Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Hamilton, Hugh (d.1724)

1340762Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 24 — Hamilton, Hugh (d.1724)1890Henry Manners Chichester

HAMILTON, HUGH, Baron Hamilton in Sweden (d. 1724), Swedish military commander, was younger son of Captain John Hamilton of Ballygally, co. Tyrone, Ireland, by his wife Jean, daughter of James Somerville. His father was a younger son of Malcolm Hamilton, archbishop of Cashel and Emly, and Hugh or Hugo Hamilton, first lord Hamilton of Glenawley [q. v.] was his uncle. Hugh is said, after seeing much military service at home, to have been summoned to Sweden in 1680 by his elder brother, Malcolm Hamilton [q. v.], already an officer in the Swedish army. In Sweden his earliest commission was as lieutenant of the Elfsburg regiment, in which he rose to be captain. In 1693 he and his brother were ennobled in Sweden as barons Hamilton de Hageby. Hugh rose to great distinction during the wars of Charles XII, especially signalising himself against the Danes in 1710 at Helsingborg, and against the Russians at Gefle in 1719. He became, after a long series of promotions, a general and master of the ordnance. He died in 1724, and was buried in in the province of Jonköping. He was married to a Swedish lady, daughter of Henrik Ardvisson of Gothenburg, and left numerous children. His sixth son, Gustavus David, was created Count Hamilton in 1751; attained distinction in the seven years' and Russian wars; became a field marshal, and died in 1788. The present Swedish Counts Hamilton are his direct descendants.

[Burke's Extinct Peerage (1883 ed.); authorities as under Hamilton, Hugh or Hugo (d. 1679). The statement in the Swedish Biografiskt Lexikon, vi. 47, that he was Malcolm's illegitimate son and not his brother is unsupported.]

H. M. C.