1st Marquess Abercorn John James Hamilton

1st Marquess Abercorn John James Hamilton

Male 1756 - 1818  (61 years)

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  • Name John James Hamilton 
    Title 1st Marquess Abercorn 
    Born 02 Jul 1756  London, England Find all individuals with events at this location  [1
    Christened 13 Jul 1756  St. George Hanover Square, London Find all individuals with events at this location  [1
    Education 1776  Graduated M.A. from Pembroke College, Cambridge Find all individuals with events at this location  [2
    Elected Nov 1783  M.P. for East Looe, Cornwall Find all individuals with events at this location  [2
    Elected 1784  M.P. for St. Germans Find all individuals with events at this location  [2
    Title (Facts Pg) 1789  Succeeded to Title of 'Viscount Hamilton' in Great Britain Find all individuals with events at this location  [2
    Title (Facts Pg) 1789  Succeeded to Title of 'Viscount of Strabane' in Ireland Find all individuals with events at this location  [2
    Title (Facts Pg) 1789  Succeeded to Title of 'Earl of Abercon' in Scotland Find all individuals with events at this location  [2
    Elected 19 Jul 1790  Took His Oaths and His Seat in the House of Lords in Ireland Find all individuals with events at this location  [2
    Title (Facts Pg) 15 Oct 1790  Created Marquess of Abercorn Find all individuals with events at this location  [2
    Elected 7 Feb 1794  Sworn of the Privy Council in Ireland Find all individuals with events at this location  [2
    Title (Facts Pg) 17 Jan 1805  Nominated a Knight of the Garter Find all individuals with events at this location  [2
    Title (Facts Pg) 23 Apr 1805  Installed at Windsor on St. George's Day (Knight of the Garter) Find all individuals with events at this location  [2
    Will 18 Mar 1809  With Four Subsequent Codicils Find all individuals with events at this location  [3
    Died 27 Jan 1818  [3
    Buried 05 Feb 1818  St. John the Evangelist, Great Stanmore, Harrow, London Find all individuals with events at this location  [4
    Probate 09 May 1818  London, England Find all individuals with events at this location  [3
    Person ID I00440  Eliots of Port Eliot
    Last Modified 11 Aug 2021 

    Father John Hamilton,   b. 02 Mar 1713/14,   d. 18 Dec 1755, Drowned Near Portsmouth Harbor Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age 41 years) 
    Mother Harriot Craggs,   b. Feb 1712/13,   d. 01 Feb 1769  (Age 56 years) 
    Family ID F00043  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

    Wife 1 Frances Matilda Hawkins 
    Children 
     1. Harriet Hawkins
     2. John James Hamilton,   b. 02 Jul 1800,   d. 29 Apr 1808  (Age 7 years)
     3. James John Fitzjames,   b. 08 Dec 1808,   d. 07 Apr 1843, Drowned off Corunna in the Wreck of the Solway Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age 34 years)
     4. Arthur Charles Fitzjames,   b. Abt Mar 1811,   d. 26 Dec 1886, 42 Woburn-place, Middlesex Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age 75 years)
    Last Modified 16 Jun 2021 
    Family ID F00423  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

    Wife 2 Catherine Copley,   d. 13 Sep 1791, Stanmore Priory, Middlesex Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Married 20 Jun 1779  [2
    Children 
     1. Harriot Margaret Hamilton,   b. Abt 1781,   d. 30 Apr 1803, Stanmore Priory, Middlesex Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age 22 years)
     2. Katherine Constantia Hamilton,   b. 07 Oct 1782,   d. 23 May 1783  (Age 0 years)
     3. Katherine Elizabeth Hamilton,   b. 10 Jan 1784,   d. 29 Feb 1812  (Age 28 years)
     4. Maria Hamilton,   b. 28 Feb 1785,   d. 21 Jan 1814  (Age 28 years)
     5. James Hamilton,   b. 07 Oct 1786, Petersham Lodge, Surrey Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. 27 May 1814, Upper Brook Street, Mayfair, London Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age 27 years)
     6. Claud Hamilton,   b. 01 Nov 1787, Petersham, Surrey Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. Jun 1808, Madeira Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age 20 years)
    Last Modified 16 Jun 2021 
    Family ID F00105  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

    Wife 3 Cecil Hamilton,   b. 15 Mar 1770,   d. 19 Jun 1819  (Age 49 years) 
    Married 04 Mar 1792  [5
    Divorced Apr 1799  By Act of Parliament Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Children 
     1. Cecil Frances Hamilton,   b. 19 Jul 1795,   d. 07 Jul 1860  (Age 64 years)
    Last Modified 16 Jun 2021 
    Family ID F00337  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

    Wife 4 Anne Jane Gore,   d. 05 May 1827, Naples, Italy Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Married 03 Apr 1800 
    Last Modified 16 Jun 2021 
    Family ID F00335  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  • Photos
    Young John James Hamilton
    John James, 1st Marquess of Abercorn
    Miniature of John James, Marquess of Abercorn
    John James, Earl of Abercorn

