James Hamilton, 3rd Baron Hamilton of Strabane

James was born about 1633,[lower-alpha 1] probably at Strabane Castle, as the eldest son of Claude Hamilton and his wife Jean Gordon. His father was the 2nd Baron Hamilton of Strabane, a member of the Strabane cadet branch of the Abercorns. James's mother was the fourth daughter of George Gordon, 1st Marquess of Huntly. His parents married in 1632.[1]

He appears below among his siblings as the third child:

1. Catherine, married in 1647 James Hamilton of Manorhamilton, brother of Gustavus Hamilton, 1st Viscount Boyne;[3][4]
2. Cecilia, married Richard Perkins of Lifford.[5]
3. James (c. 1633 – 1655); and
4. George (1636/7 – 1668), succeeded him as the 4th Baron Hamilton of Strabane;

His father died in 1638 when he was about five years old.[6] He thus succeeded as the 3rd Baron Hamilton of Strabane, or Lord Strabane, as a young child. His mother ran the family estate for him and they continued to live in the Castle of Strabane.

In 1641, when he was about eight years old, the Irish Rebellion broke out. The rebel leader Phelim O'Neill captured and burnt Strabane Castle and took him, his mother, and his siblings prisoners.[7] Phelim brought them to his castle in Kinard but then released them after some days and sent them to his uncle Sir George.[8]

In 1649, when he was about 16, during the Irish Confederate Wars, Strabane Castle was attacked again, this time by Robert Monro and his Covenanter army. The castle was relieved by Phelim O'Neill, its previous attacker.[9] Phelim married his mother in November.[10] Phelim became his stepfather and his half-brother Gordon O'Neill was born.

In 1649 Oliver Cromwell invaded Ireland with the Parliamentarian forces. In July 1650, aged about 17, Lord Strabane joined his stepfather in his fight against the Parliamentarians.[11] Together with Phelim O'Neill he defended Charlemont Fort in the Siege of Charlemont against Charles Coote, 1st Earl of Mountrath. The fort surrendered to Coote on terms on the 6th[12] or on the 14th of August 1650.[13] The garrison was allowed to march to a port to go overseas into foreign service.

Lord Strabane, however, did not want to leave the country. He therefore escaped and hid in the woods and bogs of the Munterlony mountains where he was captured soon after.[14] He then sought Coote's protection; but in December, he returned to his old cause and took up arms again with Phelim O'Neill. His lands, comprising among others what is today called the Baronscourt Estate, were confiscated.[15] In 1652 Phelim O'Neill was captured. He was tried and convicted for treason in October and executed. [16]

Lord Strabane drowned in the River Mourne at Ballyfathen in 1655, aged about 22.[17][18] He had never married and was succeeded by his younger brother George as the 4th Baron of Strabane.

• Bagwell, Richard (1909), Ireland under the Stuarts and under the Interregnum, 2, London: Longmans, Green, and Co. – 1642 to 1660 (for Scarrisholis and Charlemont)
• Burke, Bernard (1869), A Genealogical and Heraldic Dictionary of the Peerage and Baronetage of the British Empire (31st ed.), London: Harrison
• 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)
• 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)
• Graham, Rev. John (1841), Ireland Preserved; or The Siege of Londonderry and The Battle of Aughrim with Lyrical Poetry and Biographical Notes, Dublin: Hardy & Walker, p. 277
• Hill, Rev. George (1877), An Historical Account of the Plantation in Ulster at the Commencement of the Seventeenth Century, 1608–1620, Dublin: McCaw Stevenson and Orr
• Paul, James Balfour (1904), The Scots Peerage, 1, Edinburgh: David Douglas – Abercorn to Balmerino (for Abercorn)
• Webb, Alfred (1878), "O'Neill, Sir Felim", Compendium of Irish Biography, Dublin: M. H. Gill & Son, pp. 416–418

• Genealogy of James Hamilton, 3rd Lord Hamilton on The Peerage website