William Jamieson's Movanagher Property Claim?

Sometime in the mid 1890s, a "Mr. William Jamison of Hilteman (sic), Iowa" made inquiries of the U.S. Consul in Ireland, about property in Movanagher, Kilrea Parish, County Londonderry, Ireland he believed he had some claim or rights to. Although we do not have a copy of his original inquiry, we do have[1] an 1895 copy of P.T. Rodger's (Consular Agent) correspondence with the Honorable Major John Lacey, about this issue.[2]

The letter from Mr. Rodger to Mr. Lacey, is somewhat dismissive about any possibility that William might have rights or could have favorable results as to any Movanagher property, but does reveal that the only property in Movanagher, at the time of the letter, that might be the property referred to by William Jamison, was that of a "Robert Jamieson, an old man of over 70 years" and that this property was "about 38 (not 18) miles from that City" as apparently William Jamison, of Iowa, had written.

Nowhere in this letter is there any indication that William Jamison of Hiteman, Iowa, is directly related to the Robert Jamieson referred to as having a farm in the Movanagher, Ireland area. Rather more likely this was probably the only possibility that U.S. Counsel Agent P.T. Rodger, could surmise. It should also be noted that nothing in this letter suggests that William Jamieson of Iowa mentioned, or even knew about any Robert Jamieson in Movanagher, Ireland. After all, William was only seven years old when he emigrated. Any good memory of Ireland nearly fifty years later would have been doubtful. His claim would have to have been necessarily vague and was probably based on family stories, or perhaps purely speculative.

Unfortunately, we do not know if anything further happened regarding this issue, described above.

Although this letter does not conclusively connect the William Jamison of Iowa (or his family) directly with the Robert Jamieson of Movanagher, Ireland, the coincidence of their similar connections with Movanagher, at about the same time, cannot be ignored.

There was a Robert Jamieson, who was well known and fairly well documented, living in Movanagher in 1859, on property owned by Mercer's Company[3]. This Robert Jamieson was the eldest son of William and Elizabeth (McNeil/O'Neil) Jameson. He was born in 1825, and apparently lived his entire life in Movanagher, where he died in 1901. It appears this Robert never married and had no direct or obvious heirs.

We also know, that about this same time, at least some of the children of an older William Jameson (siblings of the younger William who eventually wrote the letter of inquiry described by P.T. Rodger, above) were born in Movanagher, where the elder William was listed as farmer at the time of all of his children's christenings. Records also show that this was about the same time that this William and his family emigrated to America.[4]

However, from what we know of Robert Jamieson, found in 1895 Movanagher, he and the emigrant elder William Jamison of Iowa, were apparently, closely related. The two families do seem to line up well. They are quite likely cousins, perhaps 2nd or 3rd cousins, as they appear to have a common grandfather. Many mid nineteenth century records that might have shed some light on these issues from this area in Northern Ireland, have been lost in the early twentieth century troubles, others still have not been recorded or reconstructed where possible. Perhaps we will someday know more that will help us better understand the exact relationship between all of these Jam?sons in mid nineteenth century Movanagher, Ireland.

So, from what is known about all the people in this family at that time and in that place, this issue seems to be not only possible, but plausible and because we have a copy of the U.S. Consular's letter, actually happened - even though we are only left to guess about any eventual outcome.

This large Jameson family was amongst several other Jam?son families in that same area that have not yet been completely sorted out as to who was related to who. It is almost certainly true that they, including the William Jamison family who immigrated into America which included the William Jamison of Hiteman, Iowa, are all related, as detailed elsewhere.