The Jamesons of Maine

My seventh great grandfather was William Jameson (1675-1734), a Scotch-Irishman, who arrived in Boston Harbor on 4 August 1718, coming in from Antrim, Ulster, Northern Ireland with his wife and many other Presbyterian pilgrims.  According to Jameson historian Scott Jameson, from Boston Harbor they first settled in Nutfield Plantation, which is now Londonderry, NH.

William Jameson and his sons were founding fathers of Falmouth, Cape Elizabeth, Friendship, Thomaston, Warren, and Rockland, Maine. His grandsons fought in the Revolutionary War.

Many Scotch-Irish (all Presbyterians) had traveled to America at the behest of Samuel Shute, Governor of New Hampshire and Massachusetts.  There is a memorial to Governor Shute, dated March 26, 1718, whereby over three hundred Scotch-Irish had signed their names, "to assure the Governor of their sincere and hearty inclination to transport themselves to that very excellent and renowned plantation, upon their receiving from his excellency suitable encouragement."  Among the signers of this memorial were our ancestors, William Jameson and his brother John.

William Jr. and John had sailed from Northern Ireland, and were sons of William Jameson, a Scottish Presbyterian Covenantor who had fled with his sons from his home in Argyleshire, Scotland in 1685, upon succession of James II, who was anti-Covenant, to the English Crown.  William and his family had resettled in Omagh, County Tyrone.  But not for long, since they were part of a mass Scotch-Irish migration 33 years later.

JAMESON MIGRATION
LOWLAND SCOTS TO ULSTER NORTHERN IRELAND
COVENANTER PERSECUTION
1685

While William Jr's brother John had settled in Connecticut, William moved north to Maine, in a region known as Purpoodock Point.  This area was later settled as part of the very large town of Falmouth, and William was a founding citizen.  He lived there until his death in 1734.  Some of his children were born there as well, and their area became later known as the town of Cape Elizabeth when it separated from Falmouth in 1765.

William Jr's eldest son, Martin, was an early settler of Saco, Maine, and stayed there until the end of his life, but his three sons, Samuel, Paul, and Alexander eventually moved north and settled the town of Friendship (which was formerly known as Meduncook Plantation).  Their children were early settlers of Thomaston and Rockland.

An important historical book entitled "The Jamesons in America, 1647-1900", published around 1900, traces all their history from arrival in 1718 through to 1900, with a separate chapter entitled "Jamesons in Maine".  I've noticed some discrepancies in this publication when compared to official records, as is always the case with published genealogies.  But largely, it is a reliable and informative history of this large family, and is the source file for much of this writing.

Many of the Jameson family in Maine lived by the ocean in Rockland, in an area now known as “Jameson Point”.

ROCKLAND BREAKWATER LIGHT
JAMESON POINT

William had eight children, including daughters Mary, Martha, and Patience.

A brief account of his other five children follows:

1.  Martin Jameson (1705-1760) was born in Ulster, Northern Ireland, and came over as a boy with his parents and brother Samuel to Maine.  He fought with his father in active service against the Indians on the "Muster-roll of Capt. John Gray and Company, from June 1st to Nov. 30th, 1725".  He married Grizzel Patterson of Saco about 1738.  At the time of his death, he was the eighth highest payer of taxes in Saco, and his estate was valued at ₤233 (well over $10K in 2010 money).  Their son Robert Jameson founded a large family of Jamesons in Saco, which until 1805 was named Pepperrellborough.  Robert's grandson, Charles Thorndyke Jameson, settled in the Prides Corner of Westbrook, Maine, just below Highland Lake, and has his own family cemetery on Bridgton Road, behind the firehouse, which was the location of the Webb-Jameson farm for many decades.

Tote Road
Off Bridgton Road, Westbrook, ME
Jameson Cemetery is located toward the end
(I was unable to locate)

JAMESON CEMETERY
WESTBROOK, MAINE
COURTESY OF WESTBROOK HISTORICAL SOCIETY

Charles married two sisters, Bethana and Ruth Webb, and had five children with Ruth.

