General Notes

REFN: 5482AN
James Hamilton - Minister’s Son, Academic and Agent.
Rev. Hans Hamilton (1536 - 1608) was the first Protestant minister in Dunl
op, Ayrshire. Dunlop is in the East Ayrshire council district, and if y
ou visit the historic Main Street today you can still see his church, h
is mausoleum and also the significantly-named Clandeboye School building
s, all of which date from the early 1600s. He and his wife Janet had six s
ons - James, Archibald, Gawin, John, William and Patrick - and one daughte
r, Jean.
Their eldest son, James Hamilton (1559 - 1644), was educated at St Andre
ws University when Andrew Melville was Principal there. St Andrews was al
so where the first martyr of the Scottish Reformation, Patrick Hamilton, h
ad been burned at the stake on February 29th 1528, aged only 24. (Patri
ck Hamilton was nephew of the Earl of Arran and also the Duke of Alban
y; he was related to King James V of Scotland, although we are not awa
re of Patrick having any connection with either Rev Hans or James Hamilton
).
Having built a reputation as “one of the greatest scholars and hopeful wi
ts in his time”, James became a teacher in Glasgow. Around 1587 he left Sc
otland by ship and due to storms unexpectedly arrived in Dublin. He decid
ed to stay there and established a school – “The Free School” - in Ship St
reet. Hamilton was its master and he employed fellow Scot and fellow pup
il of Meville’s, James Fullerton, as usher. One of their pupils was the ei
ght year old James Ussher, who went on to become the Archbishop of Armag
h, and who famously calculated that the first day of Biblical creation w
as Sunday 23 October 4004 BC. Ussher would later take the part of the Ulst
er-Scots in their nonconformist and Presbyterian stance. Fullerton and Uss
her are buried alongsiDe each other in St Paul’s Chapel of Westminster Abb
ey in London.
In 1591, Queen Elizabeth 1 established Trinity College in Dublin, and t
he first Provost noted that Hamilton had “...a noble spirit... and learn
ed head...” and persuaded the two Scots to become Fellows of the Colleg
e. Ussher, then aged 13, followed them to Trinity. Hamilton was made Burs
ar there in 1598.
Both men were agents for King James VI of Scotland, providing him with inf
ormation about Elizabeth 1’s activities in Ireland, and perhaps even tampe
ring with the mail to keep the King, and themselves, informed. They we
re so successful that they gave up their academic positions to take up app
ointments at the royal court.
Hamilton was appointed Scottish agent to the English court of Elizabeth 1s
t, was involved in the negotiations for James VI’s succession to the Engli
sh throne, and eventually brought official news of Elizabeth’s death to Sc
otland. Fullerton was knighted when King James VI of Scotland became Ki
ng James 1 of England - at the Union of the Crowns - in 1603.
So James Hamilton had great influence with the new King James 1 - influen
ce which he would soon use to gain lands in Ulster.
MISC:
- Of his character, The Hamilton Manuscripts say  “…he was very learned, w
ise, laborious, noble (especially to strangers and scholars), so the
re is great ground to judge he was truly pious, as he was certainly well p
rincipled… his younger education seasoned him well; He was observedly a gr
eat studier of the Scripture and an enemy to profaneness… he was very char
itable to distress'd people that came in great numbers from the upper coun
trys. He was of a robust, healthfull body, and managed to the best advanta
ge ; died without sickness unexpectedly ere he finished his will…”
- James Hamilton and his wife worshipped regularly at Bangor Abbey, und
er the renowned Rev Robert Blair. Hamilton had brought Blair from Scotla
nd in 1622, and he seems to have been sympathetic towards the “non-conform
ist” stance of Blair, the majority of the Presbyterian clergy in Ulster a
nd their Ulster-Scots congregations. Hamilton famously offered to Blair