John Jameson, son of William Jameson and Helen Horn, was born in the parish of Alloa, Clackmannanshire in 1740. On the 12th of September 1768, John married Margaret (Peggie) Haig (1753-1815), the eldest daughter of John Haig, of the Haig Scotch whisky dynasty, in Alloa. John Jameson was sheriff-clerk of Clackmannanshire from about 1770. John and Margaret had eight sons and eight daughters. John moved to Dublin around 1774, where he was appointed general manager of one of several distilleries in Dublin’s Smithfield district, with the premises in question being in the ownership of his relative by marriage, John Stein.
John Jameson Portrait
In 1780 John bought a share in a small whisky distillery in Bow Street, Dublin, and started production of Irish Whiskey there. Between 1785 and 1825, whiskey distillers had to pay duty on malt as well as on spirit. To use less malt, and therefore pay less tax, John experimented with mixtures of malted and un-malted barley, producing these for sale generally. The public soon came to prefer this type of whiskey, so much that imported Scotch malt whisky became difficult to sell in Dublin.
Around 1800, he was joined by his sons John Jameson, who took over the business in 1805, and William (who married John Stein's Daughter, Isabella Stein), who moved to Marrowbone Lane in Dublin with brother James Jameson, where they partnered with their Stein relations (a Clackmannanshire whisky distilling family) in whiskey distilling, initially calling their business Jameson and Stein, before settling on William Jameson & Co.
By the turn of the 19th century, it was the second largest producer in Ireland and one of the largest in the world, producing 1,000,000 gallons annually. Dublin at the time was the centre of world whiskey production. It was the second most popular spirit in the world after rum and internationally Jameson had by 1805 become the world's number one whiskey.
In 1901, the company was formally incorporated as John Jameson and Son Ltd.
The fourth of John Jameson's sons, Andrew, who had a small distillery at Enniscorthy, County Wexford, was the grandfather of Guglielmo Marconi, inventor of wireless telegraphy. Marconi's mother was Annie Jameson, Andrew's daughter.
John Jameson's eldest son, Robert, took over his father's legal business in Alloa. The Jamesons became the most important distilling family in Ireland, despite rivalry between the Bow Street and Marrowbone Lane distilleries.
John Jameson died in Alloa on the 2nd or 3rd of December 1823. He is buried in Alloa's old kirk yard at Greenside with his wife.
Commemorative event
A commemorative event was held on Saturday, 2nd December 2023 at St John the Evangelist Church, Broad Street, Alloa to commemorate the 200th anniversary of John Jameson's passing. A presentation was given on the Stein, Haig and Jameson contributions to the Scotch whisky industry in Clackmannanshire, once the largest in Scotland, and to the Irish Whiskey industry, of which the Jameson name remains an intrinsic part. A visit was made to his graveside in Alloa and a prayer was given by the Rev. Stuart F. Gray, and a wreath was placed at John Jameson's resting place at Greenside by Clackmannanshire Council Provost Donald Balsillie on behalf of the people of Clackmannanshire. Several people representing the Stein, Haig, and Jameson families attended the event, including Brian Jameson, who has released a book on the life and times of John Jameson.