JAMESON -- ELLEGOOD -- PARKER; Wm. and Mary Qrtly., Vol. 13, No. 1 Transcribed by Kathy Merrill for the USGenWeb Archives Special Collections Project ************************************************************************ USGENWEB ARCHIVES NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by any other organization or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must obtain the written consent of the contributor, or the legal representative of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store the file permanently for free access. http://www.usgwarchives.net *********************************************************************** JAMESON -- ELLEGOOD -- PARKER William and Mary College Quarterly Historical Magazine, Vol. 13, No. 1. (Jul., 1904), pp. 67-69. JAMESON -- ELLEGOOD -- PARKER. A. C. Gordon, Esq., of Staunton, Va., writes: "Manuscripts now in the possession of Harry A. Cockburn, Esq., of Lower Grosvenor Place, S. W., London, show that on August 29, 1782, Margaret Jameson, born in Virginia 16th May, 1764, married (probably in Virginia) James Macdowall, of the family of Macdowell of 'Garthland', Scotland, and had issue three daughters, who married three Scotch judges, Lord Cockburn, Lord Fullerton and Lord Dundrenness. A fourth daughter, Fenella Macdowall, married a Cunningham. Who was Margaret Jameson's father? "Mr. Stanard thinks that he was a Neil Jameson, of Norfolk, who was a Tory, and went to New York about the time of the Revolution. You will see from Mr. Cockburn's letters that there was a connection between these Jamesons and the Parkers and Ellegoods. I hope you can find out something about them." The following extracts from the letters of Mr. Cockburn to Mr. Gordon will afford further details: 6 January, 1904. "It seems that about 1864 some people of the name of Hanna & a lady Parker were trying to discover how they were related to Macdowalls, & all they knew was that it was somehow through Margaret Jameson Macdowall. However, all these people are dead & gone, & the letters I have now got are quite disjointed, so it is rather difficult to make out the whole story. But I enclose copy of an old letter & other extracts which may throw some light on the subject. I take it that 'Cousin Jameson' was mother of Margaret (Mrs. Macdowall), & that the Neil in New York was Margaret's brother, not father." Page 68. 22 March, 1904. "Some days ago I found a Parker family in Burke's Landed Gentry who are descended from Ellegoods of Virginia. I wrote to Mr. C. S. Parker, who lives in London & in Ayrshire, Scotland, asking him if he knew of any Ellegood-Jameson-Macdowall connection. His reply does not help much, but it is rather interesting, & I give you some extracts from it: "'His grandfather was son of Margaret Ellegood. She married James Parker, then residing at Woodlands, Jamestown, in the Colony of Virginia. On the outbreak of the Revolutionary war he took the English side, & served as Capt. & Quartermaster in the King's Army. Margaret Ellegood was of a French family. I have it under her husband's hand that her father (or it may have been her grandfather) as a boy came over from France on the recovation of the Edict of Nantes, 1685. The father's name was Guillaume a la Guerre. The Virginians altered it to Ellegood! She had a brother Jacob, from whom descended Canon Ellegood, still living at Montreal. She had also sisters; one was Mrs. Aitcheson; another was married to Elmsley, the well-known Greek Scholar. Perhaps a third sister was Mrs. Jameson; the name sounds familiar to me. At any rate, there were Macdowalls related to the Ellegoods, for my grandfather & his elder brother were sent over as boys from Virginia to stay with a family of that name in Edinburgh.' "Mr. Parker then goes on to say that 'he has notes & papers in Scotland (Fairlee), & when he goes North he will see if he can find out anything definite, but that may not be for some months to come.' Mrs. Jameson, however, can hardly have been a sister of Mary Ellegood (Mrs. Parker), as Mary Aitcheson, writing to her aunt, Mrs. Parker, talks of Cousin Jameson, not Aunt Jameson." The following extracts are sent by Mr. Cockburn as from old letters in his possession: A letter, dated 1864, says: "We were reputed cousins for seventy years. In 1815 the Ellegoods were so recognized by the children of James Macdowall, who say their mother was a Margaret Jameson, from Virginia, of the Ellegood stock. Capt. James Parker married Margaret Jameson. By giving the clues to the surviving Ellegoods (by next mail), I hope to get at the solution of some family problems." Extract of a letter from Mary Aitcheson to her aunt in Lon- Page 69. don (Mrs. Capt. Parker), dated Eastwood, Va., 16 April, 1785: "Cousin Jameson was very well when I last heard from her. She has got her house finished, & calls it her 'Palace'. I am always honored with Neil's room, as being one of her greatest favorites, for it is not every one who is honored with his room. I believe him in New ork with his father, & he has never been in Virginia since you left us (about 1782). His mother is dying to see him & she neer talks of any one else." Another letter says: "James Gilchrist to Capt. James Parker, Halifax, Decr 22, 1774. "Nothing going on here but Associations & Committees, though they are not so violent against the Scoth as with you. I was lately in Mecklenburg, in Virginia, where one Malachi Macalle (?) was carrying about a paper for expelling out of the country all Scotchmen, to which he had got 300 names. Howeer, for his ill-bred invections against that country in general & against some individuals in particular, the Parson of the Parish (one Cameron from the Highlands) followed him & gave him a good & most complete caning. Andrew Miller has refused signing here, & the Committee, having enquired, find Congress has no power to compel him; but as he is a favorite, they agree that if he does not violate the Association, it is the same thing as if he had signed." [There is no doubt that the records of Princess Anne and Norfolk counties would throw much light upon the matter of the above letters. William Aitcheson died at Rose Hall, Princess Anne county, and his tombstone has a coat- of-arms, much defaced. I have not a copy of his will, but it is dated August 13, 1774, and proved June 12, 1777. Neil Jameson was a Scotch merchant, and in 1775 was a member of the Revolutionary Committee for Norfolk borough. But he would not go to the full extent of independence, and so left the colony. Neil Jameson married Pembroke Thoroughgood, daughter of John and Margaret Thoroughgood, Norfolk, Va. They had a son, John Thoroughgood Jameson. John Thoroughgood was descended from Adam Thoroughgood (settled in Virginia about 1621), brother of Sir Robert Thoroughgood. (See chart in Virginia Historical Magazine, V., 88.) Jacob Ellegood was in 1740 one of hte justices for Princess Anne county, and Jacob Ellegood, probably his son, was justice in 1775. REFERENCES. - Virginia Historical Collections, New Series, Vol. VI., pp. 91, 133; Virginia Historical Magazine, Vol. II., p. 418; Richmond (Va.) Standard, Vol. IV., pp. 13-16; The Jamesons in Virginia, p. 181; WILLIAM AND MARY COLLEGE QUARTERLY, II., 158; V., 246. - EDITOR.]