James Hamilton, Lord Paisley


James Hamilton, Lord Paisley was the eldest son of James Hamilton, 2nd Earl of Abercorn and Katherine Clifton, 2nd Baroness Clifton. He predeceased his father and is therefore an example of an heir apparent who never succeeded.

Birth and origins

James was born in the early 1630s, probably in Paisley, Scotland, the eldest of the three sons of James Hamilton and his wife Katherine Clifton. His father was the 2nd Earl of Abercorn. His mother was Dowager Duchess of Lennox from her previous marriage and Baroness Clifton of Leighton Bromswold, England, in her own right. His parents married in 1632 or not much before as she on 28 November 1632 obtained permission from the king to keep her precedence as a dowager duchess despite now marrying an earl.


He heads the list of brothers below as the eldest:
  1. James, the subject of this article;
  2. William, who became a colonel but predeceased his father unmarried in the German wars;
  3. George, who succeeded his father as the 3rd Earl but died unmarried in Padua.
Both his parents were Catholics and therefore recusants in Scotland. His mother died in Scotland while he was still an infant. As a Catholic the Church of Scotland refused her a burial ceremony. As heir apparent of the Earl of Abercorn James was styled Lord Paisley, which was at that time the courtesy title for the heir apparent in the family according to the Scottish manner. By 1646 Lord Paisley had become a good Presbyterian as is asserted in the proceedings of the General Assembly of the kirk of that year.

Marriage and children

On 28 April 1653, at St Bartholomew-the-Less in London, Lord Paisley married Catherine Lenthall, niece of William Lenthall, Speaker of the Long Parliament. His wife was a Protestant, the church where they married was an Anglican one. They had one daughter:
Their daughter married Charles Hamilton, a second cousin, who had also become a Protestant.

Restoration

At the Restoration he tried to obtain some preferment through the intermediate of his uncle Sir George Hamilton, 1st Baronet, who was now well connected at the court as he had been in exile with the King. This is shown in a letter preserved in the Bodleian Library.

Death, succession, and timeline

Lord Paisley died before his father and had no son. His brother William also predeceased his father, so that the youngest brother, George, succeeded him as heir apparent and inherited his courtesy title. George succeeded as the 3rd Earl of Abercorn at the father's death in 1670.