James Hamilton, 7th Earl of AbercornFRSPCPC (Ire) (1686–1744), styled Lord Paisley from 1701 to 1734, was a Scottish and Irish nobleman and peer. An amateur scientist and musician, he published a book on magnetism in 1729 and a treatise on musical harmony in 1730, which was subsequently emended and re-issued by his teacher, Dr. Pepusch.
Birth and origins
James was born on 22 March 1686, the second but eldest surviving son of James Hamilton and his wife Elizabeth Reading.[1] His father was at the time the representant of a cadet branch of the Earls of Abercorn that descended from George Hamilton, 1st Baronet of Donalong, the fourth son of the 1st Earl but would later succeed a cousin as the 6th Earl of Abercorn. The Abercorn Hamiltons had come from Scotland to Ireland during the Plantation of Ulster.
In 1701 the main line of the Abercorns failed when Charles Hamilton, 5th Earl of Abercorn died childless in Strabane, Ireland.[6] Charles's nearest living male relative was Hamilton's father, Charles's second cousin (see Family tree). His father therefore succeeded as the 6th Earl of Abercorn, and Hamilton, aged 15, became the new Earl's heir apparent with the courtesy title of Lord Paisley.[7] At the same time as Earl of Abercorn in Scotland, his father succeeded as the 7th Baron of Strabane in Ireland. About six months later, on 2 December 1701, his father, Lord Abercorn, was rewarded with the new Irish titles. The King advanced him from Baron Strabane to Viscount Strabane and gave him the additional subsidiary title of Baron Mountcastle.[8]
Marriage and children
In April 1711, Lord Paisley, as he now was, married Anne Plumer (1690–1776), daughter of Colonel John Plumer of Ware, Hertfordshire.[9]
James and Anne had six sons and two daughters:
James (1712–1789), succeeded him as 8th Earl of Abercorn[10]
In 1729 he published a short treatise entitled Calculations and Tables Relating to the Attractive Virtue of Loadstones (according to the catalogue of the British Library), which presents the results of experiments he had made with lodestones (natural permanent magnets) of various sizes, each time measuring the mass of the loadstone and the weight of iron with which it can be armed, or that it can hold on its surfaces.[19]
Frontispiece of the 1730 edition
Lord Paisley also studied music, taking lessons from Johann Christoph Pepusch, a well-known musician in his time. In 1730 he published, based on Pepusch's teaching, anonymously and without his teacher's assent a booklet entitled "A Short Treatise on Harmony".[20] Understandably, the teacher felt offended. As the book was not well written and lacked illustrations in musical notes, he was concerned about his reputation as his connection to the book would certainly be discovered.[21] He, therefore, helped to prepare a second improved edition published in 1731. In this form the book exposed and documented the practice of the best composers of the period.[22] Paisley was still in friendly connection with his teachers as Pepusch visited Paisley at his seat in Witham, Essex in 1733.[23]
Father's succession
Lord Paisley succeeded as the 7th Earl of Abercorn at his father's death in 1734.[24] In Ireland, he succeeded as the 2nd Viscount Strabane.[25]
James Hamilton, Earl of Abercorn
Lord Abercorn was sworn a Privy Counsellor in Great Britain on 20 July 1738. He was appointed to the Privy Counsellor in Ireland in July 1737 but was sworn only on 26 September 1739 when he came to Ireland.[26]
Abercorn died on 11 January 1744 at Cavendish Square, western London,[28] and was buried five days later in the Ormonde vault of the Henry VII Chapel of Westminster Abbey where his father had already been laid to rest.[29]
^This family tree is partly derived from the Abercorn pedigree pictured in Cokayne.[4] Also see the lists of siblings and children in the text.
Citations
^ abCokayne 1910, p. 6, line 24. "James (Hamilton), Earl of Abercorn etc. [S.], also Viscount Strabane, etc [I.], 2nd but 1st surv. s. and h., b. 22 Mar. 1685/6 ..."
