Chapter 27.

The Family of Hamilton

may therefore, it is hoped, be here allowed as a tribute, which the writer will be ever rejoiced to pay where claimed by such honourable services.

This illustrious house claims to derive its origin from Bernard, a noble of the blood royal of Saxony, second in command to, Rollo, the first Duke of Normandy, in 876. Humphrey, the great grandson of this nobleman, lived in the 11th century, founded and endowed the Abbey, of Preaux, in Normandy, and was there buried. His son, Roger de Beaumont, was one of the council who persuaded William the Conqueror to invade England: and his son Robert married the grand-daughter of Henry the First, King of France, commanded the right wing of the Duke of Normandy at the battle of Hastings, and was created Earl of Leicester in 1103. Robert, the third Earl of Leicester, grandson of the first, died and was buried in Greece, on his return from the Holy Land in 1190; and his sister, it may he remarked, having been married to the Earl of Pembroke, was mother of Strongbow, the invader of Ireland. The eldest son of this last named Robert died without issue; his second son, Roger, was Bishop of Saint Andrews; and his third son, William, having been born at Hambledon or Hamilton, in Leicestershire, took the surname “de Hamilton” from that place, and was the more especial stock of the widely diffused families of that name. About the year 1215, having gone into Scotland to visit his sister, who was married to the Earl of Winton, he was there well received by the Scottish king, under whose favour he settled in that country, and intermarried with the daughter and representative of the Earl of Strathem. His son, Sir Gilbert, married Isabella, the niece to King Robert Bruce, the issue of which marriage Sir Walter, or perhaps more correctly, Sir William Hamilton, particularly distinguished himself at Bannockburn, where he received the honour of knighthood under the banner on the field.

His son, Sir Gilbert, having spoken honourably of the great merits of Robert Bruce, in the court of Edward King of England [471] in 1325, received an insult from John de Spencer which led to a rencontre in which the latter fell. Hamilton thereupon, apprehensive of court influence and resentment against him, fled to Scotland. In this his flight being closely pursued into a forest, he and his servant changed clothes with two wood cutters, and taking their saw were cutting through an oak tree when their pursuers came up. Perceiving his servant’s attention too much fixed upon them, he hastily reminded him of his assumed duty by the word “through!” rebuked by which presence of mind the servant renewed his work, the pursuers passed on unsuspecting, and Sir Gilbert adopted the call “through” with the oak tree and saw as his motto and crest. Soon after his arrival in Scotland he obtained a grant of the barony of Cadzow, in Lanarkshire, thenceforth called Hamilton.

In 1346 Sir David Hambleton of Cadzow, accompanied King David Bruce to the battle of Durham, where he was taken prisoner with his royal master, but soon after ransomed. He was subsequently one of the Magnates Scotiae, who assembled at Scone to acknowledge John Earl of Carrick, eldest son of King Robert the, Second, undoubted heir of the crown.

In 1357 the earliest mention of the name appears to occur in Ireland, when the king committed the custody of the manor of Drongan, during the minority of its heir, to Thomas de Hamilton.

In 1455 Sir John Hamilton, grandson of the before-mentioned Sir David of Cadzow, was joined with the Earl of Angus in the command of the royal army on the memorable occasion when the Earl of Douglas was totally routed. In 1474 Sir James Hamilton, Lord Hamilton of Cadzow, a lineal descendant of William de Hamilton who first assumed the name, was married to the Princess Mary, eldest daughter of James the Second, King of Scotland. His daughter married the Earl of Lennox and Darnley, and was ancestress of James the First of England.

James Hamilton, second Earl of Arran, was Regent of Scotland in 1543, &c. during the minority of Queen Mary, was declared next to her the second person in the kingdom, and was created Duke of Chattelherault by Henry the Second of France.

