Claud Hamilton, 4th Earl of Abercorn

Claud Hamilton, 4th Earl of Abercorn (1659–1691) was a Scottish and Irish peer who fought for the Jacobites in the Williamite War in the battles of Newtownbutler and Aughrim. He was killed when the ship that should have brought him to France was intercepted by a Dutch privateer. (Graham 1841)

Claud was born in 1659, probably in Rush near Dublin, as the eldest son of George Hamilton, and Elizabeth Fagan. His father was the 4th Baron Hamilton of Strabane and an important landowner around Strabane, County Tyrone, Ulster, Ireland. The Strabanes were at that time a cadet branch of the Abercorns. Claud's mother was a rich heiress, the only child of Christopher Fagan of Feltrim, County Dublin.

He heads the list of siblings below as the eldest:

1. Claud (1659–1691);
2. Anne (died 1680), married John Browne;
3. Charles (died 1701), became the 5th Earl of Abercorn; and
4. Mary, married Garrett Dillon, Recorder of Dublin.

His parents were both Catholic. The family's usual residence was Kenure House in Rush near Dublin, where he and his siblings were probably born and where his father died.

In 1668, at the age of nine, he succeeded his father as the fifth Baron Hamilton of Strabane.

Around 1680 his father's cousin (his second cousin once removed) George Hamilton, 3rd Earl of Abercorn, died in Padua. With him failed the senior line of the Abercorns. The succession passed to the nearest cadet branch, the descendants of Claud Hamilton, 2nd Baron Hamilton of Strabane, the second son of the 1st Earl of Abercorn. This second son was his paternal grandfather and he was this grandfather's heir-male. He therefore succeeded his cousin as the 4th Earl of Abercorn. This elevated him from baron to earl but did not make him much richer as the 2nd Earl had lost most of the Scottish lands of the Abercorns.

He followed James II to France at the Glorious Revolution, and went with James to Ireland in 1689. When James arrived in Dublin and established his administration, he was appointed a member of the Jacobite Privy Council of Ireland and a Lord of the Bedchamber.

He went with the King up to Derry and was present on 18 April 1689 when James II asked the city to surrender. On 20 April 1689 the king sent him to the walls with a last proposal, which was however rejected by Adam Murray, who represented the city. Upon this, the army started the Siege of Derry.

He raised a regiment of horse in Ireland for James, and led it in Lord Mountcashel's expedition against Enniskillen in July 1689. He was wounded in Mountcashel's defeat at Newtownbutler on 31 July.

Abercorn was outlawed and attainted in Ireland by the Williamites on 11 May 1691, forfeiting his Irish peerage. At the Battle of Aughrim on 12 July 1691 he fought with his regiment of horse on the right wing of the Jacobites.

Richard Talbot, 1st Earl of Tyrconnel, sent him to France to carry news of the defeat to James, and ask for help. He boarded a ship for France at Limerick, but the ship was intercepted by a Dutch privateer and Abercorn was killed in the fight that ensued.

He was 32 years old and had never married. He was succeeded by his younger brother Charles, who had become a Protestant and had sided with William at the Glorious Revolution. His brother became the 5th Earl of Abercorn immediately as this title was in the peerage of Scotland and not affected by the Irish attainder. In 1692 the 5th Earl obtained the reversal of the attainder and thus became the 6th Baron Hamilton of Strabane and recovered the Irish estates.