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COMPLETE PEERAGE
abercorn
ABERCORN
| BARONY [S.] I. 1603 EARLDOM [S.] I. 1606 |
1. James Hamilton, Master of Paisley,[1] s. and h. ap. of Claud (Hamilton), 1st Lord Paisley [S.], by Margaret, da. of George (Seton), 6th Lord Seton [S.], was M.P. [S.] for Linlithgow 1597, and, being P.C. and Gent. of the Bedchamber to James VI [S.], obtained in 1600 the office of Sheriff of co. Linlithgow to him and his heirs male, and in 1601, a grant of the lands of Abercorn, &c, in that co., subsequently erected into a free Barony. On 5 Apr. 1603, he was cr. LORD[2] ABERCORN, co. Linlithgow [S.], to him and his heirs male and assigns whatever. In 1604 he was on the Commission which treated of a proposed Union of Scotland with England. On 10 July 1606, he was cr. EARL OF ABERCORN, LORD PAISLEY, HAMILTON, MOUNTCASTELL, and KILPATRICK [S.], to him and his heirs male whatever. On 20 May 1615 he was appointed one of the Council of the province of Munster, having previously by Privy Seal, Westm., 31 Mar. 1613, obtained a Royal Warrant "to hold [in Ireland] the place and precedency of an Earl in Parliament as he did at the Council table and in all other places."[3] He received large grants of land in the Barony of Strabane, co. Tyrone, and built a castle thereon. He m. Marion, 1st da. of Thomas (Boyd), 5th Lord Boyd [S.], by Margaret, da. of Sir Matthew |
- ↑ The eldest sons of Scottish Peers were said to be Peers, and (presumably as such) were declared, in Dec. 1708, incapable of sitting in the House of Commons as members for any shire or burgh in Scotland. The title of 'Master' was as early as 'the beginning (at least) of the 15th century borne by the heirs apparent of the noblemen of the 1st class'; such was the case of 'Robert, Master of Atholl,' grandson and h. ap. [1437] of Walter (Stewart), Earl of Atholl [S.]. It was, in some cases, as in that of Forrester, 1651, expressly conferred, while on certain occasions (as in that of the Earldom of Lennox, 17 Sep. 1490) both the father and the son (the h. ap.) are given the same peerage title, the fee of such title having been resigned by the former, though the life-rent was reserved. (See Riddell, p. 114).
- ↑ See p. 9 note "e".
- ↑ On 11 March 1613/4 (1) the Earl of Abercorn [S.]; (2) Lord Henry O'Brien, s. and h. ap. of the Earl of Thomond, [I.]; (3) Lord Audley [E.], afterwards Earl of Castlehaven [I.]; (4) Lord Ochiltree [S.], afterwards, 1619, Baron Castle Stewart [I.], and (5) Lord Burleigh (Qy. Lord Balfour of Burleigh [S.]), were sum. by writ to the Irish House of Lords, it being enacted that the said Earl of Abercorn should 'hold the place and precedency of an Earl in parl.,' &c. This singular warrant, granted to a person in no way connected with the Irish Peerage, appears to have been generally classed with the summons issued to the eldest s. and h. ap. of an Irish Peer. This classification is strengthened by the fact that on the same day, also by Privy Seal, occurs the 1st of such summons to the Irish House of Lords, viz., the s. of the Earl of Thomond, as Baron of Ibrackan. Of these summons of the h. ap. there were in all but nine, viz. (1) the said Lord Ibrackan, in 1613; (2) the s. of the Duke of Ormonde, as Earl of Ossory, in 1662; (3) the s. of the Earl of Clancarty, as Viscount Muskerry, also in 1662; (4) the s. of the Earl of Cork, as Viscount Dungarvan, in 1662/3; (5) the s. of the Earl of Meath, as Baron of Ardee, in 1665; (6) the