In 1608 Hans Hamilton, the lineal descendant of the Lords of Cadzow, died minister of Dunlop in Scotland. His eldest son, [472] James Hamilton was the first of the family who settled in Ireland in his father’s life-time, having been sent thither with James Fullerton by James the Sixth, afterwards the First of England, to encourage his adherents and secure his interest in Ireland; the more prudently to effectuate which, and to conceal the real motives of their mission, they assumed the character and office of school-masters, and actually presided over that grammar school at which Primate Usher received his early education, and from which he entered Trinity College under said Hamilton, then a Fellow of that university. On the accession of King James to the crown of England, he rewarded this his agent’s services by extensive grants of lands in the County Down, and conferred on him successively the honor of knighthood and the titles of Viscount Claneboy and Earl of Clanbrassil, which titles became extinct by the failure of his line in his grandson. Viscount Claneboy also acquired considerable estates in the County Louth, by assignment from Sir Nicholas Bagnal; and having invited his brothers from Scotland to participate in the advantages which his rank, property, and influence gave him in Ireland, five of them came over accordingly hither. Of these Archibald, the second son of Hans Hamilton of Dunlop, became the ancestor of the Hamiltons of Killileagh and Killough; Gawen, the third son of Hans, was ancestor of Robert Hamilton of the Curragh of Kildare. John Hamilton, the fourth son of Hans, settled in Armagh; he married Sarah, daughter of Sir Anthony Brabazon, and was the ancestor of the lines of Mount Hamilton in the County of Carlow, of Sheep Hill in the County of Dublin, and Rock Hamilton in the County of Down. William Hamilton, fifth son of the Rev. Hans, was ancestor to the Hamiltons of Bangor, Tyrella, Balbriggan, (of whom hereafter,) and Tollymore, as was Patrick Hamilton of the Hamiltons of Granshaw and Mount Clithero, some of whom returned to Scotland, while others are yet established in the barony of Ardes.

Early in the aforesaid reign of James the First, another James Hamilton, grandson of the Earl of Arran, having been created Baron of Abercorn, and soon afterwards Baron of Hamilton, Mount Castle, and Kilpatrick, and Earl of Abercorn, had summons under the same designations to the Irish House of Peers. He also [473] obtained a large grant of lands in the Barony of Strabane and County of Tyrone, whereon he built a castle, church, school-house, and town. Con O’Neill is recorded to have consented to this gift of a portion of his immemorial inheritance, in consideration of a pardon granted to him by the king at the suit of said James Hamilton. Sir William Hamilton had also, about the same time, large grants in the said county, which were in 1631 declared forfeited to the crown, by reason of said Sir William having demised the same to “mere, Irish,” contrary to the conditions of his letters patent. In 1615 James Hamilton of Keckton acquired the manor of Drumka with the islands in the County of Fermanagh, which he afterwards sold to John Archdall who took out a fresh patent for same; while about that time Robert Hamilton, Esq. acquired considerable estates in the said county; and Sir Claude Hamilton was seised of upwards of 3,000 acres in the County Cavan, as were other members of this family of different tract,s therein.

In 1618 James, the second Earl of Abercorn, was created Lord Hamilton, Baron of Strabane, which honour was, however, on his lordship’s petition, transferred to his next brother the Hon. Claude Hamilton. In 1623 Malcolm Hamilton, a native of Scotland, and Chancellor of Down, was consecrated Archbishop of Cashel. In 1626 Sir George Hamilton acquired a most valuable interest in lands in the county of Donegal, but forfeited same by not taking the oath of supremacy.

In 1630 the Marquis of Hamilton commanded a force, of British auxiliaries in the service of the King of Sweden. In 1640 Thomas Hamilton, second Earl of Haddington, having actively espoused the cause of the Covenanters, was blown up in the castle of Douglas, (of which he was governor,) with several of his kindred and adherents.

In 1642 Captain William Hamilton was one of those who aided in the defence of Drogheda.

In 1648 James Duke of Hamilton fell a sacrifice to his loyalty, and was beheaded, while his brother William, who succeeded to the title, was slain at the battle of Worcester in 1651.

In 1650 James, the third Baron of Strabane, having adhered to Sir Phelim O’Neill, held the fort of Charlemont against the usurping powers, and on its capture fled to the woods of Montereling [474] in the county of Tyrone, where he was taken prisoner. His vast estates were thereupon confiscated, and the possession thereof given in 1657 to Edward Roberts, Esq., his Highness’s Auditor General. Amongst those who sought redress from the Court of Claims, in consequence of the Irish forfeitures of this period, were Sir Francis Hamilton for lands in the counties of Cavan and Antrim, Sir George Hamilton in Tyrone, Kildare, Clare, and Cork, James Hamilton in Monaghan, Roscommon, and Meath, Captain William Hamilton in Longford, Down, and Tyrone; and Sir Hans (the son of William before mentioned as the ancestor of the Balbriggan line) for lands in the county of Down, of one of whose boroughs, Killileagh, he was the representative in parliament.

In 1659 Archibald Hamilton of Ballygally in the county of Tyrone, died seised in fee of upwards of 1,200 acres in the county of Tyrone. In 1660 Sir Francis Hamilton was one of the commissioners appointed for putting into execution the king’s declaration, as afterwards embodied in the Act of Settlement, and in the same year, Hugh Hamilton was created Baron of Glenawly in the county of Antrim.

