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).

Other Colonists (Murch)

A few other notable colonists who are ancestors of Charles Murch:



SKETCH OF JAMESTOWN (1608)
John Price (1584-1628)

John Price, a Welshman, arrived in Jamestown on the ship Starr in 1611. His son Matthew followed him on the ship George in 1635. Matthew’s daughter, Sarah, was born in Virginia, but later migrated to Maine, where she met and married William Jameson from Scotland.


John Tisdale (1614-1675)
Sarah Walker Tisdale (1618-1676)

Sarah Walker came over from England on the ship Elizabeth in 1635, as a servant. Four years after she arrived in Massachusetts, she married into the noble Tisdale family. Her husband John was a victim of an assault by Stephen Hopkins of the Mayflower (also an ancestor), and later became constable of Taunton. He was killed by Indians in King Phillip’s War. The Indians stole his gun, and when the gun was later recovered, it was used as evidence against the three Indians, who were then sold into slavery and removed from the country.


Richard Higgins (1603-1675)
Nicholas Snow (1599-1676)

Two of Charles Murch’s ancestors, English Richard Higgins & Nicholas Snow, were founding members of the Town of Eastham, Massachusetts in the 1640’s. Eastham is the site of first encounter, where the Mayflower pilgrims first landed and had contact with the Nauset Indians, before deciding to move up the coast to Plymouth to settle. While Richard and Nicholas were not on board the Mayflower, they arrived a couple years afterward on the ship Anne. Richard’s daughter ended up marrying Nicholas’ son. Nicholas married Constance Hopkins, daughter of Stephen Hopkins of the Mayflower. Plaques dedicated to both these Pilgrims are on display as monuments in Eastham Town Hall.


MONUMENT TO FIRST ENCOUNTER
Eastham, Massachusetts

FIRST ENCOUNTER BEACH
Eastham, Massachusetts

Elizabeth Hull (1628-1706)

Another of Charles Murch’s ancestors, English born Elizabeth Hull, who arrived in the New World in 1635, had several personal run-ins with the Indians. One particular story I discovered is where she apparently hid a young Indian in her home (where she and her husband John Heard raised their 15 kids) in Dover, New Hampshire, protecting him from slaughter by her neighbors during the 1676 Massacre, and then aided his escape afterwards. Then in 1688, she ended up a captive of the Indians, and was enabled to escape unharmed by the aid of the same Indian she protected 12 years prior.

Her father, Reverend Joseph Hull (a Cambridge graduate) traveled to the New World with her, and his other children. When they arrived in Boston, they settled in an area that he helped name Weymouth, Massachusetts. In 1639, he and his family moved to the Indian area of “Mattakeese”, and he called the town Barnstable, Massachusetts. He used to preach from a rock to the masses of settlers, many of them armed and ready for battle with the Indians, and also with the Puritans, who didn’t like his style of preaching, as it was too Anglican. The rock is still there, surrounded by the highway. Due to the Civil War in England, there was a dearth of immigration in 1639, and he found himself in a religious minority. He moved north to an Episcopal Colony in what is now York, Maine. But in 1653, Massachusetts took Maine under its jurisdiction, and Hull’s religion was once again under threat. He ended up going back to England for a while, but he eventually came back to York, where he died in 1665.

The McLellans of Maine

Bryce McLellan (1692-1776) and his wife Jane (1692-1740), my 7th Great Grandparents, were what was known as "Scotch-Irish". These were Scottish people that fled Scotland, and it's king (James II) and his persecution of their Covenant branch of Presbyterianism, to live in Northern Ireland, although some of the more wealthy Scottish were expressly invited by the King to Ulster at this time to settle the area and "make it less Catholic."

This group of Scotch-Irish had lived in Northern Ireland for three generations.  In the 1700’s, many of them began settling in downtown Portland Maine (then part of Falmouth), where Bryce became known as the "town handyman", and was nicknamed "Mac", according to Maine Historical Society, since there was little call for his weaving skills on the waterfront.  He became an invaluable tradesman and laborer, doing odd jobs and working small trades.  At the time of his death, he had taught his sons well, and they each became wealthy high society shippers, tradesmen, and landowners.

