Biographies: The foundling' fathers of the Ulster-Scots

Sir Hugh Montgomery, Viscount Ards

Background in Scotland 
The Montgomerys were one of the most powerful families in Scotland, with many titles and large estates dating back to the 1100s. Adam Montgomery was the 5th laird of Braidstane in Ayrshire and his eldest son was Hugh Montgomery. Braidstane Castle lay between the villages of Dunlop and Beith. Born in 1560, Hugh was educated at Glasgow College and went to France where he spent some time at the Royal Court. He then moved to Holland and became Captain of Foot of a Scottish Regiment, under William of Orange-Nassau (King William III’s great-grandfather), fighting against the army of King Philip II of Spain - whose troops included an Englishman called Guy Fawkes.

The Cunningham Feud 
When his father died, Hugh returned to Scotland to become the 6th laird of Braidstane and married Elizabeth Shaw, daughter of the laird of Greenock. (Braidstane Castle was demolished in the late 1700s, but some of the stones were used to build farmhouses which can still be seen today, called ‘Broadstone’.)

His fighting skills came to the fore again when he became involved in the generations-old feud between the Montgomerys and the Cunninghams (led by the Earl of Glencairn). Hugh Montgomery claimed that one of the Cunninghams had insulted him, and challenged him to a duel, but Cunningham fled - first to London and then to Holland. 

Montgomery tracked him down to the Inner Court of the Palace at The Hague, drew his sword and with a single thrust aimed to kill him. Fortunately for Cunningham the sword hit the buckle of his belt which saved his life. Montgomery, thinking he had killed Cunningham, put away his sword but while he was leaving the Palace was arrested and imprisoned at Gevangenpoort in the Binnenhof.

Stationed there was a Scottish soldier - Sergeant Robert Montgomery - who came to visit Hugh in prison and they came up with a jailbreak plan. Robert arrived at the prison dressed as a wealthy laird with property in Scotland, to court the daughter of the prison Marshall to gain access to the key to Hugh’s cell. The plan was so successful that within a few days the couple were married in the prison, with Hugh Montgomery performing the ceremony according to Scottish law. The wedding guests drank so much wine that Hugh, Robert and his new wife were able to slip away unnoticed to a waiting ship which took them to Leith, near Edinburgh. 

The Return to Scotland 
Hugh’s return to Scotland saw him receive a severe reprimand from King James VI, but thanks to his strong relationship with the King and the support of his influential brother George Montgomery, Hugh was soon back in favour. George had left Scotland as a youth and had become Dean of Norwich in 1602, a privileged position which he used to gather information about English politics which he then passed back to the court of King James VI in Scotland. So Hugh Montgomery also had considerable influence with King James and when Queen Elizabeth 1 died in the spring of 1603 he accompanied him to London for his coronation ceremony. 

The Con O’Neill estate came to Hugh’s attention when O’Neill’s wife offered him half of their lands - if Hugh could spring Con from jail in Carrickfergus and secure a Royal Pardon from the new King. In a re-run of the plan Hugh had used in Holland, Thomas Montgomery, a neighbour of Hugh’s, sprang Con from prison and brought him to Braidstane where their deal was finalised. En route to London, to gain the Royal pardon and approval of the land deal, James Hamilton intervened and secured a third of the land for himself - perhaps as payment for favours owed. The negotiations led to George Montgomery being appointed Bishop of Derry, Raphoe and Clogher, and from Spring 1607 he brought lowland Scottish settlers into west Ulster - several months before the ‘Flight of the Earls’. 

Life In Ulster
Hugh Montgomery was knighted in April 1605 and went on to lead a massive migration from south-west Scotland into the Ards and north Down. He first settled 
at Donaghadee where he built a ‘low stone walled house’, but soon moved to Newtownards where he restored the old Priory and converted an adjacent building into his family home, ‘Newtown House’. By 1610 he could muster 1000 able fighting men. 

In 1611 it was reported that ‘Sir Hugh Montgomery, Knight, hath repayred part of the abbey of Newtone for his owne dwelling, and made a good towne of a hundred houses or there aboutes, all peopled with Scottes.’ The market cross in Newtownards is the second cross on the site, the first having been built under Montgomery’s direction as a replica of the market cross in Edinburgh. 

Settlements: Hugh Montgomery’s tenants established Donaghadee, Newtownards, Greyabbey and much of Comber, as well as rural townlands surrounding these 
towns and villages. 

Churches: Montgomery built or restored six churches (Donaghadee, Greyabbey, Comber, Kilmore and Newtownards in County Down and Portpatrick in Scotland) and gave each three gifts: a bell, a 1603 Geneva Bible and a 1603 Common Prayer book, each with the Braidstane coat of arms in gold leaf on the front cover. One of the bells in Greyabbey Church of Ireland is to this day nicknamed ‘Old Gomery’ - it is said 
to be a replica of the 1626 original.