In 1667 George Count Hamilton commanded an Irish regiment in the service of Louis the Fourteenth, and was engaged in the campaigns of 1673 and 1674 under Marshal Turenne. He particularly distinguished himself at the battles of Sentsheim and Entsheim, and as the French writers say, “se surpassa” at the battle of Altenheim. In 1674, when Turenne fell in his last campaign by a cannon-ball, the French army was saved from utter destruction by the intrepidity of this gallant gentleman. The circumstance is detailed with such force and interest by Mr. Matthew O’Conor in the following passage of his recently published “Picturesque and Historical Recollections of Switzerland, &c., as may more than justify the extract:- “At Salsbach, Montecucoli’s battalions fell back on a defile; Turenne, imagining that he had obtained an advantage, advanced to reconnoitre, and a cannonball terminated his earthly career. The French army might be compared to a ship that had foundered, her sails flapping, her masts shattered, the sport of the winds and the waves, without any destination. The French colours fluttered, at times advanced, then fell back; while irresolution and dismay marked the movements of their army. The eagle-eye of Montecucoli at once [475] penetrated into these convulsive motions: the soul of the French army had perished. He recalled his battalions, and his cavalry were ordered to the charge, the courage and conduct of one man saved the French from irreparable defeat. Hamilton, an Irishman, the brother of the author of the ‘Memoirs of Grammont,’ of the noble family of Strabane, who had been banished by Whig bigotry from the court of Charles the Second, on account of his Popish creed, advanced and covered the retreat. Two Irish regiments sustained and repulsed the charge of the imperial cuirassiers, and during 10 successive days bore the brunt of the attacks made by the imperial cavalry, until the greater part of the French had recrossed the Rhine. The German infantry was unable to come up with the retreating army. At Altenheim, the Irish and some French battalions withstood the shock of the imperial army, and ultimately effected their retreat. In the military annals of France, there is not a prouder day than that of Altenheim. The fame of Turenne has been immortalized by the poets and historians of the eighteenth century, and expanded by the glories of the age of Louis the Fourteenth. The renown of Montecucoli is narrowed to the study of his campaigns; but, as long as the science of war occupies the cares of mankind, his name will not sink in oblivion, and he will rank with the great men of his own country, - the Colonnas, the Farneses, the Spinolas, and the princes of the house of Savoy.” In 1676 this Count Hamilton made the campaign under Marshal de Luxembourg, but on the march towards Saverne, was killed in the neighbourhood of Zebernsteeg, with a great number of the three regiments he commanded, and but for whose gallant conduct the French would, as on the former occasion, have been entirely cut to pieces.

In 1688 Richard Hamilton, a Roman Catholic General, the fifth son of George Hamilton of Donalong in the County Tyrone, an eminent officer in the service of Charles the First, and who had himself served with considerable reputation in France, but was banished on account of his imprudent addresses to the king’s’ daughter, the Princess of Conti; was afterwards engaged in the service of King James in Ireland, and at the battle of the Boyne led the Irish infantry to the very margin of the river to oppose the passage of the French and English. He was taken prisoner on that occasion at the last charge. So great a majority, however [476,], of the Hamiltons espoused the cause of King William, that no less than 46 of the name were attainted or otherwise proscribed in King James’s parliament of 1689. In that parliament Claude Hamilton, the fifth Baron of Strabane, was one of the sitting Roman Catholic peers. He attended King James from France, and would have returned thither after the battle of~the Boyre, but perished in the voyage; the estates and title of Strabane haying been forfeited by his previous outlawry, were, however, restored to his brother Charles.

At the same period Captain James Hamilton, a kinsman of the said Baron Strabane, who had been for a time in the service and confidence of James the Second, espoused the cause of William, and took a distinguished part for him at the siege of Londonderry. He afterwards succeeded to the Earldom of Abercorn, but continuing to reside in Ireland was created Baron Mountcastle and Viscount Strabane. Gustavus Hamilton, a grandson of Lord Paisley, having also distinguished himself in the service of King William at Aughrim and the Boyne, and yet more especially by “wading through the Shannon and storming the tower of Athlone at the head of the English grenadiers,” received a grant of 5,382 acres in this country, and was in 1714 created Baron Hamilton of Stackallan, and in 1717 raised to the Viscounty of Boyne. The names of Andrew Hamilton and two John Hamiltons occur in the signatures of the relieved garrison of Derry, in the address to King William, while George Hamilton, fifth *son *of the Earl of Selkirk, distinguished himself with particular bravery at the battle of the Boyne under the same monarch, at Aughrim in 1601, at Steinkirk in 1692, and at Landen in the following year; for all which and other military achievements he was in 1695 advanced to the peerage as Earl of Orkney, and had grants of a considerable proportion of the estates of King James in Ireland. In 1704 he acquitted himself heroically at the battle of Blenheim; in 1706 was at the siege of Menin; in 1708 commanded the van of the army at the passing of the Scheld; assisted at the siege of Tournay; was at the battle of Malplaquet, and rendered numerous other services, which were rewarded with a succession of honours to the time of his death in 1736.

