- written by Marilyn Jamison.

For a long time, most really early Jam?son research in Ireland, particularly Northern Ireland has focused on County Londonderry and the period following the establishment of the plantation system there.

Recently, various connections made through Y-DNA, and at-DNA has prompted us to delve into historical documents about even earlier Ulster Scots settlements in Counties Down and Antrim.

By the latter part of the 16th century the northern part of Ireland had been devastated by years of warfare between the Irish chieftains, so much so that various historians describe it as a “wasteland.” Queen Elizabeth I found the territory to be difficult to govern and she imprisoned Con O'Neill, the chieftain who owned those lands, in Carrickfergus prison, most likely to be executed. When she died in 1603, James IV of Scotland became King James I of England.

Hugh Montgomery, from Ayrshire, Scotland was an influential ally of King James I and also known to Con O'Neill. Montgomery plotted to help O'Neill escape from prison and be pardoned by the King in exchange for half of O'Neill's lands.

Another influential Scot from Ayreshire, James Hamilton, learned of the successful plot and managed to insert himself into the agreement, gaining a third of the lands for himself.

The economy in Scotland at that time was poor and conditions were ripe for many people to look for new and better opportunities for themselves and their families. Montgomery and Hamilton determined that if they could bring Scots over to the north of Ireland that they could form successful settlements and restore the previously devastated lands, an endeavor that could be profitable for all involved.

In May of 1606, they started bringing settlers over from Ayrshire, first from their home areas of Braidstane and Dunlop, and later from a wider area. Eventually the numbers exceeded 10,000.

The Ulster Scots settlements were very successful, and their significance to the future of Northern Ireland is best described by this excerpt from Discover Ulster-Scots, The Settlement Story. “Hamilton and Montgomery can rightly be called The Founding Fathers of the Ulster Scots.The thousands of settlers they brought over absolutely transformed the region. The success of their settlement in Antrim and Down must have reassured King James VI & I of his Plantation in Virginia (at Jamestown) in 1607, and without doubt inspired the Plantation of the rest of Ulster which started in 1610.”

We have been able to establish that some Jam?sons were a part of this migration to the Counties Down and Antrim and of the disbursement that naturally followed into other parts of Ireland.

From within the Ireland Abstracts of Wills and Marriages, 1620-1923 [1], we have a list of people given Denizen rights[2] to live in Ireland. We see on May 10, 1605 that rights were given to Gawin and John Hamilton. It is thought that these are the two brothers that James Hamilton brought with him to Ireland to help him administer his settlement there.

Just a few months later, on September 6 of 1605 we see that John Jameson, "a German,"[3] was granted Denizen rights. This was about eight months before James Hamilton started bringing over settlers, so it is possible Jameson was an employee of some kind and that this document establishes a connection between John Jameson and the Hamilton’s and their settlement.

The document does not tell us [4], where he was from, only that he was a German. According to Linde Lunney "The thing is, by that date Scots had settled and bred in many places round the Baltic and in Scandinavia. So this John was probably a Scot or the son of a Scot.”[4] I would also suggest that because of the timing and his association with the Hamiltons that he was possibly connected to them back in Dunlop, Ayrshire.

Meanwhile, Gawin Hamilton acquired lands for himself in Holywood, near Belfast and along the River Bann near Coleraine. It is easy to surmise that Jam?sons who already had a relationship with him and his family might have followed him there. And, indeed, Jamesons are found there in the early 18th century. The Ards Peninsula area of County Down, near Belfast, is and has been well populated with Jam?son families since at least the beginning of the eighteenth century, suggesting that some of them may have been descendants of John Jameson (that "German") and others from Ayrshire, Scotland.

The document also doesn't tell us where he lived in Ireland, but we do know that Bangor, in the Ards Peninsula, County Down (near Belfast), was Hamilton's first headquarters. And it is there that we find Helena Eleanor Jamieson (abt.1649- ) and her father, John Jamieson.

What we know of Helena Eleanor and her father we know mostly from Agnew family researchers. In The Book of the Agnews, the author relates that when Hugh Montgomery brought the first settlers over from Ayrshire, he brought family members and their in-laws, the Shaws and the Agnews, both influential families back in Ayrshire. In 1622 the Agnew family built the Kilwaughter Castle, and in 1625 the Shaws built the Ballygally Castle. Both were near what is now Larne in Antrim, and only about five miles apart. The following incident that took place during the Irish insurgency of 1641 is related in The Book of the Agnews.[7]

“Amongst the Protestants who were shut up at this time in Ballygally Castle were John Jamieson of Ballygawn and his family. Provisions being scarce, this John Jamieson one day sent his two sons and his daughter to his barn, which was about three-quarters of a mile distant from the castle, to fetch corn for their subsistence. Whilst they were on this errand, the party were set upon by six horsemen from Glenarm, who pursued them for their lives. One of the lads escaped by plunging into a river, which the horsemen could not cross; but the other lad and his sister were taken, and brought into Glenarm, where the former was hanged over the bridge and the latter was kept a prisoner for six or seven weeks.”[7]

It is also related that the occupants of Ballygally often rode out to make reprisals upon the Irish and were often joined by parties under the command of Captain John Agnew, of Kilwaughter Castle.

The incident involving the Jamieson family is documented in the 1653 govenment depositions where we learn that John's children were named Robert, Henry and Isobell. Henry was the son that was killed.[8]

Helena Eleanor Jamison was born about 1649 and married James Agnew. The Agnew family indicate she was the “dau., probably, of John Jamieson, who was intimately associated with the Agnews of Kilwaughter, and with the Shaws of Ballygally, in the Ulster Plantation. Helena Eleanor is named in James Agnew's 1681 will: their four children are mentioned but are not named. Some documents relating to James’ will have survived and are held at PRONI. They are not available online. James is buried in a mortuary in the Old Abby Churchyard in Bangor.  Presumably Helena Eleanor is also buried there. Many of their descendants have been documented down to the present day.[5]

Unfortunately for genealogists, no list of the original 1606 settlers can be found. Some settlers’ names are known, of course, and can be found in both The Hamilton Manuscripts and The Montgomery Manuscripts. No specific mention of any Jam?son settler can be found in The Hamilton Manuscripts,[6] and only one mention is made in The Montgomery Manuscripts[6] where is included an excerpt from M.S. Genealogy of the Family of James Orr of Ballyblack, drawn up from inscriptions on tombstones, by the late Gawin Orr of Castlereagh. It is stated that "The descendants in the female line from James Orr and Janet M'Clement of Ballyblack, intermarried with the families of ….. Jamieson of Killaghey, …..” No further information about that union is given. Killaghey is located on the Ards Peninsula in the heart of the early Montgomery settlement.

The 1643 depositions into the 1641 Irish insurrection tells us of two more Jam?sons of that time.

Peter Gates witnessed the death of John Jameson, among others, at Ballykelly, the Fishmongers Estate in County Londonderry. Ballykelly is near present day Limvady.

William Jamesone of Crane, Drumgoone, Cavan detailed how he was robbed and his property vandalized.

We cannot tell from the depositions whether the two mentioned above had dispersed from the Hamilton and Montgomery settlements or if they came over later.

No doubt there were more Jam?sons who came to Ulster with Hamilton and Montgomery. Most of the settlers left little or no written records. Yet, collectively, the impact those Ulster Scots had on Ireland was substantial and many of our Jam?son ancestors were an integral part of it.