Hamiltons of Fintragh House

Question

Hi all

I've been adding the Hamiltons of Fintragh House, Killybegs, County Donegal, Ireland. There's a complicated story with some gaps that I've read and heard about how they settled there after a land seizure by the English, which was then granted to two Hamilton brothers from Scotland.

Side note: there is also a branch of Hamiltons from the township of Killybegs (i.e. they would have been "middle class" as opposed to the "upper class" Hamiltons of Fintragh). They are undoubtedly related at some point, but I haven't found where, so I'm curious to see if someone has identified the connection.

The linked profile is the earliest Hamilton I can confirm through a published pedigree.

Answer 1

Hi Tracy,   The UK Project has a sub project on the Plantation of Ulster - from early 17th century.   https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Project:Scots-Irish_and_Ulster_Scots  According to http://www.ulsternationalist.freeservers.com/custom2.html there were 11 Hamiltons registered in the muster rolls in Donegal.   There is a link to a searchable muster roll data base on the project page.    

If you would like to join this project just let me know.

Comments

That fits very well with my understanding of their migration. I'm also reading this write-up which specifically refers to the brothers, William and James, who became, respectively, first Protestant minister and Constable of Killybegs, and they were settled with established clusters of houses by 1609. 

It's very likely then that two of those eleven Hamiltons are William and James, and that they were at least Undertakers. The Strong website says they leased land for Killybegs from John Murray, who was possibly the Chief Undertaker, going by the rules of settling (and it makes sense that one brother was a Constable, capable of dealing with Irish insurrection).

The search Muster Rolls only shows a John Hamilton of Rapho/Raphoe, but the dates are a generation later.

Happy to join the Ulster Scots project! I hope I can contribute. :)

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Hi Tracy and welcome again to the UK and Scots-Irish Ulster Scots Project.

Thanks for the link.   I'll find a place for it on our project page.  I will read it with a great deal of interest.    I find this period of history fascinating as my own Maxwell paternal ancestors must have been associated with the Plantation.    They settled in Fermanagh.

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Hey there , im also a decendent of the hamiltons of Fintra (Fintraugh) Has any one made and progress?

According to stirnet and Hamiltons of heraldy james and william from howden were the ones who came to ireland as the rector and constable of killybeggs... these also link to Hamiltons of woodhall and then to the torrence... I have someone else claiming that they are linked to james II as a Grandfather But im not sure i can see the link there as a cousin yes but not direct.. i do have a letter that my ggrandfather sent to a relation in ireland in regards to this but that one is stating info that contradicts the info we all have and i cant see much of it being true Any Help is greatly appreciated..