William O’Brien, 4th earl of Inchiquin. Anne’s daughter Mary c. 1721–1791) and her granddaughter Mary (1755–1831) were both countesses of Orkney in their own right; the younger Mary married Thomas Fitzmaurice (1742–1795), son of John Petty, earl of Shelburne, and was succeeded in the title by her grandson, Thomas John Hamilton Fitzmaurice (1803–1877), whose descendants still hold the earldom.
ORKNEY, ELIZABETH HAMILTON, Countess of (c. 1657–1733), mistress of the English King William III., daughter of Colonel Sir Edward Villiers of Richmond, was born about 1657. Her mother, Frances Howard, daughter of the 2nd earl of Suffolk, was governess to the princesses Mary and Anne, and secured place and influence for her children in Mary’s household. Edward Villiers, afterwards created 1st earl of Jersey (1656–1711), became master of the horse, while his sisters Anne and Elizabeth
were among the maids of honour who accompanied Mary to the Hague on her marriage. Elizabeth Villiers became William’s
acknowledged mistress in 1680. After his accession to the
English crown he settled on her a large share of the confiscated
Irish estates of James II. This grant was revoked by
parliament, however, in 1699. Mary’s distrust of Marlborough
was fomented by Edward Villiers, and the bitter hostility
between Elizabeth Vilhers and the duchess of Marlborough
perhaps helped to secure the duke’s disgrace with Wiliam.
Shortly after Mary’s death, William, actuated, it is said, by his
wife’s expressed wishes, broke with Elizabeth Villiers, who was
married to her cousin, Lord George Hamilton, fifth son of the
3rd duke of Hamilton, in November 1695. The husband was
gratified early in the next year with the titles of earl of Orkney,
viscount of Kirkwall and Baron Dechmont. The countess of
Orkney served her husband’s interests with great skill, and the
marriage proved a happy one. She died in London on the 19th
of April 1733.
ORKNEY, GEORGE HAMILTON, Earl of (1666–1737),
British soldier, was the fifth son of William, duke of Hamilton,
and was trained for the military career by his uncle. Lord
Dumbarton, in the 1st Foot. In 1689 he became lieut.-colonel
and a few months later brevet colonel. He served at the
battles of the Boyne and of Aughrim, and, at the head of the
Royal Fusiliers, at Steinkirk. As colonel of his old regiment, the
1st Foot, he took part in the battle of Landen or Neerwinden, and
in the siege of Namur, serving also at Athlone and Limerick in
the Irish war. At Namur Hamilton received a severe wound,
and in recognition of his services was made a brigadier. In
1695 he married Elizabeth Vilhers (see above), who was “the
wisest woman” Swift “ever knew.” The following year he was
made earl of Orkney in the Scottish peerage. As a major-general
he took the field with Marlborough in Flanders, and
on January 1st, 1703–1704 he became lieutenant-general. At
Blenheim it was Orkney’s command which carried the village,
and in June 1705 he led a flying column which marched from the
Moselle to the rescue of Liege. At Ramillies he headed the
pursuit of the defeated French, at Oudenarde he played a distinguished
part and in 1708 he captured the forts of St Amand
and St Martin at Tournay. At the desperately fought battle of
Malplaquet Lord Orkney’s battalions led the assault on the
French entrenchments, and suffered very severe losses. He
remained with the army in Flanders till the end of the war, as
“general of the foot,” and at the peace he was made colonel-commandant
of the 1st Foot as a reward for his services. He
occupied various civil and military posts of importance, culminating
with the appointment of “field marshal of all His Majesty’s
forces” in 1736. This appointment is the first instance of field
marshal’s rank (as now understood) in the British Service. A
year later he died in London.
