Early Jameson Families of Nutfield, New Hampshire

The original Nutfield Settlement of 1718, in Provincial New Hampshire, soon (1722) became the Town of Londonderry. It was located just east of the Merrimack river and just north of the Massachusetts border. Nowadays the area that was originally the Town of Londonderry is made up of four Towns; Londonderry, Derry, Windham and Salem.[1]

By 1750 there were five known Jameson immigrants in this early New England settlement, Alexander, Hugh, Jonathan, Thomas and William. Jonathan and Alexander had settled in what is now the Derry area, Thomas, when he arrived in 1738, settled in the nearby Londonderry area, as did Hugh when he arrived in 1746. We do not know exactly when, where, or how William, and his family arrived in the area that is now Windham Town, New Hampshire, but we do know he was there by 1736, when his youngest son James was born there. Prior to that we know that he was in the Billerica, Massachusetts in about 1725 when and where his first child was born.

It was long thought that these five Jamesons were all closely related, likely cousins and/or brothers. In fact most genealogies or histories have them as such. This is reasonable and logical, given the common surname and the collectively few people all at that same early time and in the same place. It is even more so given they all came from about the same place, County Londonderry, Ulster, and they all sometimes married from among similar families.

The migration of the people of Nutfield from Ulster was principally because of religious persecutions back home with the repeal of the 1689 Tolerant Act. Huge numbers of people from many different congregations, almost all Presbyterians, made up this exodus. Unlike many other massive migrations, this was more a freedom of religion movement then an economic or political movement. Many of the early settlers in New England, particular Nutfield, came in congregational groupings, following a specific Preacher. We know that the William Jameson family originally settled in Billerica, Massachusetts and then found his way a little north to the Londonderry area, joining others from his area back in Ireland, who were already there. Perhaps this move to Londonderry was as part of a congregation and not because other members of his family were already there. It would seem logical that if he was joining his 'family' that he would have moved closer to them so as to be part of that congregation.

These two sets of Jameson families in this same area have confused researchers for a quite a while.[2] Not just because of the close proximity in time and place, but also because both the William family in Windham had a son named Thomas and the Jameson family in Derry had a immigrant named Thomas. These two Thomas Jamesons are often inter mixed, as their ages are not too far apart.[3] Recent genetic testing[4] however, has shown that the William Jameson family is not related, at least by any common "Jameson " ancestor, with the Jameson family in Londonderry.[5]

There were always several details that might have suggested these two families might not be connected. In particular, many of the family names were different. The Jamesons living in northern area around what is now Derry (particularly Thomas and Hugh), All named there children with similar names, like Hugh, Alexander and Thomas Whereas, apart from the name Thomas, William in the south, commonly used different names, like William, James and John. Names were important in those days, especially sons names. One would think that there would be far more common use of given names if these two Jameson families were closely related. Furthermore, they were not mentioned in each others wills, there seems to be to land deals between them, their children did not marry amongst each others extended families, nor did their descendants seem to migrate in similar patterns or similar places. As far as these two families go, there never really did seem to be any actual traditional family connections.

Apart from the original surprise on the subject, this is not any great big deal. Research has shown that Jam?sons in Ulster and even in Scotland before that, were mostly not related. Had this been with families using the surname "Smith" it might not even been assumed they were likely relatives. The fact that they were not related in this small, early New Hampshire settlement may be a bit of a surprise, but it is not really anything important. Knowing they are not related however, is important to those doing research on either of those direct families bot as to their relationship in and after New Hampshire and as to their earlier origins.