became himself their captain, and made George Hamilton their
captain-lieutenant:--[They were composed of English, Scotch, and Irish.]
Whether Anthony belonged to this corps I know not; but this is certain,
that he distinguished himself particularly in his profession, and was
advanced to considerable posts in the French service.

Anthony Hamilton's residence was now almost constantly in France. Some
years previous to this he had been much in England, and, towards the
close of Charles II.'s reign, in Ireland, where so many of his
connections remained. When James II. succeeded to the throne, the door
being then opened to the Roman Catholics, he entered into the Irish army,
where we find him, in 1686, a lieutenant-colonel in Sir Thomas Newcomen's
regiment. That he did not immediately hold a higher rank there, may
perhaps be attributed to the recent accession of the king, his general
absence from Ireland, the advanced age of his uncle, the Duke of Ormond,
and, more than all, perhaps, to his Grace's early disapprobation of
James's conduct in Ireland, which displayed itself more fully afterwards,
especially in the ecclesiastical promotions.

Henry, Earl of Clarendon, son to the lord-chancellor, was at that time
lord-lieutenant of Ireland, and appears, notwithstanding his general
distrust and dislike of the Catholics, to have held Anthony Hamilton in
much estimation: he speaks of his knowledge of, and constant attention
to, the duties of his profession; his probity, and the dependance that
was to be placed on him, in preference to others of the same religious
persuasion, and, in October, 1686, wrote to the Earl of Sunderland
respecting him, as follows: "I have only this one thing more to trouble
your lordship with at present, concerning Colonel Anthony Hamilton, to
get him a commission to command as colonel, though he is but
lieutenant-colonel to Sir Thomas Newcomen, in regard of the commands he