James Hamilton, 1st Duke of Abercorn

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James Hamilton, 1st Duke of Abercorn (21 January 1811 – 31 October 1885), styled Viscount Hamilton from 1814 to 1818 and The Marquess of Abercorn from 1818 to 1868, was a Conservative statesman who twice served as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland.

Background and education

Born into an Anglo-Irish (or rather Scottish) aristocratic family at Seymour Place, Mayfair, on 21 January 1811. Abercorn was the son of James, Viscount Hamilton (the eldest son of The 1st Marquess of Abercorn). His mother, Harriet, was the second daughter of The Hon. John Douglas (the son of The 14th Earl of Morton). His father died when Abercorn was only three. In 1818, aged seven, he succeeded his grandfather in his titles and estates.<ref name = Dod>Template:Cite book</ref> He was educated at Harrow School and Christ Church, Oxford,Template:Sfn where he matriculated on 2 July 1829.<ref name="Foster">Template:Alox2</ref>

Political career

Lord Abercorn was first appointed a deputy lieutenant of County Tyrone,Template:Sfn where he had a family seat at Baronscourt. On 13 November 1844, Lord Abercorn was appointed Lord Lieutenant of Donegal.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn The next month, on 12 December 1844, he was made a Knight of the Garter at the relatively young age of 33.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn

Abercorn was appointed Groom of the Stole to Prince Albert on 8 February 1846, and shortly thereafter, on 25 February 1846, was made a Privy Counsellor. He served as Groom of the Stole until June 1859,Template:Sfn and remained a prominent figure in the royal court for the next two decades. He received two honorary degrees during this period, becoming an LL.D. of Cambridge on 5 July 1847,<ref>Template:Acad</ref>Template:Sfn a DCL of Oxford on 4 June 1856.<ref name="Foster"/> From 11 April 1855 to 22 September 1860, he was Honorary Colonel of the Prince of Wales's Own Donegal Militia, and on 18 February 1860, was commissioned as a Captain in the newly raised London Scottish Rifle Volunteers.Template:Sfn

On 6 July 1866, he was appointed Lord Lieutenant (Viceroy) of Ireland,Template:Sfn Template:Sfn under the third ministry of Lord Derby. He retained the post after Derby resigned in February 1868 and Benjamin Disraeli took the reins of the ministry. On 10 August 1868, he was created Marquess of Hamilton and Duke of Abercorn in the Peerage of Ireland. Around this time, he received his third honorary degree, an LL.D. from Trinity College, Dublin.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn After Gladstone and the Liberals won the 1868 general election, Abercorn resigned the Lord-Lieutenancy on 14 December.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn

Abercorn, his wife and one of his daughters appeared, thinly disguised, in Disraeli's 1870 novel Lothair.<ref>Kerry, p.29</ref>

After the formation of the second Disraeli ministry, Abercorn was again appointed Lord Lieutenant of Ireland on 2 March 1874,Template:Sfn and was also chosen Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Ireland, a post he held until his death.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> He resigned the Lord-Lieutenancy again on 6 December 1876,Template:Sfn partly on account of his wife's ill health.

Abercorn was Envoy-Extraordinary for the investiture of King Umberto I of Italy with the Order of the Garter on 2 March 1878. He was elected Chancellor of the University of Ireland in 1881, and died four years later at his home of Baronscourt, County Tyrone on 31 October 1885.Template:Sfn He is buried in the cemetery at Baronscourt Parish Church, the traditional burial place of the Dukes of Abercorn and their families.<ref>Baronscourt Parish Church</ref>

Sporting interests

Abercorn was the shooting tenant of Ewen Macpherson of Cluny at Loch Ericht and Benalder in the Central Highlands of Scotland. In 1836, William Mitchell (1756 - c.1839), one of Badenoch's biggest farmers, was obliged to surrender his Benalder sheep walk to accommodatate the Marquess's shooting interests. In 1839 Abercorn built a large shooting lodge at Ardverikie on the south side of Loch Laggan, where the painter Sir Edwin Landseer was one of the shooting guests.<ref>Taylor, David (2022), The People Are Not There: The Transformation of Badenoch 1800 - 1863, John Donald, Edinburgh, pp.104, 106 & 108 Template:Isbn</ref>

Family and children

Abercorn married Lady Louisa, second daughter of John Russell, 6th Duke of Bedford, in 1832.<ref name = Dod/> They had fourteen children, thirteen of whom survived infancy, among them seven daughters, all of whom were ordered to marry into the peerage and no one beneath the rank of an earl:<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>