This officer was born and educated in France. He appears to have held a command in the Donegal yeomanry, previous to his becoming a sailor.
Mr. Hamilton entered the navy in 1801, and had the advantage of serving the whole of his time as midshipman and lieutenant under that excellent officer Captain (now Sir Benjamin) Hallowell. He was consequently present at the capture of St. Lucia and Tobago, in 1803[1].
During the operations in Egypt, after the surrender of Alexandria[2], Mr. Hamilton received a severe wound in the heel, which is still open, and likely to continue so during the remainder of his life. He was made a lieutenant in Nov. 1807, and promoted to the rank of commander early in 1810.
Captain Hamilton’s first appointment was to the Onyx brig, in which vessel we find him very actively employed, under the orders of Sir Richard G. Keats, during the siege of Cadiz, from whence he returned home with despatches at the commencement of 1811. He subsequently returned thither, and superintended the flotilla, of which mention has been made at p. 323, until his advancement to post rank, Dec. 4, 1811. From that period he commanded the Termagant of 20 guns, and Rainbow 26, on the Mediterranean station, until the conclusion of the European war, in 1814.
The Termagant was first employed in opening a communication with the patriots of Grenada: her proceedings are described in an official letter from Captain Thomas Ussher to Commodore Penrose, a copy of which will be found at pp. 348-350, of Suppl. Part I. Between July 22 and Aug. 29, 1812, she captured three French privateers, and destroyed several batteries and martello towers on the coast of Valencia. The Rainbow drove an armed brigantine on shore under Cape Cavallo, in June, 1813; and her boats captured two vessels, one full of French pioneers, the other laden with wheat, in the Bay of Ajaccio, Sept. 11 following.
On the 13th Dec. in the same year. Captain Hamilton volunteered to land and co-operate with the Italian levy, under