CHARLES THORNDYKE JAMESON
(1804-1877)

2.  Samuel Jameson (1709-1768) was also born in Ulster, Northern Ireland, and came over as a boy with his parents to Maine.  He first married Sarah Smith of Arundel, and had two children, Jane and William.  He then married Sarah McLellan (daughter to fellow Scotch-Irish settler Bryce McLellan) in Falmouth (now Portland), and settled with his big family (including the additional seven children from this marriage) in Friendship, Maine, where he was documented as the first permanent settler.  He also served in the French-Indian Wars, and was taken prisoner during these wars, along with his brother Alexander.  Samuel died soon after release from the prison, due to poor care while captive.  Samuel was also an early settler of the town of Warren, Maine, upon the Oster River.  Below is the transcript of Samuel's probate:

3.  Paul Jameson (1720-1795) was born in Falmouth, later known as Cape Elizabeth.  He fought in the Revolution, married Elizabeth Pebbles, and lived the majority of his life in Friendship, Maine, having followed his older brother.

4.  Margaret Jameson (1703-1760) was born in Northern Ireland, the first child of William.  She traveled to Falmouth Maine with her father as a teenager.  Margaret migrated to Scarborough and in 1717 married Robert McKenney, and had nine children.  Their daughter, Hannah, married Robert McLaughlin of the famous Scarborough McLaughlin clan.  Their daughter Rebecca married James Holmes and they became the first settlers of the town of Cornish Maine (then known as Francisboro).

5.  Alexander Jameson (1717-1800), my sixth great grandfather, was born in the part of Falmouth which was later known as Cape Elizabeth.  He fought in the Revolution, and married Mary McLellan, likely sister to Sarah (who married Samuel above).  Alexander followed his brothers Samuel and Paul to Friendship, Maine - where Samuel was first settler (formerly Meduncook Plantation), and lived on Emery Davis Farm.  Alexander's son, Robert Jameson (my fifth great grandfather), served on the Meduncook Committee of Safety in 1776, and so is credited with giving public service during the Revolutionary War (according to 1998 publication Supplement to Soldiers, Sailors and Patriots of the Revolutionary War in Maine by Major General Carleton Edward Fisher).  Robert left behind over 135 descendants when he died at age 86. One of them, his granddaughter Mary Ann Jameson, was mother to my 2nd great grandfather, Charles A. Murch.


Notes about Mary Ann Jameson and her husband James Murch:

-They married in St. George, Maine in 1841.

-They had five children within ten years.

-She was listed as a widow on the 1860 Census, and all subsequent Rockland directories.  James had appeared on the 1850 Census, but died a year later, in December of 1851.

-Mary Ann died of La Grippe in Rockland just before Christmas of 1892.

-For various available Rockland Directories (1875, 1877, 1882), she was a widow living at 13 Tea Street, across the road from Freeman Jameson (who lived at 16 Tea Street), who was her 2nd cousin. 

13 TEA STREET

16 TEA STREET

-For the 1889 Rockland Directory, Mary Ann had left the Tea Street house and was boarding at John McNamara’s on Old County Road.  I wonder what happened to her house?
 -Mary Ann's 1892 death record erroneously lists her father as "James Jameson"...

 -Mary Ann's father is listed as "John Jameson", however, in the 1900 volume The Jamesons in America, pp 263-264, her father is affirmed to have been John.

-The Rockland Cemetery Association, which manages Acorn, Tolman, Robins, and Seaview Cemeteries, told me they have burial records for only a "Nellie Murch" buried in the 1960's...no James or Mary Ann.  They also looked at Appleton and found a Grace Murch buried in 1913, and found a Jennie Murch buried in 1911 at Vinalhaven Island Cemeteries.  The search continues for the final resting place for these Murches.

It appears that in Thomaston, near now demolished Henry Knox Mansion, there was an old cemetery called "Old Fort Burying Ground", and that some Jamesons are buried there, including Martha Jameson-Porterfield, daughter to William above.  I wonder if this is a good place to look for these other family members?  I wonder if it's now the same cemetery as what is now known as Elm Grove Cemetery, since Henry Knox is buried there (and it was written he was buried near his home).