James Hamilton, 6th Earl of Abercorn

James was born in 1661 or 1662[1][2][lower-alpha 1] the eldest son of James Hamilton and his wife Elizabeth Colepeper. His father was a colonel in the English army, Hyde Park Ranger, a groom of the bedchamber to Charles II of England, and a member of a cadet branch of the Abercorns. James's mother was a daughter of John Colepeper, 1st Baron Colepeper[3] His parents married in 1661.[4] They had six sons, of which three survived into adulthood:[5]

He heads the list of brothers below as the eldest:

1. James (c. 1661 – 1734), the subject of this article;
2. George (died 1692), became a colonel in the foot guards and fell in the Battle of Steenkerque; and
3. William (died 1737).

He was raised a Protestant as his father, who was originally a Catholic, had become a Protestant to marry his mother. He was the heir apparent of the Donalong cadet branch of the earls of Abercorn, which started with his grandfather Sir George Hamilton, 1st Baronet, of Donalong, who was the fourth son of James Hamilton, 1st Earl of Abercorn.

In 1673 when he was about twelve years old, his father died from a wound received at a sea-fight with the Dutch in the Third Anglo-Dutch War.[6] He was compensated by an appointment as an extra groom of the bedchamber on 18 April 1680.[7] His father had predeceased his grandfather who still held the land of Donalong between Strabane and Derry in Ireland. At his grandfather's death in 1679, he inherited the land and succeeded to his grandfather's baronetcy, i.e. Baronet Hamilton of Donalong, but did not use the title.

He married Elizabeth Reading, daughter of Sir Robert Reading, 1st Baronet and Jane Hannay, widow of Charles Coote, 1st Earl of Mountrath, in January 1684.[9] Charles II issued a warrant on 22 January 1683/4 to create Hamilton "Baron Hamilton of Bellamont", county Dublin, in the Irish peerage, but it never passed the seals.[10]

His post in the bedchamber ended with the king's death in 1685. He had entered a career in the army and held a commission in the army of the new king, James II.

In 1688 at the Glorious Revolution he sided with William. In spring 1689 when war menaced in northern Ireland, he was sent to Derry with provisions in order to prepare the city for a likely siege. On 21 March 1689 he[11] arrived at Derry from England with two ships: the frigate HMS Jersey and the merchantman Deliverance,[12] bringing gunpowder, munition, weapons, and £595 in cash.[13] These provisions were to be crucial during the Siege of Derry. He also brought the commission from King William and Queen Mary that confirmed Colonel Robert Lundy as Williamite governor of the town.[14]

He therefore helped to defend Derry. His uncle Richard Hamilton (officer), lieutenant-general in the Irish Royal Army, attacked it.[15]

After the end of the Williamite war in Ireland, he represented Tyrone in the Irish House of Commons between 1692 and 1699.[16]

In June 1701, upon the death of his second cousin Charles,[17] he succeeded to the titles of Earl of Abercorn and Baron Hamilton of Strabane and entered into the possession of the corresponding lands. About half a year later, on 2 December 1701, William rewarded Abercorn with the titles of Viscount Strabane and Baron Mountcastle, in the Peerage of Ireland.[18] The first was an enhancement of his title of Baron of Strabane. He took his seat in the Irish House of Lords (as Viscount Strabane) on 21 September 1703, and in the Parliament of Scotland (as Earl of Abercorn) on 3 October 1706. By April 1711, he had been appointed also to the Privy Council of Ireland.

He had 14 children from his wife of which 10 (six sons and four daughters) survived into adulthood:

1. James (1686–1744), became the 7th Earl;
2. John (c. 1694 – 1714), never married;
3. Elizabeth Hamilton, married firstly on 2 January 1711 William Brownlow, and secondly in 1741 Martin, Comte de Kearnie;
4. George (died 1775), MP, married and had issue;
5. Mary (born before 1704), married in January 1719 Henry Colley of Carbury Castle, County Kildare and have issue;
6. Philippa Hamilton (died 1767), married Rev. Benjamin Pratt without issue, then married Michael O'Connell of London and had one son;
7. Jane (before 1704 – 1753), married Archibald Douglas-Hamilton as his third wife;
8. Rev. Hon. Francis Hamilton (1700–1746), married and had issue;
9. William (1703–1721), was lost aboard HMS Royal Anne Galley; and
10. Charles (1704–1786), MP, married and had issue.

Abercorn died on 28 November 1734 at the age of 73[19] and was buried on 3 December in the Ormond vault of the Henry VII Chapel in Westminster Abbey.[20] The Ormond Vault was opened in 1868 and was found to be filled with many coffins stacked one over the other. Their number was estimated at 59. [21] Individual identification beyond the top layer was not attempted. Abercorn's remains may well be there.

He was succeeded by his eldest son James as the 7th Earl. His wife died on 19 March 1754.[22]

• Burke, Bernard (1949), A Genealogical and Heraldic Dictionary of the Peerage and Baronetage of the British Empire (99th ed.), London: Burke's Peerage Ltd.
• Chester, Joseph Lemuel (1876), Registers of Westminster Abbey, London: Private Edition
• Childs, John (2007), The Williamite Wars in Ireland 1688 - 1691, London: Hambledon Continuum Press, ISBN 978-1-85285-573-4
• 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, Ab-Adam to Basing (2 ed.), London: St. Catherine Press
• Handley, Stuart (2004), "Hamilton, James, sixth Earl of Abercorn", in Matthew, Colin; Harrison, Brian (eds.), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, 24, New York: Oxford University Press, pp. 852–853, ISBN 978-0198614111
• Henderson, Thomas Finlayson (1890), "HAMILTON, JAMES, sixth EARL OF ABERCORN (1656–1734)", in Lee, Sidney (ed.), Dictionary of National Biography, 24, New York: MacMillan and Co., p. 185
• Lodge, John (1789), The Peerage of Ireland, 5, Dublin: James Moore - Viscounts
• MacGeoghegan, James (1763), Histoire de l'Irlande ancienne et moderne (in French), 3, Amsterdam
• Paul, James Balfour (1904), The Scots Peerage, 1, Edinburgh: David Douglas - Abercorn to Balmerino
• Sainty, Sir John Christopher; Bucholz, Robert O. (1997), Officials of the Royal Household 1660 – 1683: Department of the Lord Chamberlain and Associated Offices, London: University of London, Institute of Historical Research
• Stanley, Arthur Penrhyn (1869), Historical Memorials of Westminster Abbey (3rd ed.), London: John Murray
• Walker, Rev. George (1690), The siege of Londonderry in 1689, as set forth in the Literary Remains of Colonel the Rev. George Walker, D.D., London: Robert Clavel & Ralph Simpson
• Wills, Rev. James (1841), Lives of Illustrious and Distinguished Irishmen Sir James Hamilton, First Viscount Strabane, 4, Glasgow: MacGregor, Polson & Co, pp. 55–56
• Witherow, Thomas (1879), Derry and Enniskillen in the Year 1689, London & Belfast: William Mallan & Son

• Genealogy of James Hamilton, 6th Earl of Abercorn on The Peerage website
• Robert O. Bucholz Database of Court Officers 1660 – 1837 Loyola University of Chicago