Claud Hamilton, 2nd Baron Hamilton of Strabane

Claud Hamilton was born about 1605, probably in Paisley, Scotland. He was one of the eight[1] or nine[2] siblings, and the second of the five sons, of James Hamilton and his wife Marion Boyd.[3] His father had been created Lord Abercorn by James VI and I in 1603.[4] His paternal grandfather was Claud Hamilton, 1st Lord of Paisley. His mother was a daughter of Thomas Boyd, 6th Lord Boyd of Kilmarnock.

He appears below among his brothers as the second son:[6]

1. James (died 1670), became the 2nd Earl of Abercorn;
2. Claud (c. 1605 – 1638), the subject of this article;
3. William (died 1681), became Baronet Hamilton of Westport, and represented Henrietta Maria at the pope;[7][8][9]
4. George (c. 1607 – 1679), became Baronet Hamilton of Donalong;[10][11][12][lower-alpha 1] and
5. Alexander (died before 1669), became the founder of the German branch of the Hamiltons.

His sisters were:[lower-alpha 2]

1. Anne (1592–1620), married Hugh, 5th Lord Sempill in 1611;[13]
2. Margaret; and
3. Lucy, died unmarried.

His father had been a Protestant, but his mother, Marion Boyd, was a recusant, who brought him, like all his siblings, up as a Catholic. His uncle George of Greenlaw pushed in the same direction.[14] He matriculated at the University of Glasgow in 1621 but does not seem to have obtained a degree.

His father, Lord Abercorn, around the time of his birth was advanced to Earl Abercorn in 1606.[15]

When his father died in 1618,[16] his eldest brother inherited his father's Scottish estates, but the Irish estates had been settled on him and his younger brothers in his father's will.[17] His was the lion's share of these estates: the Strabane estate and the castle that his father had built there.

His father had also wanted him to inherit the Irish title as Baron Hamilton of Strabane to go with the Strabane estate. However, this proved difficult because of the title's ordinary primogeniture succession. The eldest brother therefore obligatorily inherited the title in 1618 and then resigned it, so that the title could be regranted to his younger brother by the crown. This took time and was only to happen in 1633.

His father predeceased his grandfather, who still was Lord of Paisley and held the lands of the former Scottish abbey, which his eldest brother eventually inherited in 1621.

In May 1628 his servant Claud Algeo was suspected to be a Catholic and was served with a convocation to appear at the presbytery of Paisley by Ramsay, an officer of the Church of Scotland. However, Algeo assaulted Ramsay and Claud Hamilton supported him. Claud was briefly jailed in June 1628 in Edinburgh Castle for abetting his servant in an assault and ordered to pay £40 to Ramsay.[18][19] Claud Algeo fled to his master's Irish estates.

In 1633, his elder brother, James, the 2nd Earl of Abercorn in Scotland and the 1st Baron Hamilton of Strabane in Ireland, resigned his Irish title to the crown, which regranted it to Claud on 14 August 1634, with the original precedence.[20] He thereby became the 2nd Baron Hamilton of Strabane. His brother also gave to him the family's large estates around Strabane in County Tyrone.

On 28 November 1632, he married Lady Jean Gordon, fourth daughter of George Gordon, 1st Marquess of Huntly.[21] The Huntlys were a Catholic family from Aberdeenshire Scotland.

They had four children:

1. Catherine (died 1670/1), married James Hamilton of Manorhamilton, the eldest brother of Gustavus Hamilton, 1st Viscount Boyne and two other husbands afterwards;[22][23]
2. Cecilia, also called Mariana, married Richard Perkins of Lifford.[24][25]
3. James (c. 1633 – 1655), became the 3rd Baron Hamilton of Strabane; and
4. George (1636/7 – 1668), became the 4th Baron Hamilton of Strabane;

He died on 14 June 1638, probably at the Castle of Strabane, and was buried at Leckpatrick, Strabane, County Tyrone.[26] He was only in his thirties. His eldest son, James, succeeded him at the age of five as the 3rd Baron Hamilton of Strabane. His widow married Phelim O'Neill in November 1649.[27]

• Brown, Peter Hume, ed. (1900), Register of the Privy Council of Scotland, 2nd series, 2, Edinburgh: H. M. General Register House – 1627–1628
• Burke, Bernard (1869), A Genealogical and Heraldic Dictionary of the Peerage and Baronetage of the British Empire (31st ed.), London: Harrison
• Burke, Bernard (1949), A Genealogical and Heraldic Dictionary of the Peerage and Baronetage of the British Empire (99th ed.), London: Burke's Peerage Ltd.
• Cokayne, George Edward (1892), The complete peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, extant, extinct, or dormant, 4: G to K (1st ed.), London: George Bell and Sons – (for Hamilton of Strabane)
• Cokayne, George Edward (1910), Gibbs, Vicary (ed.), The complete peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, extant, extinct, or dormant, 1 (2nd ed.), London: St Catherine Press - Ab-Adam to Basing (for Abercorn)
• Lodge, John (1789), The Peerage of Ireland, 5, Dublin: James Moore - Viscounts (for Boyne, Strabane)
• Metcalfe, W. M. (1909), A History of Paisley, Paisley: Alexander Gardner
• Millar, Alexander Hastie (1890), "HAMILTON, JAMES, first EARL OF ABERCORN (d.1617)", in Lee, Sidney (ed.), Dictionary of National Biography, 24, New York: MacMillan and Co., pp. 176–177
• Paul, James Balfour (1904), The Scots Peerage, 1, Edinburgh: David Douglas – Abercorn–Balmerino (for Abercorn)
• Paul, James Balfour (1910), The Scots Peerage, 7, Edinburgh: David Douglas – Panmure to Sinclair (for Sempill)
• Smyth, Constantine (1839), Chronicle of the Law Officers of Ireland, London: Henry Butterworth (for Table of reigns)
• Webb, Alfred (1878), "O'Neill, Sir Felim", Compendium of Irish Biography, Dublin: M. H. Gill & Son, pp. 416–418
• Wasser, Michael (2004), "Hamilton, James, first earl of Abercorn (1575–1618)", in Matthew, Colin; Harrison, Brian (eds.), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, 24, New York: Oxford University Press, pp. 837–838, ISBN 978-0198614111

• Genealogy of Claude Hamilton, 2nd Lord Hamilton on The Peerage website