HISTORY. 
studies to the one most congenial to his taste, that of Natural History, which, and in particular, 
chemistry and mineralogy, he assiduously cultivated. In conjunction with a number of his co¬ 
temporaries, he founded a literary and scientific society, called the Palceosophers, which was suc¬ 
ceeded by that of the Neosopliers. Among the distinguished names enrolled in one or the other 
were those of Dr. Hall, afterwards provost of Trinity College, and bishop of Dromore; Dr. Ver- 
schoyle, afterwards bishop of Killala ; and counsellor William Ball. From the incorporation of 
these two societies originated one more distinguished than either—the present Royal Irish 
Academy. 
On the 13th of July, 1779, Mr. H. graduated as a Master of Arts, and on the 13th of May, 
1780, he married Sarah, the youngest daughter of the Rev. --- Walker, of Rosconnel, in the 
Queen’s County. This lady was the great grand-daughter of Sir Chamberlain Walker, one of 
Queen Anne’s physicians, and great grand-niece of Rear-Admiral Sir Hoenden Walker, who, in 
1708-9, commanded the disastrous expedition against Quebec. This family is descended from 
the celebrated David Gam, distinguished for his bluntness, and for his valour in the field of 
Crecy. 
During his intervals of leisure Mr. H. made frequent tours through various parts of his 
native country, Great Britain, and the continent; of these only one record remains, but that an 
important one. A visit to the Giants’ Causeway, in 1784, led to the composition of the “ Let¬ 
ters concerning the Northern Coast of the County of Antrim,” which not only secured for their 
author a deserved celebrity at home, but rendered him an object of interest to the few foreign¬ 
ers, who, at that period, visited Ireland for scientific purposes. These “ Letters” were the first 
fruits of the leisure, which Mr. Hamilton enjoyed after his election to a fellowship. His next 
publication was “An Account of Experiments for determining the Temperature of the Earth’s 
Surface in Ireland”—printed in the Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy for 1788. His 
removal to the college living of Clondevadock, in the county of Donegal, shortly after this 
period, placed him amid the new and absorbing duties of a parochial clergyman and a county 
magistrate. He still, however, found leisure to publish “ Letters on the French Revolution.” 
The last of his literary labours was “ A Memoir on the Climate of Ireland,” which appeared 
in a volume of the Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy, published shortly after his 
decease. 
The period at which Mr. IT. took the degree of Bachelor of Divinity has not been ascer¬ 
tained, but it appears from the college registry that he was admitted to that of Doctor of 
Divinity on the 4th of March, 1794. 
The memorable year 1797 had now arrived, and with it a period, in which Dr. Hamilton 
was to engage in the turmoil, which should necessarily attend the discharge of his magisterial 
duties. To detail the various dangers and difficulties which he and his family had now to encoun¬ 
ter, would be here irrelevant: the first and the last will be alone adverted to. On the night of 
Christmas-day, 1796, a brig laden with wine, while on its passage from Oporto to Greenock, was 
wrecked a few miles from Dr. H.’s residence by the same storm, which drove the French into 
Bantry Bay, and the exertions he made to save the property, first sowed the seeds of animosity 
between him and his parishioners ; these soon ripened into open hostility, while the almost isolated 
position of his parish—in the peninsula of Fannet—rendered his situation peculiarly dangerous. 
He escaped, however, the dangers that beset himself and his family, until the 2nd of March in 
this fatal year, when he was assassinated in the Laggan, at Sharon, the glebe of his friend Dr. 
Waller, in the 40th year of his age. He was buried in the cathedral of Londonderry_[See 
Cathedral.'] 
The above particulars have been extracted from a more detailed notice given in an edition 
of the letters concerning the northern coast of the county of Antrim, published at Belfast in 
1822, which contain, amid other interesting matter, a beautiful “Address to his Children/’ 
penned by Dr. Llamilton. 
But the cloud which had so long brooded over the family of Dr. Hamilton did not pass 
away at his grave. In the early part of the present century, his son, Mr. B. W. Hamilton, then 
of the Dublin University, while on an excursion in Wales, was accidentally shot by a younger 
brother, who, in consequence, lost his reason, and, eventually, his life. The former indivi¬ 
dual was not only very highly distinguished as a student and scholar of the college, and a 
member of the historical society, then existing within it, hut had given in another way such 
promise of future celebrity in the busier walks of life, that one of the most distinguished cha¬ 
racters of the day pronounced his premature fate to be—“ a national loss.” 
John Gwyn, the founder of the charitable institution called after his name, was the son of 
a farmer of Drumscallen, near Muff, in Donegal, and born in 1754. While yet a child he lost 
his father. A few years after his mother married again, and he accompanied her to his step¬ 
father’s house, where he was treated as a common drudge, and his education entirely neglected, 
a circumstance which, in after life, he deeply regretted. To this early acquaintance with ad¬ 
versity may, however, be traced that sympathy with the children of misfortune, which cha- 
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