Richard Hamilton was many years in the service of Louis XIV. of France, during the period that monarch was permitted, by King Charles II., to employ an English regiment of horse and one English and one Scots brigade of foot in his service. While engaged in the French wars he acquired the character of a gallant and enterprising officer; and he quitted the service of Louis XIV. when Charles II. demanded the return of his subjects from France in 1678. On the breaking out of Monmouth's rebellion he raised a troop of dragoons for the service of King James II., and was afterwards appointed colonel of one of the regiments of dragoons embodied at that period. After the suppression of the rebellion he was sent with his regiment to Ireland, and being a Papist and an officer of experience, he assisted Tyrconnel in remodelling the Irish army, by dismissing the Protestants and replacing them with Papists. His fame as an officer, and his zeal for his religion, occasioned him to be placed at the head of the Seventh Regiment of Cuirassiers; but the remodelling of the English army was not completed when the Revolution took place, and the Roman Catholic officers and soldiers were placed in confinement. At this period Earl Tyrconnel had given out new commissions for levying thirty thousand men in Ireland, and reports were spread that a general massacre of the Protestants would take place; Richard Hamilton, though a Papist, was believed to be a man of honour, and he was known to have great influence with Tyrconnel, and also with the Irish Papists of all ranks, and having promised either to induce the Lord Lieutenant to resign the government, or to return and give an account of the negotiation, he was released from confinement and sent to Ireland; but on his arrival at Dublin he violated his engagement, and persuaded Tyrconnel to hold Ireland in the interest of King James. This breach of trust was rewarded with the rank of lieutenant-general, and an important post in the Irish army; but he did not long enjoy his new honours,—having been wounded and taken prisoner at the battle of the Boyne. Immediately after he was made prisoner, he was brought into the presence of King William, who put some questions to him respecting the Irish army, which he answered in the affirmative, and added the words upon my honour: the King repeated the words your honour! and turned from him, which was all the rebuke His Majesty gave him for his faithless conduct. He remained a prisoner until the termination of the war in Ireland, when he was exchanged for Lord Mountjoy, and proceeding to France, he appears to have passed the remainder of his life in that country.
John Coy,
Appointed 31st December, 1688.
This officer served a short time with the French army in the reign of Louis XIV., and afterwards commanded a troop in the Duke of Monmouth's regiment of horse, which regiment was disbanded in 1678. In 1680 he raised a troop of horse for service at Tangier in Africa; this fortress being besieged by the forces of the Emperor of Morocco, he proceeded to that country immediately, and distinguished himself in action with the Moors. In 1683 his troop of horse was constituted Royal Dragoons; with which corps he continued to serve, and was engaged at the battle of Sedgemoor in 1685. In 1686 he was appointed Lieutenant-Colonel of Shrewsbury's Cuirassiers: and at the Revolution in 1688 he was promoted to the Colonelcy of the regiment; with which he served with distinction in Ireland and Flanders. Having become infirm from age and long service, he obtained the King's permission to dispose of his commission, in 1697, to the Earl of Arran; and from this period he led a retired life until his decease.
Charles Earl of Arran,
Appointed 1st July, 1697.
This nobleman descended from the illustrious family of Butler, so renowned in the past ages for the many valiant, and loyal persons it has produced. He was the second son of Thomas Butler Earl of Ossory, (a nobleman distinguished for deeds of valour, loyalty to his sovereign, and the mild and social virtues which rendered him an ornament to society,) and grandson of the celebrated James, first Duke of Ormond. Having served under King William III. in Ireland and Flanders, where he evinced the same martial spirit and private virtues which had adorned his ancestors, he was elevated to the peerage of Ireland in January, 1693, by the titles of Baron of Cloghgrenan in the Queen's county, Viscount of Tullo in the county of Cutherlough, and Earl of the islands of Arran in the county of Galway; he was also, at the same time, created an English peer by the title of Lord Butler, of Weston, in the county of Huntingdon. On the 16th of February, 1694, he was promoted to the colonelcy of a newly raised regiment of horse (which was disbanded at the peace of Ryswick), and in the summer of 1697 he purchased the colonelcy of the Sixth Horse, now Fifth Dragoon Guards. In March, 1703, he was promoted to the colonelcy of the Third Troop of Life Guards, which gave him the privilege of taking the court duty of gold stick in waiting to Queen Anne; in 1712 Her Majesty constituted him Master-General of the Ordnance in Ireland; and in the following year appointed him Governor of Dover Castle, and Deputy Warden of the Cinque Ports. Soon after the accession of King George I. his Lordship was elected Chancellor of the University of Oxford. After the impeachment of his brother, James, second Duke of Ormond, for high treason, the Earl of Arran quitted the army. In February, 1716, he was constituted Lord High Steward of Westminster: and in 1721 he was permitted, by an Act of Parliament, to purchase his brother's forfeited estates. He died on the 17th of December, 1758, at the advanced age of eighty-eight years.
William Cadogan,
Appointed 2d March, 1703.