Jameson, was described as 'One of the most noted
athletes of the North and for many years Champion Wrestler of
England'. A native of Penrith, he was a joiner by trade and later
proprietor of the Griffin Inn in Cornmarket.
He was a big man scaling up to 17 stones yet so
light on his feet that he excelled, not only as a wrestler by
virtue of his great weight and strength, but also as a runner and
jumper, and in the long leap, and pole leap, being reputed to have
cleared the bar both ways at 10 feet 3 inches with the pole. As a
wrestler, his recorded major wins were in 1858 at the Talkin Tarn
Regatta and Armathwaite.
In 1860 he won the famous Carlisle Wrestling
All-Weights Championship for the first five times. In 1861, he won
the London, Cumberland & Westmorland style wrestling for the
first of five times inside ten years, and also beat his greatest
rival, Longtown gamekeeper, Dick Wright, four times in one day at
Newcastle. From that time, until his retirement sixteen years later
he held undisputed sway in every wrestling ring.
When he settled in Penrith at the former Sun Inn
in Little Dockray, he issued a challenge to the world at wrestling
but it was never taken up. In 1870 he and Wright figured in an
international match with two French wrestlers, Le Boeuf and Dubois,
in London and in the respective national styles. There is also a
record of a match on Penrith bowling green in 1876 between Jameson
and a French wrestler.
Jameson took over the Griffin Inn Cornmarket
(north-side) in 1873, as tenant and later bought the premises for
£1,280. It had ceased to be an inn when he died there in 1888. The
old champion is buried in Penrith Cemetery where a
marble-on-sandstone pillar marks his grave.
He won many trophies in his career and the
Penrith Museum collection comprises nine belts, half a dozen silver
cups, and three wrestling medals.
The collection was given to the Museum in 1952 by
Mr J W Jameson of Eamont Bridge.
