Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Hamilton, Andrew
HAMILTON, ANDREW (d. 1691), rector and prebendary of Kilskerry, was probably son of Andrew Hamilton, M.A., who was collated in August 1639 to the rectory and prebend of Kilskerry, co. Tyrone, and the rectory of Magheracross, co. Fermanagh, which he held until 1661 (Bradshaw, Enniskillen Long Ago, p. 122). Andrew Hamilton, 'jun.' (Cotton), was admitted to priest's orders on 7 Aug. 1661, and graduated M.A. at an unknown date and university. He was collated to the union of Kilskerry and Magheracross 4 April 1666, in succession to James Hamilton. He took an active part in the measures of self-defence adopted by the protestants in Ireland under James II, and lost heavily by the wanton destruction of his property. In August 1689 he was sent by the governor and officers of Enniskillen as their agent to King William and Queen Mary, with a certificate stating that Hamilton had been a member of their association from its inauguration on 9 Dec. 1688; that he had raised a troop of horse and a company of foot; that a force under the Duke of Berwick had burnt his houses in ten villages, and carried off over a thousand cows, two hundred horses, and two thousand sheep from him and his tenants; that he had lost his private estate and church living, worth above 400l. a year, and now in the enemy's power; and that he had been a 'painful and constant preacher' during his tenure of the prebend of Clogher. His name appears in the 'List of the Persons Attainted in King James's Parliament of 1689 in Ireland' as 'Andrew Hamilton of Magherycrosse, clerk.' Having been, as he has stated, 'an eye-witness' of what he describes, and an 'actor therein,' he published a small quarto, entitled 'A True Relation of the Actions of the Inniskilling Men from December 1688, for the Defence of the Protestant Religion and their Lives and Liberties' (London, 1690), and this faithful record has been twice reprinted (Belfast, 1813 and 1864). He died in 1691, and was succeeded in his benefice by James Kirkwood.
[Cotton's Fasti Ecclesiæ Hibernicæ, iii. 98; Bradshaw's Enniskillen Long Ago, pp. 112, 122; Sir James Ware's Works, ed. Harris, ii. 252; Archbishop King's State of the Protestants of Ireland under King James's Government, ed. 1691, p. 276.]