ance of presbyterianism, and 'planted his estate with pious ministers from Scotland.' In 1613 he was chosen to represent county Down In parliament. In August 1619 he was appointed one of the commissioners for the plantation of Longford. On 4 May 1622 he was raised to the peerage by the title of Viscount Claneboye in the county of Down and Baron Hamilton. From Charles I he received on 20 Aug. 1630 the entire lately dissolved monastery of Bangor, and on 14 July 1634 he was appointed a member of the privy council. On the outbreak of the rebellion in 1641 he received a commission for raising the Scots in the north, and putting them in arms. This was done by him with such expedition and thoroughness that Ulster was preserved entirely free from disturbance. Hamilton is described as having been 'of a robust, healthful body.' He died in 1643, at the age of eighty-four, and was buried in the church of Bangor. His five younger brothers all followed him to Ireland, and each succeeded in acquiring wealth. He was thrice married, first to Penelope Cook; secondly to Ursula, sixth daughter of Edward, lord Brabazon of Ardee; and thirdly to Jane, daughter of Sir John Phillips of Picton Castle, Pembrokeshire, first Baron Pembroke. By his third wife he had an only son, James, who succeeded to the estates and honours, and was also created in 1647 Earl of Clanbrassill. Lord Claneboye erected a monument to his father in the church of Dunlop, and also erected and endowed a school in the parish.
[Lowry, the Hamilton MSS. 1867; Ayr and Wigton Archæological Collections, iv. 29-30; Cal. State Papers (Scotch and Irish Ser.); Court of James I; Lodge's Peerage of Ireland (Archdall), iii. 1-3.]
HAMILTON, JAMES, third Marquis and first Duke of Hamilton in the Scottish peerage, second Earl of Cambridge in the English peerage (1606–1649), born on 19 June 1606, was the son of James, second marquis [q. v.], and of his wife, Anne Cunningham, fourth daughter of the Earl of Glencairn. In his fourteenth year he was married to Mary Feilding, daughter of Lord Feilding (subsequently first Earl of Denbigh) and of Susan Villiers, sister of the Duke of Buckingham (Douglas, Scottish Peerage). He was then sent to Exeter College, Oxford, where he matriculated on 14 Dec. 1621. On his father's death on 2 March 1625, he became, in his eighteenth year, Marquis of Hamilton and Earl of Cambridge, and the accession of Charles I shortly afterwards brought him into court favour. After the king's coronation on 2 Feb. 1626, his private affairs took him to Scotland. Later in the year he thought of taking part in Lord Willoughby's naval expedition, though he soon abandoned his intention (Giffard to Buckingham, 29 Aug. 1626, State Papers, Dom. xxxiv. 52), and did not return to England until 1628. He reached London on 20 Oct. (Mead to Stuteville, 1 Nov. 1628, Court and Times of Charles I, i. 419), and on 7 Nov. succeeded to Buckingham's office of master of the horse (Sign-Manuals, ix. 64). He also became gentleman of the bedchamber and a privy councillor in England and Scotland. Towards the end of 1629 he offered, to join Gustavus Adolphus in his approaching intervention in Germany, and on 30 May 1630 the king of Sweden agreed to take him into his service on condition of his bringing with him a force of six thousand men. Gustavus landed in Germany in June, and in August Hamilton received the necessary permission from Charles to levy soldiers. In March 1636 Charles gave him 11,000l. towards the expenses of the levy, and to this a further sum of 15,015. was subsequently added (Gardiner, Hist. of Engl. vii. 178). In the same month Hamilton went to Scotland to collect his men, but could not induce more than four hundred to follow him. In his absence Lord Reay brought forward a charge which never ceased to pursue him as long as he lived. Hamilton was the next heir to the throne of Scotland after the descendants of James VI, and Reay now declared that he intended to use his levies to seize it for himself. To this charge Charles, always faithful to his favourites, gave no ear, and, upon Hamilton's return to England, insisted upon his sleeping in the same room with himself, as an expression of his confidence. Hamilton not being able to find volunteers in England had recourse to official pressure, and at last, on 16 July, he sailed with six thousand Englishmen, by no means of the best quality. By this time one thousand recruits had been obtained from Scotland, so that he carried seven thousand men with him. The number was, however, reduced to six thousand on 3 Aug., on which day he had completed his landing near the mouth of the Oder.
The whole enterprise failed signally. Hamilton was sent to guard the fortresses on the Oder while Gustavus fought Tilly at Breitenfeld. His men were swept away by famine and plague. His diminished forces were then employed in the blockade of Magdeburg, which he entered after it had been abandoned by the enemy. By this time his army had almost ceased to exist. He had reason to believe that Gustavus distrusted him, fearing lest he should use in the special
