This web site is devoted to the descendants of John Jamison, son of Samuel Jamison and Catharine Cowden, who was born in Little Britain Township, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania on October 27, 1746. He was one of seven known children, the others being Jane, James, Adam, Samuel, William and Joseph.1

It is believed that his grandfather was of Scotch-Irish decent and came to America around 1713. The term Scotch-Irish is "an Americanism, generally unknown in Scotland and Ireland, and rarely used by British historians. In American usage, it refers to people of Scottish descent who, having lived for a time in the north of Ireland, migrated in considerable numbers to the American colonies in the eighteenth century."2 His grandfather, who was also named John, was an early settler in Lancaster County and was instrumental in the naming of Little Britain Township which was formed in 1738.3

Some time prior to 1769 John left Pennsylvania and settled in what would become Franklin County, Virginia where he married Nancy Aitkins on December 4, 1769. Their first nine children were born in Virginia and then around 1792 they moved to Mecklenburg County, North Carolina where their last three children were born.4

The family settled in the Rocky River area of Mecklenburg and Cabarrus Counties. [Cabarrus County was formed from Mecklenburg County in 1792.] Land records of these two counties over the course of 27 years showed purchases and sales by John and his sons and grandsons - John C., James, Samuel, William, and Adam Jamison - often with one or another Jamison showing up as a witness. After 1821, land purchases in the Rocky River area, for the Jamisons, stopped although sales continued until January of 1823.  This corresponds with information provided in a letter written by Mary Jane Patton on April 24, 1891 from Clarksville, Pike County Missouri. Mary Jane was a great-granddaughter of John Jamison and she told of the family's coming to Pike County, Missouri in 1820.

The Jamison family descendants did not stay just in Missouri. A group of them moved to Wisconsin and from there to Montana and even into British Columbia. Others went west to Texas and California. One descendant, James Carson Jamison, fought with General William Walker in Nicaragua in the 1850s and was later appointed Adjutant General of the state of Missouri.

The information for this web site has been through the work of many people, principally Kent McMahan, Dave Schaal, Perry Jenks, Jeri Swan, Howard Watts, Ardis Jamison, Troy Mayne, Helen Yager Mumm, Shirley Massie Simms, myself, and others that I may not even be aware of.

As all genealogical work, this is an ongoing endeavor and I invite any and all corrections and additions that you would be willing to make and provide. Please feel free to email me at the address below.

Thank you for taking the time to view this site.

1 Jameson, E.O. The Jamesons in America. Boston, MA, 1901: page 500

2 Leyburn, James G. The Scotch-Irish: a Social History. Chapel Hill, University of North Carolina Press, 1962.

3 Ellis, Franklin, and Samuel Evans. History of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, with Biographical Sketches of Many of its Pioneers and Prominent Men. Philadelphia: Everts & Peck, 1883: page 936

4 Jamison Family Records, 1815, loose "Family Record" pages from unknown source; digital images made by LuAnn Elsinger, Stevens Point, Wisconsin, 2010. Records were copied on October 22, 1815 in Rowan County, North Carolina. They were given to Helen Yager Mumm ca 1969-70 by Paul Jamison.