Bryce's cousins (Hugh and James) later joined him.

Cousin Hugh McLellan (1710-1787), also referred to herein as "Gorham Hugh", whose father and grandfather were also named Hugh, but stayed in Northern Ireland, settled in Gorham (his house is an historic landmark).  He was a farmer and timber supplier to the maritime industry. 

James settled in Saco.  Hugh stayed with him for a time.

The idea that Bryce and Gorham Hugh were cousins is somewhat disputed by the below newspaper clipping, declaring that Mary, daughter of Gorham Hugh, and Joseph, son of Bryce were McLellans who married:

Portland Daily Press
Sep 14, 1876

In 1730 or so, upon arrival in Portland from Northern Ireland, Bryce built a small house on 97 York Street, corner of High Street.  He owned a large portion of the land there, and his house was one of five that survived the fires of Mowatt in 1775:

Portland Daily Press
July 4, 1883

Little did Bryce know at the time that his land would become valuable, and that the location of his land ownership would situate him to become a wealthy shipping magnate.  At the time Portland had yet to be established as an important shipping port, so Bryce got in early on the action, as it were.

At one time this was Portland's Oldest House, according to the undated article below:

Per the article below, Bryce owned a lot of land along the waterfront, at the foot of High Street, and in 1740 the area was known as "Mack's Landing" (Bryce's nickname):

Portland Daily Press
Apr 13, 1889

See map of 1775, just after the Mowatt Fire, depicting Bryce's location near the brickyard, which was later named York Street.

The building was razed in the 1930s or 1940s (according to researcher John McLellan of New Orleans) for a gasoline station.

Today, 97 York Street looks quite different.  It's now a parking lot and a taqueria!

As many Portlanders can attest, many historic buildings were torn down in the 1960's and 70's due to 'Urban Renewal'...literally paving the way for new development.  The demolition of the then phased out Union Station in favor of a strip mall in 1961 created such a furor (still talked about today) that the City started the task of historic landmark preservation.  But such movements were too late for a lot of old buildings, like 97 York.

Bryce's grandson, Major Hugh McLellan (1758-1823, and likely named after his famous elder cousin) was an important figure in Portland shipping, and was owner of Maine's largest shipping fleet and founder of the first bank and first insurance company in Maine.  "Major Hugh" had fought in the Revolutionary War for two months in 1779.  He had a house built for himself in 1800, on the corner of Fore and High Streets.  This building is still standing, and is now an historic landmark building, and a branch of Portland Museum of Art.

MCLELLAN HOUSE - PORTLAND
ABOUT 1920

MCLELLAN HOUSE - PORTLAND
ABOUT 2010

Hugh's younger brother Stephen owned the land across High Street and built his own colonial mansion in 1802 (116 High Street, now housing the Cumberland Club),  Stephen was a Freemason starting in 1779, and a veteran of the Revolutionary War (for four months in 1780).

CUMBERLAND CLUB
FORMERLY OWNED BY STEPHEN MCLELLAN
BUILT 1802

Hugh left his house to the bank around 1807, due to his shipping business falling apart (thanks to Jefferson's Embargo Act of 1807) and his resulting nonpayment of taxes. 

The Honorable Asa Clapp (wealthy next door neighbor to Hugh, who had married into the famed American Quincy family) bought it from the bank in 1817, and it changed hands a few more times throughout the years, landing in the Sweat family's hands until the death of Jane Sweat in 1908, when it then became property of the Portland Society of Art.

Stephen sold his mansion in 1810 for $2000.00, and stayed on hand to work there as Manager in its new capacity as a boarding house.

Bryce and Jane had six children together who survived to adulthood.  The others died young while they were living in Wells, Maine.  When Jane died, he married Elizabeth Miller in 1741.

Three of his sons (Joseph, Alexander, and William) each became shipmasters.   Joseph married his cousin, Mary McLellan, daughter of Gorham Hugh.  Another of Bryce's sons, James McLellan, also married into Gorham Hugh's daughter Abigail.

