Claud Hamilton, 4th Earl of Abercorn

Claud was born in 1659,[2] probably in Rush near Dublin, as the eldest son of George Hamilton, and Elizabeth Fagan. His father was the 4th Baron Hamilton of Strabane and an important landowner around Strabane, County Tyrone, Ulster, Ireland. The Strabanes were at that time a cadet branch of the Abercorns. Claud's mother was a rich heiress, the only child of Christopher Fagan of Feltrim, County Dublin.

He heads the list of siblings below as the eldest:

1. Claud (1659–1691);
2. Anne (died 1680), married John Browne;[3]
3. Charles (died 1701), succeeded him as the 5th Earl of Abercorn; and
4. Mary, married Garrett Dillon, Recorder of Dublin.[4]

His parents were both Catholic. The family's usual residence was Kenure House in Rush near Dublin, where he and his siblings were probably born and where his father died.[5]

In 1668, at the age of nine, he succeeded his father as the 5th Baron Hamilton of Strabane.[6] He was usually called Lord Strabane rather than Lord Hamilton as the latter title was also that of the earls of Hamilton in Scotland.

Around 1680 his father's cousin (his second cousin once removed) George Hamilton, 3rd Earl of Abercorn, died in faraway Padua, Italy. With him failed the senior line of the Abercorns. The succession passed to the Strabane branch, the descendants of Claud Hamilton, 2nd Baron Hamilton of Strabane, the second son of the 1st Earl of Abercorn, of which Claud was the living representative. He therefore succeeded his cousin as the 4th Earl of Abercorn.[8] This elevated him from baron to earl but did not make him much richer as the 2nd Earl had lost most of the Scottish Abercorn lands.[9]

Lord Abercorn, as he was now, followed James II to France at the Glorious Revolution, and went with James to Ireland in 1689. When James arrived in Dublin and established his administration, Abercorn was appointed a member of the Jacobite Privy Council of Ireland and a Lord of the Bedchamber.[10][11]

Abercorn went with the King up to Derry[12] and was present on 18 April 1689 when James II asked the city to surrender. On 20 April 1689 the king sent him to the walls with a last proposal, which was however rejected by Adam Murray, who represented the city.[13][14][lower-alpha 2] Upon this, the army began the Siege of Derry.

He raised a regiment of horse in Ireland for James,[15] and led it in Lord Mountcashel's expedition against Enniskillen in July 1689. He was wounded in Mountcashel's defeat at Newtownbutler on 31 July.[16][17] Abercorn was outlawed and attainted in Ireland by the Williamites on 11 May 1691, forfeiting his Irish peerage.[18]

On 12 July 1691 he fought at the Battle of Aughrim under Saint Ruth against the Williamites under Ginkel. His regiment was part of the cavalry on the right wing of the Jacobites, which was commanded by de Tessé. The cavalry comprised the regiments Tyrconnel and Abercorn[19] and probably also the regiment Prendergast.[20][21] It may have been commanded by Sarsfield,[22] but others say Sarsfield commanded a cavalry reserve behind the centre.[23]

At that battle the Williamites turned the left wing and then rolled up the Jacobite position from that side. The cavalry on the right was showered with fleeing foot soldiers from the left wing and the centre, and came late into action or fled without a fight.[24]

Richard Talbot, 1st Earl of Tyrconnel, sent him to France to carry news of the defeat to James, and ask for help. He boarded a ship for France at Limerick, but the ship was intercepted by a Dutch privateer and Abercorn was killed in the fight that ensued.[25][26][27][lower-alpha 3]

He was 32 years old and had never married. He was succeeded by his younger brother Charles, who had become a Protestant and had sided with William at the Glorious Revolution.[28] His brother became the 5th Earl of Abercorn immediately as this title was in the peerage of Scotland and not affected by the Irish attainder. In 1692 the 5th Earl obtained the reversal of the attainder and thus became the 6th Baron Hamilton of Strabane and recovered the Irish estates.[29]

• Anderson, William (1877), The Scottish Nation, 1, ABE–CUR, Edinburgh: Fullarton & Co.
• Boulger, Demetrius Charles (1911), The Battle of the Boyne, London: Martin Secker
• Burke, Bernard (1949), A Genealogical and Heraldic Dictionary of the Peerage and Baronetage of the British Empire (99th ed.), London: Burke's Peerage Ltd.
• Cokayne, George Edward (1910), Gibbs, Vicary (ed.), The complete peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, extant, extinct, or dormant, 1 (2nd ed.), London: St Catherine Press – Ab-Adam to Basing
• D'Alton, John (1855), Illustrations, historical and genealogical, of King James's Irish army list, 1689, Dublin: Published by the author
• "Rye, August 8", London Gazette (2687), 8 August 1691
• Graham, Rev. John (1829), A History of the Siege of Londonderry and Defence of Enniskillen in 1688-9 (2nd ed.), Dublin: William Curry
• Graham, Rev. John (1841), "Notes: Claude Hamilton", Ireland Preserved; or The Siege of Londonderry and The Battle of Aughrim with Lyrical Poetry and Biographical Notes, Dublin: Hardy & Walker, p. 279 - Short biography in the biographical notes
• Handley, Stuart (2004), "Hamilton, James, 6th earl of Abercorn (c. 1661–1734)", in Matthew, Colin; Harrison, Brian (eds.), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, 24, New York: Oxford University Press, pp. 852–853, ISBN 978-0198614111
• Hayes-McCoy, Gerard Anthony (1990), Irish Battles: A Military History of Ireland, Belfast: The Appletree Press, ISBN 0-86281-250-X
• Lodge, John (1789), The Peerage of Ireland, 5, Dublin: James Moore - Viscounts (for Strabane)
• Macpherson, James (1775), Original Papers; Containing the Secret History of Great Britain, from the Restoration to the Accession of the House of Hanover. To which are Prefixed Extracts from the Life of James II. Written by Himself., London: W Strahan and T Cadell
• Metcalfe, William Musham (1909), A History of Paisley, Paisley: Alexander Gardner
• Paul, James Balfour (1904), The Scots Peerage, 1, Edinburgh: David Douglas - Abercorn–Balmerino (for Abercorn)
• Witherow, Thomas (1879), Derry and Enniskillen in the Year 1689, London & Belfast: William Mallan & Son
• Smyth, Constantine (1839), Chronicle of the Law Officers of Ireland, London: Henry Butterworth (for Table of reigns)
• Todhunter, John (1895), Life of Patrick Sarsfield, Earl of Lucan, London: T. Fisher Unwin

• Genealogy of Claude Hamilton, 4th Earl of Abercorn on The Peerage website