Sir George Hamilton, 1st Baronet, of Donalong

Sir George Hamilton, 1st Baronet of Donalong and Nenagh (c. 1608 – 1679), was born in Scotland, but inherited land in Ireland. Despite being Catholic, he served his Protestant brother-in-law, the 1st Duke of Ormond, lord lieutenant of Ireland, in diplomatic missions during the Confederate Wars and as receiver-general of the royalists. He also defended Nenagh Castle against the Parliamentarians during the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland. Hamilton was father of Anthony, author of the Mémoires du Comte de Grammont, of Richard, Jacobite general, and of Elizabeth, "la belle Hamilton".

Birth and origins
George was born about 1608 in Scotland, probably in Paisley, Renfrewshire, near Glasgow. He was the fourth son of James Hamilton and his wife, Marion Boyd. His father had been created Earl of Abercorn by James VI and I in 1606. His paternal grandfather was the 1st Lord Paisley.

George's mother was the eldest daughter of the 6th Lord Boyd, of Kilmarnock, Ayrshire, in the south-west of Scotland. Both grandfathers had fought for Mary, Queen of Scots in 1568 at Langside.

George was one of nine siblings. See his brothers James and Claude. George's father was a Protestant, but his mother, Marion Boyd, was a recusant.

Early life
Hamilton was about ten in 1618 when his father died. His uncle, Sir George Hamilton of Greenlaw and Roscrea, became his guardian and converted him like all his siblings to the Catholic faith.

Hamilton's father had been an undertaker in James I's 1611 Plantation of Ulster and had as such acquired large estates in Ireland, mainly around Strabane, County Tyrone. Hamilton's eldest brother, James, succeeded as 2nd earl of Abercorn, but the Irish lands were shared among the younger sons according to his father's will. Strabane, the most prestigious part, went to Hamilton's elder brother Claud. Hamilton inherited Donalong, a great proportion (2000 acres). His father had predeceased his paternal grandfather, the 1st Lord Paisley, who died three years later in 1621. Hamilton's eldest brother, James, the 2nd Earl of Abercorn, inherited at that time the title of Lord Paisley and the family's Scottish lands.

By 1625 Hamilton, together with Sir Basil Brooke and Sir George Russell, had acquired rights to the Knockaunderrig Silver Mine at Knockanroe in the Silvermine Mountains near the village of Silvermines, south of Nenagh. In 1627 Hamilton succeeded Sir Roger Hope to the command of a company of foot in the Irish Army. In 1632 Hamilton's mother died in Edinburgh and was buried with her husband in Paisley Abbey.

By 1634 Hamilton was commonly called Sir George and was supposed to be a knight and a baronet. The territorial designation and the baronetage (country) of this first baronetcy are unknown. A second attempt would later be made to create him a baronet implying that the first one had not succeeded.

Marriage and children
In 1635 Hamilton married Mary Butler, third daughter of Thomas Butler, Viscount Thurles. Her eldest brother, the 12th earl of Ormond, later marquess and duke, and also lord lieutenant of Ireland, thereby became his brother-in-law.

George and Mary had six sons:
 * 1) James (died 1673), became ranger of Hyde Park, turned Protestant, and died from losing a leg in a sea-fight
 * 2) George (died 1676), killed in French service at the Col de Saverne
 * 3) Anthony (c. 1645 – 1719), fought for the Jacobites and wrote the Mémoires du comte de Grammont
 * 4) Thomas (died 1687), served in the Royal Navy and died in Boston, Massachusetts
 * 5) Richard (died 1717), fought for the Jacobites and was taken prisoner at the Boyne
 * 6) John (died 1691), officer in the Irish army, died from wounds received at the Battle of Aughrim

—and three daughters:
 * 1) Elizabeth (1641–1708), a famous beauty, married Philibert de Gramont
 * 2) Lucia (died 1676), married Sir Donough O'Brien, 1st Baronet, of Leamaneh Castle, a Protestant, in 1674
 * 3) Margaret, married in July 1674 Mathew Forde of Seaforde, County Down, and of Coolgreany, County Wexford

Mistaken identity
Hamilton shared his name and surname with his paternal uncle George, his guardian. Their wives also shared their names: both being called Mary Butler. The younger Mary was his wife, whereas the elder was a daughter of Walter, 11th Earl of Ormond. The younger couple lived at Nenagh, the elder at Roscrea. Carte (1736) already confused them. Hamilton married in 1635, but earlier dates are reported in error due to the confusion.

