George Hamilton, Comte d'Hamilton
Sir George Hamilton, Comte d'Hamilton (died 1676) was an Irish soldier in English and French service as well as a courtier at Charles II's Whitehall. At Whitehall he was a favourite of the King. He courted La belle Stuart and married Frances Jennings, the future Lady Tyrconnell, who was then a maid of honour of the Duchess of York. He appears in the Mémoires du comte de Grammont, written by his brother Anthony. He began his military career as an officer in the Life Guards but was dismissed in an anti-Catholic purge in 1667, upon which he took French service and commanded English gens d'armes and then an Irish regiment in the Franco-Dutch War (1672–1678). He served under Turenne at the battles of Sinsheim and Entzheim in 1674. He also fought at Sasbach (1675), where Turenne was killed. He then covered the retreat at Altenheim. He was killed in 1676 in a rearguard action at the Col de Saverne while serving under Marshal Luxembourg. His final rank was Maréchal de camp (major-general). He was known as "comte", but whether he was really ennobled by Louis XIV is not sure. Birth and origins George was probably born in the late 1630s or early 1640s in Ireland. He was the second son of George Hamilton and his wife Mary Butler. His father was Scottish, the fourth son of James Hamilton, 1st Earl of Abercorn, and would in 1660 be created Baronet of Donalong and Nenagh. The Dunnalong (or Donalong) estate, south of Derry, was his father's share of the land granted to his grandfather Abercorn during the Plantation of Ulster. George's mother was Irish, the third daughter of Thomas Butler, Viscount Thurles and a sister of the future 1st Duke of Ormond (see Family Tree). She was a member of the Butlers, an Old English family that descended from Theobald Walter, who had been appointed Chief Butler of Ireland by King Henry II in 1177. His parents have often been confused with another George Hamilton, married with another Mary Butler. These are his father's uncle Sir George Hamilton of Greenlaw and Roscrea and his wife Mary, sixth daughter of Walter Butler, 11th Earl of Ormond. This other George Hamilton lived in Roscrea. George was one of nine siblings. See James, Elizabeth, Anthony, Richard, and John. Both his parents were Catholic, but some relatives, on his father's as on his mother's side, were Protestants. His grandfather, James Hamilton, 1st Earl of Abercorn, had been a Protestant, but his father and all his paternal uncles were raised as Catholics due to the influence of his paternal grandmother, Marion Boyd, a recusant. Some branches of the Hamilton family were Protestant, such as that of his father's second cousin Gustavus (1642–1723). His mother's family, the Butlers, were generally Catholic with the notable exception of the future 1st Duke of Ormond, his maternal uncle. His eldest brother, James, would turn Protestant when marrying Elizabeth Colepeper in 1661. His brother Thomas also conformed to the established religion as