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COLE HAMILTON, Hon. Arthur (1750-1810), of Beltrim Castle, co. Tyrone.
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Biography Detail
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Constituency
Dates
Family and Education
b. 8 Aug. 1750, 2nd s. of John, 1st Baron Mountflorence [I], by Elizabeth, da. of Hugh Willoughby Montgomery of Carrow, co. Monaghan. m. 1780, Letitia, da. of Claud Hamilton, MP [I], of Beltrim, 2s. 3da. and took additional name of Hamilton.
Offices Held
MP [I] 1783-1800.
Commr. of barracks [I] May 1798-July 1799.
Capt. 12 Drag. 1776-80; maj. co. Tyrone militia 1793.
Sheriff, co. Fermanagh 1778-9, co. Tyrone 1792-3.
Biography
Cole Hamilton represented Fermanagh in the Irish parliament of 1783 and subsequently his brother Lord Enniskillen’s borough until the Union, when he was likewise returned for it to Westminster. He had been a supporter of the Irish government and from 1798 a placeman, but he opposed the Union in January 1799 and resigned his place. He was expected to support administration in 1801, but to want ‘provision’ in return. In September his nephew Viscount Cole, regretting that ‘the place vacated by the death of Lord Rossmore could not be given to him’, applied to the chief secretary to realize a government promise of a place for Cole Hamilton equivalent to the one he had lost in 1799, once Union engagements were fulfilled.
In 1802 the Castle expected him to be returned again by his brother, but he was so much in debt that ‘he must either quit the kingdom or be shut up in his own house’ and he was not returned. He had made no mark at Westminster. Lord Cole again applied for a place for him in October 1802, on the strength of the family’s attachment to government, but nothing came of it, then or later. On 29 Dec. 1808 Sir Arthur Wellesley’s reply to a similar application was:
The only office that has been vacant since the Duke of Richmond came to Ireland has been offered to him and it was declined; and I don’t know at what period we shall have another. The fact is, that there is now no office in Ireland which has not duties attached to it requiring constant attendance; and I fear that unless Mr Cole Hamilton will accept an office of that description, he will get none.
Cole Hamilton died in 1810.
PRO 30/9/1 pt. 2/2, Cole to Abbot, 2 Sept. 1801; An Intro. to the Abercorn Letters ed Gebbie, 220; Wickham mss 5/9, Cole to Wickham, 2 Oct. 1802; Wellington Supp. Despatches, v. 517.