William married Jane Jameson of the Scotch-Irish Jameson Clan (more on the Jamesons here).

A painting of the very friendly looking William can be seen here:

WILLIAM MCLELLAN
PAINTING COURTESY OF MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY

William was a powerful shipping magnate, and was one of the few slave owners in Maine during his time.  He also fought in the Revolution.  According to the Sons of the American Revolution, William was one of the Committee of Correspondence and inspection at Falmouth in 1775 and captain of the transport sloop "Centurian" that carried Captain Peter Warren's Co. to the Penobscot river in the Bagaduce Expedition in 1779.  William's grandson, Captain Jacob McLellan, was mayor of Portland from 1863-1865 and again in 1868.  The McLellan School on Neal Street, named after Jacob, on Neal Street is now condominiums:

MCLELLAN SCHOOL

As for Bryce's three daughters:

• Sarah married Samuel Jameson and had seven children.
• Susannah married Capt. Joseph Boothby.
• Mary, my 6th great grandmother, also married into the Jameson clan, who are all ancestors of Lorena Murch Fuller’s father Charles Murch.

More can be read about the austere McLellan Clan of Portland here.

Charles's maternal grandfather was John Jameson, whose paternal great grandfather William was Scotch-Irish, arriving in Boston Harbor on 4 August 1718. William was a founding father of Falmouth, Cape Elizabeth, and Rockland, Maine. He and his sons fought in the Revolutionary War, from the down east coastal region of Maine. Prior to that, while in Cumberland County, they fought against Indians.

William’s grandson, our ancestor Robert Jameson, left behind 137 descendants when he died at age 86. One of them was his granddaughter, Mary Ann Jameson, Charles Murch’s mother. Many of the Jameson family lived by the ocean in Rockland, in an area now known as “Jameson Point”.

ROCKLAND BREAKWATER LIGHT
JAMESON POINT

There is a book called "The Jamesons in Maine, 1647-1900", published around 1900, that traces all their history, and even gets as current as Charles Murch's father, James.

William's son Alexander, who married Mary McLellan (mentioned above), was one of the founding members of Friendship Maine (formerly Meduncook Plantation), along with his brothers, and lived on Emery Davis Farm.

The Jamesons of Maine, another Scotch-Irish Maine migrant family, have been documented in this blog here.

The Leonard Forge

RUINS OF THE LEONARD FORGE

Coincidentally, some 7th generation ancestors of my paternal great grandmother, Lorena Murch, were also named Leonard, but a different set of Leonards than my direct paternal ancestors from Dublin Ireland. They came here from Pontypool, Wales in the mid 1640's. James Leonard created the first iron forge in America, Raynham Forge (aka the Leonard Forge), in 1652 (ruins pictured above). It was the longest running iron forge in the USA, finally closing in 1872.

They were founding members of the town of Raynham Massachusetts. Their house is still standing, and is still occupied by Leonards to this day! It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1984.

James became good friends with Indian chief Massasoit, leader of the Wampanoag Tribe.



STATUE OF MASSASOIT
James son, Thomas, took over the forge when James died. Below is a signature of Thomas.


Thomas was instrumental in the Forge's success, and was much admired in the community. Below is a very flattering obituary, from 1713, along with a photo of his gravestone:





Thomas’ daughter Mary married into the local Tisdale family, who were ancestors of Celia Cook (descendant of Mayflower passenger Francis Cooke), who married into the Jameson family, all ancestors of Charles Murch.  Their daughter, Hannah Tisdale, born 1688, married into the local Hodges family.  However, some books researching the Taunton Leonards declare that Hannah's name was actually Mary (James Leonard, Ironworker of Taunton, Massachusetts, The First Six Generations of His Descendants, published by Lulu Enterprises, Inc., in 2011).

Wales-to-Taunton immigrants James Leonard and his father, Thomas were also descendants of the Plantagenet line.  Thomas' mother was Margaret Fiennes (pictured below), who was a 4th great granddaughter to John of Gaunt, son to Edward III: