Archibald Hamilton (bishop)

Archibald Hamilton (1580? – 1659) was the fourth Anglican Archbishop of Cashel.^[1]

He was nominated Bishop of Killala and Achonry on 8 March 1623^[2] and consecrated 29 May that year.^[3] He was nominated Archbishop of Cashel on 14 November 1629 and appointed by letters patent on 20 April 1630. He died in office at Stockholm, Sweden in 1659.^[4]

Life

The son of Claud Hamilton of Cochno in Dumbartonshire, he was educated at Glasgow University, where he proceeded D.D. Advanced by James I in 1623 to the joint sees of Killala and Achonry, he was consecrated in St. Peter's Church, Drogheda, on 29 June following. On 20 April 1630 he was translated to the archbishopric of Cashel and Emly.^[5]

The temporalities of his see having been much diminished by Miler Magragh, Hamilton petitioned Thomas Wentworth for their recovery. It required a special letter of instruction from the king to undo the acts of Magragh. Archbishop William Laud cautioned Wentworth to keep a sharp eye on Hamilton, who then incurred Laud's displeasure. Summoned to Dublin to explain matters, Hamilton pleaded inability to travel. His friends, including the Queen of Bohemia, interceded with the king.^[5]

When the Irish Rebellion of 1641 broke out in Tipperary, Hamilton was absent from his diocese, and joined by his wife and family, who had been helped by Catholic neighbours, he left for Sweden. His loss of personal property in the rebellion was great. He is usually said to have died at Stockholm, aged about 80, in 1659.^[5][6]

Family

Hamilton's first wife's name is not known; they married during his time in Scotland. Later he married Anna Balfour. He had four sons, and some of his descendants became established in the Swedish nobility.^[7]

Notes

1. Crockfords
2. Fasti ecclesiæ hibernicæ: the succession of the prelates in Ireland Cotton, H., Dublin, Hodges & Smith, 1860
3. Fryde, E. B.; Greenway, D. E.; Porter, S.; Roy, I. (1986). Handbook of British Chronology (3rd ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 400–401. ISBN 0-521-56350-X.
4. A New History of Ireland, Moody, T. W.; Martin, F. X.; Byrne, F. J.; Cosgrove, A.: Oxford, OUP, 1976 ISBN 0-19-821745-5
5.  Stephen, Leslie; Lee, Sidney, eds. (1890). "Hamilton, Archibald (1580?-1659)". Dictionary of National Biography 24. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
6. Johan Peringskiöld, in his Monumenta Ullerakerensia cum Upsalia Nova Illustrata (Stockholm, 1719, p. 176), stated that he died at Upsala in 1658, and lies buried in the cathedral there, in the same grave as Laurentius Petri Nericius. Johan Henrik Schröder in his Upsala Domkyrka (2nd edit., Upsala, 1857), p. 27, repeated this statement, but the destruction by fire in 1702 of the Upsala church registers made confirmation impossible.
7. Grosjean, A. N. L. "Hamilton, Archibald". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/12050. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)

Attribution

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Stephen, Leslie; Lee, Sidney, eds. (1890). "Hamilton, Archibald (1580?-1659)". Dictionary of National Biography 24. London: Smith, Elder & Co.