HAMILTON, JAMES ARCHIBALD, D.D. (1747–1815), astronomer, was born in 1747 in or near the town of Athlone, and having received his early education from Arthur Grueber, D.D., head-master of the royal school of Armagh, entered Trinity College, Dublin, on 1 Nov. 1765, under the tutorship of Robert Law, B.D. He passed his collegiate course with much credit; made great progress in the study of electricity, and soon displayed remarkable ability in practical astronomy. When he had been for a few years in holy orders he was collated in 1780 to the rectory of Derryloran, in the diocese of Armagh, and while there for nine or ten years he had a private observatory in Cookstown, in which he made several valuable observations, especially on the transit of Mercury. He graduated B.D. and D.D. in 1784, the date of his B.A. degree not being recorded, and in the same year he was collated to the treasurership of Armagh Cathedral, with the rectory of Creggan. In March 1790 he became archdeacon of Ross, and in the same month also prebendary of Tynan, in the diocese of Armagh, when he resigned the treasurership and rectory of Creggan. On 31 July following he was appointed by the primate, Morris Robinson, third lord Rokeby, the first astronomer of the newly founded observatory at Armagh. In December of the same year he exchanged Tynan for the prebend of Mullaghbrack, likewise in the diocese of Armagh. By patent dated 17 Sept. 1804 he was presented by the crown to the deanery of Cloyne, when he resigned the archdeaconry of Ross. He died at the observatory in Armagh 21 Nov. 1815, and was buried at Mullaghbrack, his successor in the office of astronomer being William Davenport, D.D., senior fellow of Trinity College, Dublin. Hamilton was author of several astronomical papers of a high order, which have been printed in the 'Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy,' 1794-1807, of which association he was an active member.
[Todd's Cat. of Dublin Graduates, p. 248; Stuart's Hist. of Armagh, pp. 525-7; Cotton's Fasti Ecclesiæ Hibernicæ, i. 312, 362, iii. 43, 51, 56, v. 210; Brady's Records of Cork, Cloyne, and Ross, ii. 205, 448.]
HAMILTON, JANET (1795–1873), Scottish poetess, daughter of a shoemaker named Thomson, was born at Carshill, Shotts parish, Lanarkshire, 12 Oct. 1795. In her childhood the family removed to Hamilton, and then to Langloan, in the parish of Old Monkland, Lanarkshire. For a time her parents became farm labourers, and Janet, remaining at home, span and worked at the tambour-frame. Her father at length settled down in business for himself as a shoemaker, and John Hamilton, one of his young workmen, married Janet in 1809. They lived together at Langloan for about sixty years, and had a family of ten children. Having learnt to read as a girl, Janet Hamilton in her early years became familiar with the Bible, with Shakespeare and Milton, with many standard histories, biographies, and essays, and with the poems of Allan Ramsay, Fergusson, and Burns. Before she was twenty she had written in a hand writing of oriental aspect invented by herself numerous verses on religious themes; but family cares prevented further composition until she was about fifty-four. Then she began to write for Cassell's 'Working Man's Friend.' During her last eighteen years she was blind, and her husband and her daughter Marion read to her, while her son James was amanuensis. She was visited in those years by many notable people, including one of Garibaldi's sons, of whom she afterwards spoke with affectionate recollection. She died on 27 Oct. 1873, having never been 'more than twenty miles from her dwelling.' A memorial fountain has been placed nearly opposite her cottage.
Her literary work is very remarkable under the circumstances. She published 'Poems and Songs' in 1863, 'Sketches' in 1865, and 'Ballads' in 1868. Her son edited 'Poems and Prose Works of Janet Hamilton' in 1880, and a new edition of this was issued in 1885. The poems are invariably direct and to the purpose; some of the best are on Scotland, on friends, and on the scenes of the writer's neighbourhood; and there are vigorous pieces on temperance, besides various thoughtful and impressive sacred poems. The humorous and patriotic Scottish lyrics those especially with an autobiographical element and the descriptive pieces secure for Mrs. Hamilton a permanent place among the poets of Scotland. Her prose 'Sketches' display an easy command of a fairly accurate and attractive style, and several of them are faithful records of old Scottish manners and customs.
[Introductory articles by George Gilfillan and Dr. Alexander Wallace in Poems and Prose Works of Janet Hamilton; Janet Hamilton and her Works, by Professor Veitch, in Good Words, 1884; Professor Veitch's Feeling for Nature in Scottish Poetry, ii. 322; Irving's Dict. of Eminent Scotsmen.]
HAMILTON, JOHN (1511?–1571), archbishop of St. Andrews, was a natural son of James Hamilton, first earl of Arran [q. v.] When only a boy he was made a monk in the Benedictine monastery at Kilwinning, and in 1525 'the yonge thinge,' as Magnus calls him, was, at the instance of James V, appointed