In 1691 Henry Hamilton of Baillieborough, was killed on the walls of Limerick. From him is descended, in the fourth degree, [477] James Hans Hamilton, Esq. of Sheep Hill, a deputy lieutenant of the County of Dublin.

In 1720 died at St. Germain’s the accomplished Anthony Count Hamilton, author of the Memoirs of Grammont, (who had married his sister) and for many years the delight and ornament of the most splendid circles of society. He was a native of Ireland, whence he passed over with his family to France as adherents of Charles the Second. At the Restoration he again returned to England, but was, on the Revolution, a second time obliged to fly to the Continent. In the time of King James he obtained a regiment of foot in Ireland, and the government of Limerick, whence; on the abdication, he returned into France, and devoted himself to literary pursuits. He was brother of the gallant individual, before-mentioned as having made the campaigns with Turenne and Luxembourg, both having been the sons of Sir George Hamilton by Mary Butler, sister of the Duke of Ormonde.

In 1730 the Princess of Orange stood sponsor for the infant daughter of James Hamilton, Earl of Clanbrassil, who in 1752 married the Earl of Roden, and on the death of her brother without issue the Clanbrassil estates passed through her to the Roden family.

From the year 1739 to the year 1760 Alexander Hamilton, the purchaser of Balbriggan, and the lineal descendant in the fifth degree from the Rev. Hans Hamilton of Dunlop, was the representative in parliament of the borough of Killileagh. He was succeeded in the property of Balbriggan by his son the Hon. George Hamilton, who was member of parliament for Belfast, Solicitor General, and Baron of the Exchequer; and yet more distinguished for his public spirit in promoting the trade and welfare of his country. He died at Oswestry in 1793, and was buried in the family vault at Balrothery. Alexander had another son, Hugh, distinguished as a philosopher and divine, successively Fellow of Trinity College, Dublin, Dean of Armagh, Bishop of Clonfert, and afterwards of Ossory. The baron died in 1793, whereupon Balbriggan descended to his son, the Rev. George Hamilton, who by his, wife Anna, eldest daughter of Thomas Peppard, had issue the present inheritor, George Alexander Hamilton, Esq., a deputy lieutenant, [478] of the County of Dublin and a representative of the city in the last parliament; the lineal descendant in the 25th degree from Bernard, the nobleman of Saxony with whom this memoir commenced.

In 1786 Doctor William Hamilton, Fellow of Trinity College, Dublin, published the ingenious letters concerning the coast of Antrim.

In the 18th century, Alexander Hamilton, a native of St. Croix, but of the Scotch house of Grange in Argyleshire, having emigrated to New York at the age of sixteen, and entered himself at Columbia College, joined the patriot army at the age of 19, and subsequently greatly distinguished himself in the American war. He led the Americans at the storming of Yorktown. In 1787 he developed and defended in a series of letters, under the name of Publius, the plan of the national government, and in 1789, on Washington’s election to the presidency, was by him appointed to fill the office of chief secretary. In the following year he brought forward his luminous and ingenious system of funding the public debt and forming a national bank. His success in these measures acquired him the epithet of the financial saviour of the United States; he became the inseparable companion of Washington, and in 1798, when that great man was again entreated to marshal the forces of his country, the appointment of Hamilton to the post of second in command was made an imperative condition of his acquiescence. In 1807, having opposed the election of Colonel Burr to the governorship of New York, he was challenged by that gentleman, when a duel took place between them in New Jersey, where at the first ,fire Hamilton was mortally wounded.

In 1796 Captain Sir Charles Hamilton of the Melpomene captured the French corvette la Revanche, in 1800 took the island of Goree, and in the following year commanded numerous attacks on the French settlements in Africa; while in 1799 Sir Edward Hamilton, knight, commander of the Surprise of 32 guns, gallantly re-captured the Hermione of 44 guns under the fort of Cavallo, mounted with 200 pieces of cannon, subsequently obtained the grand cross of the Bath, and was created a baronet in 1819. In 1803 died Sir William Hamilton, the celebrated [479] historian and naturalist; and. in 1814 John Hamilton of Woodbrook in the county of Tyrone was created a baronet, having previously so distinguished himself in the Peninsular war, that the Prince Regent of Portugal conferred upon him the insignia of a knight commander of the order of the Tower and Sword, and the King of Portugal the grand cross of the same distinguished order.

A short distance from Balbriggan is

Ch. 28. Bremore/Balscadden.