Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 24.djvu/175

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agree as to the genealogy, but the account given above seems most consistent with established facts.]

H. M. C.

HAMILTON, HUGH, Baron Hamilton in Sweden (d. 1724), Swedish military commander, was younger son of Captain John Hamilton of Ballygally, co. Tyrone, Ireland, by his wife Jean, daughter of James Somerville. His father was a younger son of Malcolm Hamilton, archbishop of Cashel and Emly, and Hugh or Hugo Hamilton, first lord Hamilton of Glenawley [q. v.] was his uncle. Hugh is said, after seeing much military service at home, to have been summoned to Sweden in 1680 by his elder brother, Malcolm Hamilton [q. v.], already an officer in the Swedish army. In Sweden his earliest commission was as lieutenant of the Elfsburg regiment, in which he rose to be captain. In 1693 he and his brother were ennobled in Sweden as barons Hamilton de Hageby. Hugh rose to great distinction during the wars of Charles XII, especially signalising himself against the Danes in 1710 at Helsingborg, and against the Russians at Gefle in 1719. He became, after a long series of promotions, a general and master of the ordnance. He died in 1724, and was buried in in the province of Jonköping. He was married to a Swedish lady, daughter of Henrik Ardvisson of Gothenburg, and left numerous children. His sixth son, Gustavus David, was created Count Hamilton in 1751; attained distinction in the seven years' and Russian wars; became a field marshal, and died in 1788. The present Swedish Counts Hamilton are his direct descendants.

[Burke's Extinct Peerage (1883 ed.); authorities as under Hamilton, Hugh or Hugo (d. 1679). The statement in the Swedish Biografiskt Lexikon, vi. 47, that he was Malcolm's illegitimate son and not his brother is unsupported.]

H. M. C.

HAMILTON, HUGH, D.D. (1729–1805), bishop of Ossory, eldest son of Alexander Hamilton, M.P., of Knock, co. Dublin, and Newtownhamilton, co. Armagh, by Isabella Maxwell, his wife, was born at Knock on 26 March 1729. He was descended from Hugh Hamilton, who settled in Ireland in the time of James I, and was one of the Hamiltons of Evandale, of whom Sir James Hamilton of Finnart (d. 1540) [q. v.] was an ancestor. He entered Trinity College, Dublin, 17 Nov. 1742, under the tutorship of the Rev. Thomas McDonnell, and graduated B.A. 1747, M.A. 1750, B.D. 1759, and D.D. 1762. In 1751 he was elected a fellow, having been unsuccessful, though his answering was very highly commended, at the examination in the preceding year. In 1759 he was appointed Erasmus Smith's professor of natural philosophy in the university of Dublin; he was also elected about the same time a fellow of the Royal Society and a member of the Royal Irish Academy. He resigned his fellowship in 1764, and was presented by his college to the rectory of Kilmacrenan in the diocese of Raphoe; in 1767 he resigned this preferment and was collated to the vicarage of St. Anne's, Dublin, which benefice he exchanged in April 1768 for the deanery of Armagh, by patent dated the 23rd of that month (Lib. Mun. Hib.) On 20 Jan. 1796 he was promoted to the bishopric of Clonfert and Kilmacduagh; and by patent dated 24 Jan. 1799 he was translated to Ossory. He died at Kilkenny 1 Dec. 1805, and was buried in his cathedral of St. Canice in that city, where there is a monument inscribed to his memory.

In 1772 he married Isabella, eldest daughter of Hans Widman Wood of Rossmead, co. Westmeath, and of Frances, twin sister of Edward, earl of Kingston, and by her had two daughters and five sons: Alexander (d. 1552), a barrister, Hans, Henry, George Hamilton (1785–1830) [q. v.], and Hugh.

Hamilton was author of several learned treatises, including: 1. ‘De Sectionibus Conicis Tractatus Geometricus,’ London, 1758. 2. ‘Philosophical Essays on Vapours,’ &c., London, 1767. 3. ‘An Essay on the Existence and Attributes of the Supreme Being,’ Dublin 1784. 4. ‘Four Introductory Lectures on Natural Philosophy.’ His principal works were collected and republished, with a memoir and portrait, by his eldest son, Alexander Hamilton, in two 8vo vols., London, 1809.

[Burke's Landed Gentry, 3rd edit. p. 513; Gent. Mag. 1805, lxxv. pt. ii. 1176; Dublin University Calendars; Todd's Cat. of Dublin Graduates, p. 247; Cotton's Fasti Ecclesiæ Hibernicæ, ii. 290, iii. 34, iv. 173; Mant's Hist. of the Church of Ireland, ii. 742; Stuart's Hist. of Armagh, p. 528.]

B. H. B.

HAMILTON, HUGH DOUGLAS (1734?–1806), portrait-painter, born in Dublin about 1734, was a student in the Dublin art school under James Mannin. He practised as a portrait-painter from an early age, and achieved his first successes by drawing small oval portraits in crayons. These were executed in a low grey tone, and finished with red and black chalk. They are very clever in expression, and as Hamilton did not charge highly for them, he obtained a very large practice. His success tempted him to come to London, where he settled in Pall