Page:The Story of Nell Gwyn.djvu/225

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been validated.
THE HAMILTONS.
209

is the Hamilton who served in the French army with distinction. I know not when he died. Evelyn, however, is of some assistance in determining the time. "12 November, 1675. There was in my lady ambassadress's company my Lady Hamilton, a sprightly young lady, much in the good graces of the family, wife of that valiant and worthy gentleman, George Hamilton, not long after slaine in the warrs. She had been a maid of honour to the Dutchesse, and now turned Papist." His widow married Tall Talbot, afterwards Earl and Duke of Tyrconnell (d. 1691), the hero of the famous Lillibullero ballad, and dying in Dublin, 6th March, 1731, was buried in St. Patrick's Cathedral.

Anthony, "the charming historiographer," was the third son. He is said to have been born at Roscrea, in the county of Tipperary, in 1646, in which year Owen O'Neale took Roscrea, and, as Carte says, "put man, and woman, and child, to the sword, except Sir George Hamilton's lady, sister to the Marquis of Ormond, and some few gentlewomen whom he kept prisoners." His father and mother were Roman Catholics; Anthony therefore was bred in the religion to which he adhered conscientiously through life. He was twenty-two years old when his sister. La Belle Hamilton, married the