Robert William Jameson

Robert William Jameson

Christine Pringle

Robert William Jameson, WS (1805–1868): A Writer to the Signet in Edinburgh, Town Councillor, newspaper Editor, poet and playwright, Robert William Jameson was the father of Sir Leander Starr Jameson, South African statesman and prime minister, and the nephew of Professors William and Robert Jameson of the University of Edinburgh. Born in Edinburgh in 1805, Robert William was the son of Thomas Jameson, a wealthy shipowner, merchant and burgess of the city of Edinburgh, as recorded in Colvin, Vol. 1: 1-2 (1922). Colvin writes of Robert William's father and grandfather, both of whom were named Thomas Jameson, that:

"These Jamesons came, so the tradition goes, from the Shetland Islands; and both their origin and their crest, a ship in full sail, with Sine Metu for motto, suggest that they once followed a seafaring life. But they had been long settled in Leith and Edinburgh." (Colvin, 1922, Vol.1:1).

In 1835, Robert William Jameson married Christine Pringle, daughter of Major-General Pringle of Symington and his wife Christine Watson. The Jamesons had eleven children, of whom Leander Starr was the youngest, born on February 9th, 1853.

Having first pursued a career as a Writer to the Signet in Edinburgh, Robert William's interest in journalism was recognised by his Whig friend and patron the Earl of Stair, who in 1854 made him Editor of the Wigtownshire Free Press, the headquarters of which was based in Stranraer, to which the family moved from Edinburgh, remaining there until 1860.

Robert William was a radical and free thinker, author of the dramatic poem Nimrod, published in 1848 and of the play Timolean, a tragedy in five acts, published and performed at the Adelphi Theatre in Edinburgh in 1852. Timolean, inspired by liberal anti-slavery views of the era, was popular with audiences and ran to a second edition within the first year of publication. In 1854 Jameson published the novel The Curse of Gold.

Writing for The Scotsman in 1922, W.Forbes Gray observed of Robert William Jameson that:

"There was probably no better known man in Edinburgh in the earlier part of the 19 century than Robert William Jameson, W.S., the father of the South African statesman whose biography is reviewed in your columns to-day. When the agitation for Parliamentary and municipal reform was at its height, Jameson, who was a sturdy Radical and a violent opponent of the Corn Law, ranged himself alongside of Adam Black, and was able as well as indefatigable in his advocacy of the policy of the 'clean slate'. Lord Chancellor Campbell considered Jameson the best hustings speaker he ever heard. Jameson was prominent at most of the public meetings of that time, and when the citizens of Edinburgh gave their feelings over the rejection of the first Reform Bill by the House of Lords, Jameson was one of the speakers at a mass meeting in the King's Park, attended by about 50,000 people. He was also an ardent municipal reformer, and was among those chosen at the first election of the reformed Town Council of Edinburgh. In 1835 Councillor Jameson opposed a proposal that the College Committee of the Town Council should supervise the teaching given in the University."

Robert William and his family moved to Chelsea and Kensington in London in 1861, where he died in 1868.

Judge Sotomayor won the vote in the US Senate by 68-31, with nine Republicans crossing the aisle to vote with the majority Democrats. The decision reflected the growing power of Hispanics in America and the commitment of Barack Obama to break down ethnic and gender barriers.

Ms Sotomayor, 55, will be only the third woman to serve on the nation’s highest court.

President Obama called the confirmation of his first Supreme Court nominee a “wonderful day for America”. He said that the Senate vote to confirm his first choice for a Supreme Court vacancy represented another step forward to a “more perfect union,” and said that she would do an outstanding.

Republicans said however that they feared she would be an activist judge. Her writings and speeches “reflect a belief not just that impartiality is not possible, but that it’s not even worth the effort,” Senator Mitch McConnell, the Republican minority leader, said.

Ms Sotomayor, the daughter of Puerto Rican parents, was brought up on a housing estate in the Bronx. Her father died when she was 9 and her mother, a nurse, was left to raise her alone.

She pursued a career in law, winning scholarships to Princeton University and then Yale Law School, where she edited the Law Review.

After graduating she worked as a New York prosecutor before joining a private business law practice. She was named a judge by the first President Bush in 1991.

Her nomination was seen as an attempt by Mr Obama, who is also an Ivy League-trained lawyer, to push the Supreme Court to the left on issues ranging from civil rights to gun control.

As a US senator Mr Obama voted against George W. Bush’s two successful Supreme Court nominees: Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito.

During her confirmation hearings Judge Sotomayor faced criticism over a speech that she made in California in 2001. In it she said: “I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn’t lived that life.”

She told senators that the remarks were intended as an attempt to inspire young Hispanics and insisted that she did not believe “any ethnic, gender or race group has an advantage in sound judging”.

She became embroiled in more controversy when her future colleagues on the Supreme Court overturned a decision by her appeals court disallowing a “reverse discrimination” claim by a group of predominantly white firefighters.

The firefighters had lost their chance at promotion when their examination results were thrown out because of fears of in-built bias against African-Americans in the test. The Supreme Court ruled that the city of New Haven, Connecticut, had been wrong to discard the results.

It is unlikely that Ms Sotomayor will shift the centre of gravity of the nine-member court immediately.

She replaces Justice David Souter, who aligned himself with the court’s liberal wing even though he was nominated by a Republican president.

In recent court decisions the liberal justices have often been outnumbered 5-4 by the conservatives.