  • Notes 
    • --- "Abercorn: The Hamiltons of Barons Court" by William J Roulston, 2014, page 90-1
      There was no member of the family quite like the 1st Marquess before him, nor has there been one since. Anthony Malcomson, in the only recent essay that considers him in any detail, believed him to be "perhaps a fitter subject for fiction than biography". Elsewhere he has described him as "that truly proud northern leviathan". The Marquess' great-grandson, Lord Ernest Hamilton, who devoted a chapter to him in his book "Old Days and News", wrote that while he "could not, strictly speaking, lay claim to be reckoned, on all points, an exemplary character, he was, beyond question, an interesting one". A contemporary, the novelist Lady Morgan, wrote, "He was so organised to be the man he was that no education or example could have made him otherwise. Had he occupied the throne of his ancestors, he would have been the justest despot that ever reigned." The society hostess Lady Holland observed, "He is haughty and capricious, with enough of vanity to make him do a generous action, and with a dash of madness to make him do a lively one." Many of those who have commented on him have focused on his eccentricities or behaviour arising from his undoubted pride --- stories that he insisted his maidservants wore white gloves when changing the bed sheets or that he wore his Garter while out shooting. . . . His friend Sir Walter Scott called him "much misrepresented". The Marquess conduct at times may well have earned him the epithet "Don Magnifico" . . .

      --- "The Scots Peerage" (Edinburgh, Scotland: David Douglas, 1904), volume I, page 66-8:
      John James, ninth Earl of Abercorn, only son of the Hon. John Hamilton, was born after his father's death, July 1756. He was educated at Pembroke College, Cambridge, where he graduated M.A. in 1776, and was elected member of Parliament for East Looe, in Cornwall, on a vacancy in November 1783, and chosen for St. Germans at the general election 1784. He succeeded his uncle in 1789, as Earl of Abercorn in Scotland, viscount of Strabane in Ireland, and Viscount Hamilton in Great Britain. On 19 Jul 1790 he took the oaths and his seat in the House of Lords in Ireland. At the general election of the sixteen representatives of the Scots Peerage, 11 July 1790, the clerks refused to receive his signed list, as he had been created a peer of Great Britain since the Union. The question was carried to the House of Lords, where, 13 May 1793, in a committee for privileges, the point was decided in his favour. Meanwhile the Earl was created on 15 October 1790, Marquess of Abercorn; and was sworn of the Privy Council in Ireland 7 February 1794. He was nominated a Knight of the Garter 17 January 1805, and installed at Windsor on St. George's Day, 23 April following. A curious account of the almost royal progress of the Marquess and his family through Scotland on their way to Baron's Court in August 1813 is given by Sir Walter Scott.*

      He married first, 20 June 1779, Catherine, daughter of Sir Joseph Copley, of Sprotborough, co. York, Baronet, by Mary, daughter of John Buller of Morval, Cornwall, and by her (who died at Stanmore Priory, Middlesex, 13 September 1791, and was buried 19 September, at Stanmore) had six children. . . .

      The Marquess married, secondly, 4 March 1792, his cousin, Lady Cecil Hamilton, daughter of his uncle George already mentioned, and by her had a daughter. . . .

      The Marquess married, thirdly, at her brother Viscount Sudley's house in Dover Street, Piccadilly, 3 April 1800, Lady Anne Jane, relict of Henry Hatton of Great Clonard, in the county of Wexford, member of Parliament for the borough of Donegal, to whom she was married October 1783. She was born April 1762, eldest daughter of Arthur Saunders, second Earl of Arran, in Ireland, by his first wife, the Hon. Catherine Annesley, only daughter of William, Viscount Glerawley. She died, without issue, at Naples 3 May 1827. The Marquess died 27 January 1818; his will, dated 18 March 1809, with four subsequent codicils, was proved in London 9 May 1818, and was succeeded by his grandson.

      * "Life of Scott" iv. 95. Sir Walter was a frequent visitor to Stanmore Priory, and while there in April 1807 was correcting a proof of the Introduction to "Marmion", Canto 1., which contains the complimentary lines on Pitt and Fox. Lord Abercorn suggested that the tribute to Fox should be heightened, and it is said he himself penned several lines of eulogy. "Familiar Letters", i. 82. The "Lady of the Lake" was dedicated to the Marquess.

  • Sources 
    1. [S00004] FMP Parish Records Collection, www.findmypast.co.uk, (Transcriptions of Parish Christenings, Marriages and Burials).

    2. "The Scots Peerage" by Sir James Balfour Paul, D. Douglas, 1904, page 66.

    3. "The Scots Peerage" by Sir James Balfour Paul, D. Douglas, 1904, page 68.

    4. "London, England, Deaths and Burials, 1813-1980" (Harrow, St John the Evangelist Great Stanmore, 1818, 3 of 4).

    5. "The Peerage of Great Britain and Ireland" Vol. 1, Pollard, page 88.