^Cokayne 1904, p. 208. "Reading: cr. 27 Aug. 1675; ex. March 1689"
^Cokayne 1910, p. 6, line 16. "He m. (Lic. at Fac. off 24 January 1683/4) Elizabeth (then aged about 15), only child of Robert Reading, of Dublin, Bart. (so created 1675) ..."
^Cokayne 1910, p. 4. "Tabular pedigree of the Earls of Abercorn"
^ abWills 1841, p. 328, line 10. "James Hamilton afterwards Earl of Abercorn, who brought to its [i.e. Derry's] relief from England a quantity of arms and ammunition, with five thousand pounds in money."
^ abLodge 1789, p. 117. "... [Charles] died at Strabane June 1701."
^Cokayne 1910, p. 6, line 26. "... styled Lord Paysley from 1701 till he suc. to the peerage."
^Cokayne 1910, p. 6, line 12. "Accordingly, on 2 Sep. 1701, he [the 6th Earl] was cr. Baron Mountcastle, co. Tyrone, and Viscount Strabane [I.] ..."
^ abCokayne 1910, p. 6, line 29. "He m., in 1711, before 28 Apr., ... Anne, 1st surv. da. of Col. John Plumer, of Blakesware, in Ware, Herts. ..."
^Paul 1904, p. 63, line 14. "John, capt. R.N., m. Nov. 1749 Harriet, widow of Richard Eliot, M.P. of Port Eliot, co. Cornwall, and was drowned off Portsmouth, 18 Dec. 1755, leaving John James 9th Earl."
^Paul 1904, p. 64, line 38. "Anne, born 12 June 1715, married 16 August 1746, to Sir Henry Mackworth, Baronet."
^Paul 1904, p. 63, line 28. "George Hamilton, born 11 August 1718, matriculated at Exeter College, Oxford 19 March 1735/6; presented by his brother, in September 1753, to the rectories of Taughboyne, in the diocese of Raphoe, and Donagheady, in the diocese of Derry, in Ireland; was afterwards a prebendary of Salisbury; and 30 August 1783 appointed a canon of Windsor. He died at Taplow, 26 November 1787, aged eighty. He married Elizabeth, daughter of Lieutenant-General Richard Onslow ..."
^Paul 1904, p. 64, line 34. "William Hamilton, born 18 February 1721; a lieutenant in the Royal Navy; lost in the Victory man-of-war, off Alderney, 1744."
^ abPaul 1904, p. 62, line 33. "He wrote Calculations and Tables on the Attractive Power of Loadstones, 1729."
^Hawkins 1875, p. 885, left column, line 37. "Among the many that resorted to him [Pepusch] for instruction, Lord Paisley, afterwards earl of Abercorn, was one; and to him the doctor had communicated lessons in writing for his private study, with no other obligation not to impart them to the world than is implied in the mutual relation of teacher and disciple; which it seems was so ill understood, that in the 1730 the substance of the doctor's lessons was by his pupil given to the world with the following title: 'A Short Treatise of Harmony ...'"
^Hawkins 1875, p. 885, left column, line 55. "The doctor affected to speak of the publication of this book as injurious both to his character and interest;"
^Novello 1840, p. 231, line 3. "The precepts contained in this book are sanctioned by the practice of the best composers of that period;"
^Hawkins 1875, p. 885, right column, line 2. "... a visit he [Pepusch] made to lord Paisley at his seat at Witham in Essex, in the summer of the year 1733, and of his entertainment during a week's stay there;"
^ abCokayne 1910, p. 6, line 19. "He [his father] d. 28 Sep. 1734, aged 73, and was bur. 3 Dec in the Ormonde vault in Henry VII's Chapel, Westmin. Abbey."
^Lodge 1789, p. 125, line 9. "Sir James, the second Viscount Strabane and seventh Earl of Abercorn ..."
^ abcLodge 1789, p. 125, line 10. "... was sworn of the privy council in England 20 July 1738, and coming into Ireland the year following was sworn of the privy council here 26 September, having been so appointed in July 1737."
