Claud's mother was a daughter of George Seton, 7th Lord Seton,[c] by his wife Isobel Hamilton.[7] Both parents were Scottish and seem to have been both Catholic. They had married in 1574 at Niddry Castle, West Lothian, Scotland,[8][9] which belonged to the Setons.
Family tree
Claud Hamilton with wife, parents, and other selected relatives.[d]
Being named "of Shawfield" seems to imply that his father gave him Shawfield, in the northern tip of modern South Lanarkshire, near Rutherglen, as appanage. Paul (1904) explains "Shawfield, co. Linlithgow",[14] but there seems to be no Shawfield in that county. In 1579 the Scottish privy council decided to arrest his father and his uncle John. They were besieged at Hamilton and then escaped to England and even France. Claud and his mother seem to have staid behind in Scotland. His father returned in 1586 and was created Lord Paisley in 1587.
Gentleman of the privy chamber
At the age of 18 Claud Hamilton was made a gentleman of the privy chamber to the young King James VI of Scotland.[16][17]
After the Union of the Crowns in 1603, Claude Hamilton spent time with the royal court in London. In 1610 he was naturalized as a denizen of England and given lands in Ireland, described as "the small proportion of Edeneveagh in the barony or precint of Fues in County Armagh".[18]
Some of his papers are held by the University of Edinburgh among the Laing manuscripts. These include estate papers relating to Ireland and Scotland, an detailing fabrics, a tailor's bill from 1614, and bill for hats, pewter, and other items.[19] The bills include costume accessories which he bought in London for his family in Scotland and his brother Frederick, including; a "white satin piccadill with two laced bands of the newest fashion for a young woman", a "fine satin picadell for Phredrik of the newest fashion", with "two pair of worset stockings meet for a large young woman's leg", and "thirty yards of flowered taffeta or some other bonny stitched [embroidered] stuff for his daughters". A waistcoat of crimson taffeta was bought at the Sign of the Horse Shoe in the Old Exchange.[20]
Marriage and children
At Paisley in 1602 Sir Claud married Janet Hamilton, the only child of Robert Hamilton of Leckprevick and Easter Greenlees, Lanarkshire, Scotland.[21] Due to this inheritance Hamilton was also called "of Leckprevick".[22] Leckprevick and East Greenlees are both in the north of South Lanarkshire, the former near East Kilbride, the latter near Rutherglen.[23]
Janet, named in her mother's will together with her two sisters
In an alternative view, Claud Hamilton married Mary Hamilton, daughter of Robert Hamilton of Elieston or Illieston in West Lothian[28] (unless her husband was Claud Hamilton of Toon) The Hamiltons of Elieston were a Catholic family, and Lauder of Fountainhall recorded that there was accommodation in the house for a priest.[29]
Plantation of Ulster
The flight of the earls in September 1607 cleared the way for the Plantation of Ulster.[30] Like his eldest brother James and his next brother George Hamilton of Greenlaw and Roscrea, Claud was an undertaker in the plantation. However, he must not be confused with Claud Hamilton of Clonyn, who was an undertaker in County Cavan. Claud Hamilton of Shawfield was granted the small proportions of Killeny and Teadane (or Eden).[31] A small proportion in the Fews precinct in County Armagh was granted to "Claude Hamilton".[32] It seems not to be known which Claud Hamilton this was.
The small proportion of Teadane was in County Londonderry on the boundaries of Coleraine and Loughinsholin baronies.[33] At the time the Loughinsholin barony was in County Tyrone but it became in 1613 part of the new County Londonderry.
In 1618 and 1619 Hamilton built a castle on his land.[34] This castle stood near the village of Donemana which probably was part of the Killeny proportion. The site is perhaps that now occupied by the ruin of the Earlsgift Castle.[35] The name Killenny now refers to a townland in the Donaghedy Parish of the Strabane Lower barony. This townland is 225 acres big and lies south of Donemana on the right bank of Burn Dennett.[36]
It is sure that Claud Hamilton was a knight, but it is not known when this honor was bestowed on him. It seem that it is in the context of the plantation of Ulster that he is called "Sir Claude" (sic) for the first time.[37] He might of course have been knighted much earlier.
Sir Claud Hamilton of Shawfield died in Dublin on 19October 1614.[42] The Laing papers contain a letter that describes the event in detail.[43]Robert Maxwell, an Anglican priest and Dean of Armagh, was called to his bedside because he was skilled as a physician.[44]Sir Claud Hamilton, constable of the Fort of Toome, also was there.[45] Claud Hamilton of Shawfield predeceased his father who would die in 1621 and his mother who would die in 1616.[46] Administration of his estate was granted to his eldest son William only 15 years later on 29 November 1629.[47]
"He is confounded by Lodge with Sir Claud Hamilton of Castle Toome, in the county of Antrim, eldest son and heir of Sir Claud Hamilton of Cocknogh, and brother of Archibald Hamilton, Archbishop of Cashel 1640 to 1659. It was this Sir Claud who, by privy seal, dated at Westminster 6 October 1618, was made Constable of the Castle or Fort of Toome on the surrender of Sir Thomas Phillips. By his first wife he had no issue. He married, secondly, Anne, daughter of Sir Henry Colley of Castle Carbery, in the county of Kildare, and had a son Robert, who died an infant, and three daughters. He died, 5 June 1640, at Roscrea in the county of Tipperary, and was buried in the monastery there. (Funeral entry, Ulster's Office.) He is not to be confused with Sir Claud Hamilton, second son of Sir Alexander Hamilton of Innerwick, who was granted the lands of Clonyn, otherwise Taghleagh, in the county of Cavan, by patent dated 23June 1610, and died vita patris before February 1618. He married Jane, daughter of Robert Lauder of the Bass, and left, with other issue, Sir Francis Hamilton of Killagh, otherwise Castle Hamilton, co. Cavan, who was created a Baronet of Nova Scotia 29September 1628."[49]
Notes
↑ His date of birth is constrained by the birth of his eldest brother, James, on 12August 1575 and on his appointment as gentleman of the king's bed chamber, which occurred when he was 18 and before 1603 when the king left for London
↑ This family tree is partly derived from the Abercorn pedigree pictured in The Complete Peerage,[10] from the description of the Abercorn genealogy in The Scots Peerage[11] and the descriptions of the lineages of the Hamilton baronets of Woodbrook[12] and the Cole-Hamiltons of Beltrim.[13] Also see the lists of siblings and children in the text.
↑ Nicholas Carlisle, An Inquiry into the Place and Quality of the Gentlemen of His Majesty’s Honourable Privy Chamber (Payne & Foss, London, 1829) p. 90.
↑ William Arthur Shaw, Letters of denization and acts of naturalization for aliens in England and Ireland (Lymington, 1911), p. 19.
↑ HMC Laing Manuscripts, vol. 1 (London, 1914), pp. 131–139]
↑ Margaret Scott, Previck and Leckprivick, Onomastoc Connections in South-West Scotland, Nomina, Journal of the Society for Name Studies in Britain and Ireland, 29, 2006, pp. 115–128
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