William Hamilton

Alfred Webb

A Compendium of Irish Biography

1878

Hamilton, William, D.D., an eminent divine and naturalist, was born in the County of Antrim, 16th December 1755 or '57. He took his degree at Trinity College, and was elected to a fellowship in 1779. His geological Letters on the Coast of the County of Antrim attracted considerable attention, and he occasionally contributed to the Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy. As rector of Clondavaddog, or Fanet, in Donegal, his best exertions were devoted to the welfare, good order, and improvement of that remote and little-frequented district. He was appointed a magistrate; and it is believed it was because of his exertions in that capacity to suppress revolutionary movements that he was brutally murdered at the residence of a friend on the shores of Lough Swilly, 2nd March 1797 — the house being surrounded by armed men and he being pusillanimously given up to them by the servants. His family was provided for by a vote of the House of Commons.

Sources

146. Gentleman's Magazine. London, 1731-1868.
Gilbert, John T., see Nos. 110, 335.

217. Londonderry, Ordnance Survey of the County. Dublin, 1837.

349. Worthies of Ireland, Biographical Dictionary of the: Richard Ryan. 2 vols. London, 1821. Wyse, Thomas, see No. 73.

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