prepared and signed in 1604, he was one of the twenty-eight Scottish commissioners who appended their names, and for his efforts in this matter he was rewarded with the title of Earl of Abercorn, by patent dated 10 July 1606. To this title were attached the minor dignities of Baron Hamilton, Mount Castle, and Kilpatrick, which are still enjoyed by his present representative. Large grants of land in the barony of Strabane, Ireland, were made to him, and his eldest son was created Baron of Strabane in 1617; the Irish estates descended to the younger sons. Though Abercorn was a faithful attendant at the meetings of the Scottish privy council during an important period of its history, the share which he took in public affairs is not easily identified. He died during the life of his father on 16 March 1617. He is now represented by his descendant, the present Duke of Abercorn.
Abercorn married Marion, eldest daughter of Thomas, fifth lord Boyd, by whom he had five sons and four daughters. James, the eldest son, became second earl of Abercorn and inherited the extensive estates of his grandfather, Baron Paisley, at that nobleman's death in 1621; in 1634 he resigned the barony of Strabane to his next brother, Claud, who died 14 June 1638, and was grandfather of Claud and Charles, fourth and fifth earls of Abercorn. Sir William, the third son, represented Henrietta Maria, when queen-dowager, at the papal court. George, the fourth, is noticed below. Sir Alexander, the fifth, went to Germany, and was in the service of Philip William, elector palatine, who sent him as his envoy to James II; he was eventually created a count of the empire.
Hamilton, Sir George (d. 1679), held property at Dunalong in Tyrone and Nenagh in Tipperary. In 1641 he was in Scotland with Charles I, served in Ireland during the rebellion, and was governor of Nenagh Castle during the viceroyalty of his brother-in-law, the Marquis of Ormonde, whom he followed to Caen in the spring of 1651 with his wife and family. On the Restoration he returned to England, was created a baronet of Ireland in 1660, and received other grants from Charles II in recompense for his services. He married Mary, third daughter of Walter, viscount Thurles, eldest son of Walter, eleventh earl of Ormonde; by her, who died in August 1680, he had six sons and three daughters; his third and fifth sons, Anthony and Richard, and his eldest daughter, Elizabeth, are noticed separately; some account of the other sons will be found under their brother, Anthony Hamilton (1646?–1720). Sir George Hamilton died in 1679.
[Crawford's Hist, of the Shire of Renfrew, Semple's Continuation, 1782; Register of Privy Council, vols. v. vi. vii.; Douglas's Peerage of Scotland, ed. Wood.]
HAMILTON, JAMES, second Marquis of Hamilton (1589–1625), son of Lord John Hamilton, first marquis [q. v.], and Lady Margaret Lyon, was born in 1589. His companion in his youthful studies was George Eglisham [q. v.], afterwards a physician and poet, to whom he remained a friend and patron through life. He succeeded his father as marquis on 12 April 1604, and his uncle as Earl of Arran in March 1609. In 1604 he offered his services to King James VI, in continuation of those rendered by his father to the crown, which were accepted; and the king, in consideration of the loyalty and sufferings of the family, confirmed to him in 1608 the lands of the abbey of Arbroath, erecting them into a temporal lordship in his favour, with the title of a lord of parliament. He was appointed a privy councillor of Scotland on 14 Jan. 1613, of England in August 1617, gentleman of the bed-chamber on 4 March 1620–1, and lord steward of the household on 28 Feb. 1624, and among other tokens of the royal favour was created on 16 June 1619 an English peer, with the titles of Earl of Cambridge and Baron of Ennerdale in Cumberland. He was spoken of in 1618 for the office of lord treasurer, and in the following year for that of lord chamberlain. In April 1619, when James thought himself dying, Hamilton was specially recommended to Prince Charles by the king on account of his fidelity. On 3 Nov. 1620 he became a member of the council for the plantation of New England. In the discussion on Bacon's sentence in the House of Lords in May 1621, Hamilton spoke in favour of leniency, and suggested the compromise (finally adopted) by which Bacon was excluded from the house and from court, without being degraded personally. He was appointed lord high commissioner to the Scottish parliament held at Edinburgh in July 1621, receiving 10,000l. for his expenses, and succeeded, in spite of great opposition, and much to the king's gratification, in enacting into law the Five Articles of Perth (Acts of the Parliaments of Scotland, iv. 592 et seq.) He was one of the commissioners for the treaty with Spain in connection with the projected marriage of Prince Charles to the Infanta, and he was appointed to receive the Infanta at Southampton (May 1623). On the preceding St. George's Day, 15 April, he was installed as a knight of the garter, and it was intended to create him a duke. But the failure of the Spanish negotiations apparently defeated that intention.
