George Hamilton, 3rd Earl of Abercorn

George was born about 1636, probably in Paisley, Scotland, as the third son of James Hamilton and his wife Katherine Clifton.[1] His father was the 2nd Earl of Abercorn. George's mother was Dowager Duchess of Lennox from her previous marriage and Baroness Clifton of Leighton Bromswold in her own right. Both his parents were Catholic. They had married in 1627.[lower-alpha 1][lower-alpha 2]

He appears at the bottom of the list of brothers below as the youngest:

1. James (c. 1635 – before 1670), who as the heir apparent was known by the courtesy title of Lord Paisley, made himself a Presbyterian,[6] married, had a daughter but no son and predeceased his father;[7]
2. William (died before 1670), who became a colonel but predeceased his father unmarried in the German wars;[8] and
3. George (c. 1636 – before 1683).

On 17 September 1637 his mother died in Scotland when he was about a year old. She was buried without ceremony as she was Catholic.[9] At that time his father was deep in debt owing more than 400,000 merks (about £20,000 Sterling) to his creditors.[10][11][12][lower-alpha 3]

In 1649 his father was excommunicated by the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland as a Catholic and ordered to leave the kingdom.[13] On 22 June 1652 he sold Paisley to the Earl of Angus for £13,333 6s 8d Scots (about £1100 Sterling).[14][lower-alpha 4]

His two elder brothers grew up to reach adulthood but predeceased his father, making him the only surviving son and heir. He therefore succeeded as the 3rd Earl of Abercorn at his father's death in about 1670.[15][16]

Lord Abercorn died in his forties, unmarried, about 1680, in Padua, Veneto, Italy, on his way to Rome,[17][18]

With his death the senior line of the Abercorns failed. The title passed to the nearest cadet branch which was that of the barons Hamilton of Strabane, who descended from his uncle Claud. The representative of this line, Claud's grandson, Claud Hamilton, 5th Baron Hamilton of Strabane, therefore became the 4th Earl of Abercorn.[19][20]

• 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 (1892), The complete peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, extant, extinct, or dormant, 4 (1st ed.), London: George Bell and Sons – G to K (for Hamilton of Strabane - citing the 1st version as the letter H of the 2nd is not yet in the public domain)
• 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 (for Abercorn)
• Cokayne, George Edward (1913), Gibbs, Vicary (ed.), The complete peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, extant, extinct, or dormant, 3 (2nd ed.), London: St Catherine Press – Canonteign to Cutts (for Clifton)
• Debrett, John (1828), Peerage of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, 1 (17th ed.), London: F. C. and J. Rivington - England
• Meikle, Maureen M. (2015), The Scottish People 1490–1625, Morrisville, N. C.: Lulu.com, ISBN 978-1-291-51800-9
• Metcalfe, William Musham (1909), A History of Paisley, Paisley: Alexander Gardner
• Paul, Sir James Balfour (1904), The Scots Peerage, Founded on Wood's Edition of Sir Robert Douglas's Peerage of Scotland, 1, Edinburgh: David Douglas – Abercorn to Balmerino
• Seaward, Paul (2004), "Charles II", in Matthew, Henry Colin Gray.; Harrison, Brian (eds.), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, 11, New York: Oxford University Press, pp. 122–145, ISBN 0-19-861361-X

• Genealogy of George Hamilton, 3rd Earl of Abercorn on The Peerage website