Jameson was born in January 25, 1824, in Irasburgh, Vermont. His parents were Thomas and Martha (Gilchrist) Jameson, Thomas being a descendant of Hugh Jameson, of Scotch ancestry, who emigrated from Ulster, Ireland, in 1746 and finally settled in Londonderry, New Hampshire. John's character was crystallized in an atmosphere of dignity, uncompromising uprightness, industry, rigorous morality, social reticence, and quiet domesticity; and while the orthodox Calvinism of his childhood gave way to religious liberalism in his adult years, the solid framework of his heritage remained formidable to the end. His father had been honored with the office of sheriff of the home county and with membership in the constitutional convention of Vermont (1850).
Education
In the accumulation of earthly possessions the parents, in spite of their traditional frugality and thrift, were not very successful, and it was only under the most severe hardships and sacrifices that Jameson was able to secure an education. His final preparation for college was completed in Brownington, and he entered the University of Vermont in 1842, originally intending to prepare for the ministry in conformity with the desires of his parents. He was graduated in 1846 at the head of his class.
Career
After teaching for four years in an academy at Stanstead, Canada, Jameson returned to the University of Vermont and spent two years there as tutor. During these same years he earned the degree of master of arts (1849), read extensively in many fields, and began to concentrate his interests on the study of law. Before entering the Harvard Law School in the autumn of 1852, he spent a few months in the law office of Governor Underwood in Burlington. In the spring of 1853 he resumed his tutoring while he was making the final preparation for his admission to the Vermont bar. In the autumn of 1853 he went to Chicago and began the practice of law with H. N. Hibbard as his partner. In the winter the firm moved to Freeport, Illinois, in search of a more lucrative field. Jameson re-established his law office in Chicago in 1856 and practised with cumulative success until he was elected to a judgeship on the superior court of Chicago (later of Cook County) in 1865. On the chancery division of this court he served for three successive terms covering a period of eighteen years. His temperament, traditions, and scholarship made him preeminently qualified for the equity field, and to him came the rare distinction of having virtually all of his decisions from which appeals were taken confirmed by the higher courts. In what was probably his most famous case his decision was reversed by the supreme court of Illinois in 1871, but the principles of law which were the basis of his reasoning ultimately prevailed. In 1867 appeared his monumental work on The Constitutional Convention; Its History, Powers, and Modes of Proceeding. Jameson was moved to make this exhaustive and scholarly study, as he explains in the preface, by certain claims made in the constitutional convention of Illinois in 1862 that the convention had inherent powers amounting to absolute sovereignty, and by certain rumors that a secret group hostile to the Union was trying to control the convention. His contribution was the first comprehensive treatise on the subject and, as far as it is possible in such a field, a definitive one; it received general recognition. The old University of Chicago made him a professor of equity and constitutional law for the year 1867-1868. He resumed the private practice of law in 1883 and was conspicuously successful. In 1888 Jameson was elected president of the board of trustees of Hyde Park, the suburb in which he lived with his wife, his two daughters, and his son. His interests were much wider than his profession. He taught his son the Greek and Latin necessary to admit him to college; he gave addresses from time to time, some of them in fluent German; he wrote many articles and was an assistant editor of the American Law Register. He was also active in the founding and maintenance of the Literary Club of Chicago, the Prisoner's Aid Association of Illinois, and the American Academy of Social and Political Science. Jameson's death occurred in Hyde Park, Chicago, on June 16, 1890.
Achievements
Jameson is chiefly remembered for his judicial practice.
Politics
A Republican, Jameson refrained, however, from political activity.
Connections
On October 11, 1855, Jameson married Eliza, daughter of Dr. Joseph A. Denison, Jr. , of Royalton, Vermont, descendant of Capt. George Denison of Stonington, Connecticut.
