Memoirs of Count Grammont | Page 2

"put man, woman, and child to the sword, except Sir George
Hamilton's lady, sister to the Marquis of Ormond, and some few
gentlewomen whom he kept prisoners." No family suffered more in
those disastrous times than the house of Ormond. Lady Hamilton died
in August, 1680, as appears from an interesting and affecting letter of
her brother, the Duke of Ormond, dated Carrick, August 25th. He had
lost his noble son, Lord Ossory, not three weeks before.]
It has been always said, that the family migrated to France when
Anthony was an infant; but this is not the fact: "Sir George Hamilton,"
says Carte, "would have accompanied his brother-in-law, the Marquis
of Ormond, to France, in December, 1650: but, as he was
receiver-general in Ireland, he stayed to pass his accounts, which he did
to the satisfaction of all parties, notwithstanding much clamour had
been raised against him." When that business was settled, he, in the
spring of 1651, took Lady Hamilton and all his family to France, and
resided with Lord and Lady Ormond, near Caen, in Normandy,
[Hence possibly Voltaire's mistake in stating that Hamilton was born at
Caen, in his Catalogue des Ecrivains du Siecle de Louis XIV.]
in great poverty and distress, till the Marchioness of Ormond, a lady
whose mind was as exalted as her birth, went over to England, and,
after much solicitation obtained two thousand pounds a-year from her

own and, her husband's different estates in Ireland. This favour was
granted her by Cromwell, who always professed the greatest respect for
her. The Marchioness resided in Ireland, with the younger part of her
family, from 1655 till after the Restoration; while the Marquis of
Ormond continued for a considerable part of that period with his two
sisters, Lady Clancarty and Lady Hamilton, at the Feuillatines, in the
Faubourg St. Jacques, in Paris.
It appears from a letter of the Marquis to Sir Robert Southwell, that,
although he himself was educated in the Protestant religion, not only
his father and mother, but all his brothers and sisters, were bred, and
always continued, Roman Catholics. Sir George Hamilton also,
according to Carte,
[That historian states that the king (Charles I.) deprived several papists
of their military commissions, and, among others, Sir George Hamilton,
who, notwithstanding, served him with loyalty and unvarying fidelity.]
was a Roman Catholic; Anthony, therefore, was bred in the religion of
his family, and conscientiously adhered to it through life. He entered
early into the army of Louis XIV., as did his brothers George, Richard,
and John, the former of whom introduced the company of English gens
d'armes into France, in 1667, according to Le Pere Daniel, author of the
History of the French Army, who adds the following short account of
its establishment: Charles II., being restored to his throne, brought over
to England several catholic officers and soldiers, who had served
abroad with him and his brother, the Duke of York, and incorporated
them with his guards; but the parliament having obliged him to dismiss
all officers who were Catholics, the king permitted George Hamilton to
take such as were willing to accompany him to France, where Louis
XIV. formed them into a company of gens d'armes, and being highly
pleased with them, became himself their captain, and made George
Hamilton their captain- lieutenant:--[They were composed of English,
Scotch, and Irish.] Whether Anthony belonged to this corps I know not;
but this is certain, that he distinguished himself particularly in his
profession, and was advanced to considerable posts in the French
service.

Anthony Hamilton's residence was now almost constantly in France.
Some years previous to this he had been much in England, and, towards
the close of Charles II.'s reign, in Ireland, where so many of his
connections remained. When James II. succeeded to the throne, the
door being then opened to the Roman Catholics, he entered into the
Irish army, where we find him, in 1686, a lieutenant-colonel in Sir
Thomas Newcomen's regiment. That he did not immediately hold a
higher rank there, may perhaps be attributed to the recent accession of
the king, his general absence from Ireland, the advanced age of his
uncle, the Duke of Ormond, and, more than all, perhaps, to his Grace's
early disapprobation of James's conduct in Ireland, which displayed
itself more fully afterwards, especially in the ecclesiastical promotions.
Henry, Earl of Clarendon, son to the lord-chancellor, was at that time
lord-lieutenant of Ireland, and appears, notwithstanding his general
distrust and dislike of the Catholics, to have held Anthony Hamilton in
much estimation: he speaks of his knowledge of, and constant attention
to, the duties of his profession; his probity, and the dependance that
was to be placed on him, in preference to others of the same religious
persuasion, and, in October, 1686, wrote to