Midlife
In May 1640, Ormond, Hamilton's brother-in-law, granted him the manor, castle, town, and lands of Nenagh for 31 years. Ormond was appointed lieutenant-general (commander-in-chief) of the Irish army in September.

In 1641 Hamilton accompanied King Charles I on his visit to Scotland. At the outbreak of the Irish Rebellion on 23 October 1641, Hamilton was in England and was suspected of supporting the rebellion as he was Catholic. He was arrested and shortly held at the Tower of London but was soon released on bail.

Jean Gordon, widow of his elder brother Claud (died in 1638), lost her home when Phelim O'Neill burned Strabane Castle in December 1641. Hamilton, her brother in law, accommodated her and her children at Nenagh.

In February 1642 the Knockaunderrig Silver Mine, which Hamilton operated together with Basil Brooke and Sir William Russell, was attacked by local rebels led by Hugh O'Kennedy and his English miners were killed.

In March 1646 Ormond concluded the 1st Ormond Peace. It was proclaimed on 30 July in Dublin. In Limerick its proclamation was violently prevented by the clerical party in August. Ormond sent Hamilton to Limerick to talk to the Irish about the need for unity.

In May 1646, Hamilton's wife and children left Nenagh and were brought to Dublin for their security. Similar rescues were organised for his mother-in-law, Lady Thurles, and his sisters-in-law, Lady Muskerry and Lady Loughmoe. In June at Benburb the Confederate Ulster army under Owen Roe O'Neill defeated the Covenanters under Robert Monro. O'Neill then marched south to Kilkenny as directed by Rinuccini, the papal nuncio. Leinster and Munster were treated as enemy territory. On 17 September 1646, O'Neill took Roscrea, but Nenagh was not attacked at that time. O'Neill then menaced Dublin in November 1646.

In January 1647 Hamilton returned to Dublin with instructions from the king directing Ormond to hand Dublin over to the English rather than to the Irish. Ormond abandoned Dublin in July to the parliamentarians and left for England.

Phelim MacTuoll O'Neill stormed Nenagh in 1648, but it was retaken by Inchiquin in the same year by undermining the castle's wall. Hamilton seems to have been elsewhere. In August he was with Ormond in France at the queen's court at the Château-Neuf de Saint-Germain-en-Laye. On 21 September Hamilton left Saint-Germain with the queen's instructions and brought them to Ormond at Le Havre where a Dutch man-of-war, sent by William II, Prince of Orange, lay ready to bring Ormond to Cork where he landed on 29 September 1648. In January 1649 Ormond appointed Hamilton receiver-general of the revenues for Ireland succeeding to Lord Roscommon. He was also made colonel of a regiment of foot and appointed governor of Nenagh Castle. Near the end of 1650 when the parliamentarian army under Henry Ireton was on its way back from the unsuccessful siege of Limerick to its winter quarters at Kilkenny, troops under Daniel Abbot attacked Nenagh Castle, which Hamilton tried to defend. He surrendered the castle end of October or beginning November after the Parliamentarians had menaced to breach its walls with artillery.



French exile
Hamilton's Irish lands were confiscated by the parliamentarians, and in spring 1651 he and his family followed Ormond into French exile. They first went to Caen where Ormond's wife Elizabeth Preston lived since 1648. Lady Ormond with her children returned to England in August 1652, whereas Lady Hamilton went to Paris where she lived in the convent of the Feuillantines. In 1656 or 1657 Charles II sent him, together with Donough MacCarty, 2nd Viscount Muskerry, to Madrid on a diplomatic mission.

Restoration, death, and timeline
The Restoration in May 1660 brought Charles II on the English throne. Hamilton returned to London with his elder children James and George, who became courtiers at Whitehall.

About 1660 Charles II seems to have created him a baronet for a second time. This baronetcy was styled of Donalong and Nenagh. It may have been in the baronetage of Ireland, Scotland, or Nova Scotia. His grandson James, who should have succeeded as the 2nd baronet, never claimed the title, which might again have been invalid.

Hamilton was joined by his wife and their younger children in 1661. They lived for some time all together in a house near Whitehall. Hamilton's lands in Ulster were restored to him. In 1668 he also received land at Ballymacshanroe, on Great Island, County Cork, which he sold soon afterwards. In 1670 he was granted lands in several counties of Ireland.

Hamilton died in 1679. As his eldest son, James, had predeceased him in 1673, Hamilton was succeeded by his grandson James, who would later become the 6th earl of Abercorn.