persecutors and she was eventually awarded a judgment against him and others. However, the judgment was never collected as the Connecticut settlers reached a settlement with the Pennsylvania government that allowed them to keep their land provided they swear allegiance to Pennsylvania which they then did.
     Robert died at his home in Hanover Township, Luzerne County, PA, on May 1st, 1786 at 72 years of age.
Note: Robert and most of his sons were farmers with guns and served in the militias fighting the British and the Indians during the Revolutionary war as well as in the referenced Pennamite Wars.  Historian Charles Miner commented that among Wyoming Valley pioneers, the Jameson family were “second to none in respectability, services or sufferings.” (Miner Appendix.41)
4. Alexander Jameson -  born 1764 in Voluntown, Connecticut, the son of Robert Jameson and Agness Dixson Jameson. Alexander moved to the Wyoming valley, near the Susquehanna River with his parents in about 1776. He was 14 years old when he survived the Wyoming Massacre at the Wilkes-Barre/Plymouth Fort on 3 July1778; and he was about 16 when he was the only survivor of the later Indian ambush which killed his brother John Jameson and their neighbor Asa Chapman.  In both instances it would seem that his life was possibly saved by the actions of his older brother John. Alexander fought against the British, the Indians, and the soldiers of William Penn’s descendants. Three of his brothers were killed by Indians. After living, fighting, and defending the family homesteads near Hanover which was only several miles from WilkesBarre, Alexander settled in Salem Township, Luzerne County along the Susquehanna River just North of Berwick and South of Shickshinny at or very near the present location of the nuclear plant and owned large tracts of land, for which his family had paid dearly in defending the claims of the Connecticut Susquehanna Company in the Wyoming Valley. His nearest neighbor and good friend was Nathan Beach for whom Beach Haven was named. Appropriately Alexander and many of his family is buried at Beach Grove Cemetary. When the North Branch of the State canal was being dedicated on the 4th of July, 1828 at Berwick a large ceremony attended by all. It was however Alexander Jameson who “broke ground” by driving his splendid oxen before the crowd. The plow was held by his good friend and neighbor Nathan Beach, Esq.
Prior to his move to Salem Twp, Alexander had married Elizabeth Stewart who was the daughter of the famous Captain Lazarus Stewart (as stated above) who organized and led the Paxtang Rangers which killed many Indians in the Harrisburg-Carlisle area before moving to Hanover Township near WilkesBarre around 1770. Alexander’s sister, Rosanna Dixon Jameson married the well known frontiersman Elisha Harvey***.
Alexander Jameson fought in the Pennamite wars between Connecticut settlers and William Penn's settlers as well as in the Revolutionary War. He became a leader of the Salem Twp community of PA and it's spokesman for many years.  He held a number of different offices and acted as a lawyer and judge/approved magistrate.  Alexander became quite wealthy and died peacefully in 1859 after the loss of most of his family in settling the early frontier in Pennsylvania and having endured much suffering. Alexander had 5 children, one of whom was Robert, born 1801, graduated from Yale College in 1823.

[The following excerpts are from History of Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, with Biographical Selections. H.C. Bradsby, ed. Chicago: S. B. Nelson & Co., Publishers, 1893]
Pages 199–209

Destruction of Forts Rice, Bosley’s Mills and Fort Jenkins—Capt. Klader’s Company Ambushed—Burial Party—John Balliett—The Walk Purchase—Chief Nutimus—Peter Hess Massacred, etc.
(The first part of this article is deleted- RAJ editor)

The Last Indian Massacre in this county occurred July 8, 1782. The Jamesons, Aldeus and Hurlbuts, after the battle in which Robert Jameson had been killed, fled to old Hanover, in Lancaster county.
John Jameson with his brothers, Alexander and Joseph, and mother, who carried her child Samuel in her arms (fled) all the way to Sunbury. Soon after the families were safely landed at Fort Augusta (Sunbury) John Jameson returned to look after the farm and household and effects. The families did not return until 1780.

July 8, 1782, John Jameson, with his youngest brother, Benjamin, and a neighbor, Asa Chapman, started from their homes in Hanover township to Wilkes-Barre, on horseback. Approaching open ground near the church in “Hanover Green,” John Jameson noticed Indians ambushed, and exclaimed, “Indians!” and was instantly shot from his horse, three balls striking him. His horse with empty saddle fled, and Jameson was found where he fell, tomahawked and scalped. Asa Chapman and horse were both wounded; but the horse turned and carried his rider home, where he died in a few days. Benjamin’s horse wheeled at first fire, and carried him safely away. John Jameson was at the time thirty-three years old. He had married Abigail Alden, a descendant of John Alden, who came with the Pilgrims in 1620 to Plymouth, Mass. This first John Alden married Priscilla Mullins or Molines, in 1623. This is the girl that Miles Standish sent his friend John Alden, to propose marriage. Capt. Standish was a widower. The father of the girl called her in, and bade Alden tell her his mission. He told her that Capt. Miles Standish wanted her for a wife. The blushing maiden listened to the story, and then very sensibly said: “Prithee, John, why do you not speak for yourself?” The result is know to the world. Priscilla and John were duly married.

This Article was donated by Camilla Ayers
© 1997-2006 by Mary Ann Lubinsky for the PAGenWeb Project, and by Individual Contributors
 Mary Ann Lubinsky
County Coordinator

Henry's Mother's line
Descendants of James Jameson

Generation No. 1

JAMES1 JAMESON was born Abt 1671 in Ulster, Ireland, and died Bef. 1743 in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. He married JANET. She was born Abt 1675, and died Aft. 1745 in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Children of JAMES JAMESON and JANET are:

JOHN2 JAMESON, b. 1693, (1) unknown m (2) JANET KEEN
WILLIAM JAMESON, b. 1697, Ulster, Ireland; d. March 1753, Augusta County, Virginia.

Generation No. 2

WILLIAM2 JAMESON (JAMES1) was born 1697 in Ulster, Ireland, and died March 1753 in Augusta County, Virginia. He married SARAH COLLINS March 28, 1722 in Christ Church, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She was born 1697. Children of WILLIAM JAMESON and SARAH COLLINS are:

JOHN3 JAMESON, b. March 20, 1722/23, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; d. March 1776, Augusta County, Virginia.
WILLIAM JAMESON, b. March 20, 1722/23, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.



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