James Hamilton, 7th Earl of Abercorn

James Hamilton, 7th Earl of Abercorn FRS PC (22 March 1686 – 11 January 1744), styled Lord Paisley from 1701 to 1734, was a Scottish and Irish nobleman and peer. An amateur scientist and musician, he published a book on magnetism in 1729 and a treatise on musical harmony in 1730, which was subsequently emended and re-issued by his teacher, Dr. Pepusch.

Biography

Hamilton was born on 22 March 1686 to James Hamilton and his wife Elizabeth Reading.^[1] His elder brother Robert was baptized on 12 July 1687 but died shortly afterwards, making James the heir apparent, with the style of "Lord Paisley", when his father succeeded as 6th Earl of Abercorn in 1701.^[2]

A scientist, Hamilton became a Fellow of the Royal Society on 10 November 1715, and published Calculations and Tables on the Attractive Power of Lodestones, a book on magnetism, in 1729.^[1] Lord Paisley also studied music under Johann Christoph Pepusch, and in 1730 published "A Short Treatise on Harmony", apparently without Pepusch's assent, and handling the subject in such a manner as to injure his reputation. However, the breach between them was apparently mended, as Pepusch paid a congenial visit to Paisley at his seat in Witham, Essex in 1733, and recovered his reputation by publishing a new edition of the treatise, revised and improved.^[3]

Hamilton succeeded as 7th Earl of Abercorn at his father's death in 1734.^[1] He was sworn a Privy Counsellor in Great Britain on 20 July 1738 and a Privy Counsellor in Ireland on 26 September 1739.^[1] On 17 October of that same year, George II issued a royal charter to the nation's first orphanage for abandoned children, the Foundling Hospital, of which Abercorn was a founding Governor.

Hamilton died on 11 January 1743/4 in Cavendish Square, and was buried five days later with his father in the Ormonde vault of the Henry VII Chapel of Westminster Abbey.^[1]

Offspring

In April 1711, he married Anne Plumer (1690–1776), daughter of Col. John Plumer of Ware, Hertfordshire,^[1] by whom he had six sons and a daughter:^[4]

• James Hamilton, 8th Earl of Abercorn (1712–1789)
• Capt. Hon. John Hamilton (c. 1714–1755)
• Hon. William Hamilton, died young
• Rev. Hon. George Hamilton (11 August 1718 – 26 November 1787), Canon of Windsor, married Elizabeth Onslow (d. 1800) and had issue
• Hon. Plumer Hamilton, died young
• Lt. Hon. William Hamilton (18 February 1721 – 4 October 1744), lost in HMS Victory
• Lady Anne Hamilton (12 June 1715 – 14 December 1792), married on 16 August 1746 Sir Henry Mackworth, 6th Baronet and had issue

Notes

References

• Cokayne, George E. (1910). Gibbs, Vicary, ed. The complete peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, extant, extinct, or dormant. I, Ab-Adam to Basing. London: St. Catherine Press.
• Paul, Sir James Balfour (1904). The Scots Peerage. I. D. Douglas.