ORKNEY ISLANDS, a group of islands, forming a county,
off the north coast of Scotland. The islands are separated from
the mainland by the Pentland Firth, which is 614 m. wide between
Brough Ness in the island of South Ronaldshay and Duncansbay
Head in Caithness-shire. The group is commonly estimated
to consist of 67 islands, of which 30 are inhabited (though in the
case of four of them the population comprises only the lighthouse
attendants), but the number may be increased to as many
as 90 by including rocky islets more usually counted with the
islands of which they probably once formed part. The Orkneys
lie between 58° 41′ and 59° 24′ N., and 2° 22′ and 3° 26′ W.,
measure 50 m. from N.E. to S.W. and 29 m. from E. to W.,
and cover 240,476 acres or 375·5 sq. m. Excepting on the west
coasts of the larger islands, which present rugged cliff scenery
remarkable both for beauty and for colouring, the group lies
somewhat low and is of bleak aspect, owing to the absence of
trees. The highest hills are found in Hoy. The only other islands
containing heights of any importance are Pomona, with Ward
Hill (880 ft.), and Wideford (740 ft.) and Rousay. Nearly all of
the islands possess lakes, and Loch Harray and Loch Stenness
in Pomona attain noteworthy proportions. The rivers are
merely streams draining the high land. Excepting on the west
fronts of Pomona, Hoy and Rousay, the coast-line of the islands
is deeply indented, and the islands themselves are divided from
each other by straits generally called sounds or firths, though off
the north-east of Hoy the designation Bring Deeps is used,
south of Pomona is Scapa Flow and to the south-west of Eday
is found the Fall of Warness. The very names of the islands
indicate their nature, for the terminal a or ay is the Norse ey,
meaning “island,” which is scarcely disguised even in the words
Pomona and Hoy. The islets are usually styled holms and the
isolated rocks skerries. The tidal currents, or races, or roost
(as some of them are called locally, from the Icelandic) off many
of the isles run with enormous velocity, and whirlpools are of
frequent occurrence, and strong enough at times to prove a
source of danger to small craft. The charm of the Orkneys
does not lie in their ordinary physical features, so much as in
beautiful atmospheric effects, extraordinary examples of light
and shade, and rich coloration of cliff and sea.
Geology.—All the islands of this group are built up entirely of Old Red Sandstone. As in the neighbouring mainland of Caithness, these rocks rest upon the metamorphic rocks of the eastern schists, as may be seen on Pomona, where a narrow strip is exposed between Stromness and Inganess, and again in the small island of Graemsay; they are represented by grey gneiss and granite. The upper division of the Old Red Sandstone is found only in Hoy, where it forms the Old Man and neighbouring cliffs on the N.W. coast. The Old Man presents a characteristic section, for it exhibits a thick pile of massive, current-bedded red sandstones, resting, near the foot of the pinnacle, upon a thin bed of amygdaloidal porphyrite, which in its turn lies unconformably upon steeply inclined flagstones. This bed of volcanic rock may be followed northward in the cliffs, and it may be noticed that it thickens considerably in that direction. The Lower Old Red Sandstone is represented by well-bedded flagstones over most of the islands; in the south of Pomona these are faulted against an overlying series of massive red sandstones, but a gradual passage from the flagstones to the sandstones may be followed from Westray S.E. into Eday. A strong synclinal fold traverses Eday and Shapinsay, the axis being N. and S. Near Haco’s Ness in Shapinsay there is a small exposure of amygdaloidal diabase which is of course older than that in Hoy. Many indications of ice action are found in these islands; striated surfaces are to be seen on the cliffs in Eday and Westray, in Kirkwall Bay and on Stennie Hill in Eday; boulder clay, with marine shells, and with many boulders of rocks foreign to the islands (chalk, oolitic limestone, flint, &c.), which must have been brought up from the region of Moray Firth, rests upon the old strata in many places. Local moraines are found in some of the valleys in Pomona and Hoy.
Climate and Industries.—The climate is remarkably temperate and equable for so northerly a latitude. The average temperature for the year is 46° F., for winter 39° F. and for summer 54° 3′ F. The winter months are January, February and March, the last being the coldest. Spring never begins till April, and it is the middle of June before the heat grows genial. September is frequently the finest month, and at the end of October or beginning of November occurs the peerie (or little) summer, the counterpart of the St Martin’s summer of more southerly climes. The average annual rainfall varies from 33·4 in. to 37 in. Fogs occur during summer and early autumn, and furious gales may be expected four or five times in the year, when the crash of the Atlantic waves is audible for 20 m. To tourists one of the fascinations of the islands is their “nightless summers.” On the longest day the sun rises at 3 o’clock a.m. and sets at 9.25 p.m., and darkness is unknown, it being possible to read at midnight. Winter, however, is long and depressing. On the shortest day the sun rises at 9.10 a.m. and sets at 3.17 p.m. The soil generally is a sandy loam or a strong but friable clay, and very fertile. Large quantities of seaweed as well as lime and marl are available for manure. Until the middle of the 19th century