Donaghadee/Portpatrick: Montgomery established the Donaghadee/Portpatrick trading route for the settlement and in 1626 attempted to rename the towns 
‘Montgomery’ and ‘Port Montgomery’ respectively. The new names did not catch on, but a datestone recording this event survives in a private collection in Donaghadee to this day. 

Sport: Montgomery established a ‘great school’ in Newtownards with a green for the students to enjoy archery, golf and football. These are the first references to both golf and football in Ireland. 

Description
The Montgomery Manuscripts describe Hugh as a man of ‘middle stature’, ‘ruddy complexion and with a ‘manly, sprightlie and cheerful countenance’ and indicate that ‘his temperament was sanguine, for his body and nerves were agile and strong, beyond any of his sons or their children’. He also is described as ‘being of a 
sound vigorous constitution of health … seldom having sickness, because he was greatly sober and temperate in meat and drink, and chaste also, and used moderate
exercises’ He was fond of country sports, hunting deer, foxes and even wolves. The Montgomery Manuscripts also list his pastimes including fishing, golf, tennis, 
archery and even football - ‘but he would not play for sums of money’. He was made Viscount Montgomery of the Great Ardes on 3 May 1622. 

Death and Burial
Hugh Montgomery died on 15 May 1636 and was given what could be described as a Scottish State funeral in Newtownards on 8th September 1636; a highly detailed 
account is recorded in The Montgomery Manuscripts. The funeral service was conducted by Bishop Leslie, the bishop who had deposed the Presbyterian ministers just a few weeks previously on 12th August. The morning after the funeral, 9th September 1636, four of these ministers (Blair, Hamilton, McClelland and Livingstone) set sail from Groomsport Harbour on board the Eagle Wing, bound for the New World with 136 other Ulster-Scots settlers. 
 

Associated Sites:
Manor House, Donaghadee (site of original house)
Church of Ireland, Donaghadee
Newtownards Priory and market cross
Grey Abbey.

Sir James Hamilton, 1st Viscount Clandeboye (1559-1644) 
The schoolmaster and spy who became one of the wealthiest 
landowners in Ulster

Background in Scotland
Hans Hamilton (1536-1608) was the first Protestant minister in Dunlop, Ayrshire, where you can still see house, church, mausoleum and also the significantly named Clandeboye School buildings, all of which date from the early 1600s. He and his wife Janet had six sons - James, Archibald, Gawin, John, William and Patrick - and one daughter, Jean. 

St Andrews and Dublin
James Hamilton was educated at St Andrews University when Andrew Melville was Principal there. Having built a reputation as ‘one of the greatest scholars and hopeful 
wits in his time’, James became a teacher in Glasgow. 

Around 1587 he left Scotland by ship and due to storms arrived unexpectedly in Dublin. He decided to stay there and established a school - ‘The Free School’ - in Ship Street. Hamilton was its master and he employed fellow Scot and fellow pupil of Melville, James Fullerton, as usher. 

One of their pupils was the eight year old James Ussher, who went on to become the Archbishop of Armagh. Fullerton and Ussher are buried beside each other in St 
Paul’s Chapel of Westminster Abbey in London. In 1591 Queen Elizabeth established Trinity College in Dublin and the first Provost noted that Hamilton had ‘a noble spirit … and learned head’ and persuaded the two Scots to become Fellows of the College. Hamilton was made Bursar there in 1598.

Agent of the King
Both Hamilton and Fullerton were agents for King James VI of Scotland, providing him with information about Elizabeth I’s activities in Ireland and perhaps even tampering with the mail to keep the King and themselves informed. They were so successful that they gave up their academic positions to take up appointments at the Royal Court. Hamilton was appointed Scottish agent to the English court of Elizabeth and was involved in the negotiations for James VI’s accession to the English throne and 
eventually brought official news of Elizabeth’s death to Scotland. Fullerton was knighted when King James VI of Scotland became King James I of England - at the 
Union of the Crowns - in 1603.

The English Colony of Sir Thomas Smith
From the Royal Court the King sent an Englishman called Sir William Smith to Spain. Smith had inherited a grant to land in east Ulster from his late uncle, Sir Thomas Smith. Sir Thomas had attempted to colonise the Ards and north Down in 1572 but failed. Sir William Smith had hoped to persuade the new king to regrant his uncle’s land to him, but in having to go to Spain he revealed the opportunity to Hamilton. A later source wrote that Sir William Smith had been ‘tricked out of it by the knavery of a Scot, one Hamilton’. Hamilton’s inside knowledge and royal connections allowed him 
to intervene in the Montgomery/O’Neill plan, which was to share O’Neill’s estate equally, and secure one third for himself.

Life in Ulster
Hamilton built a house at Bangor, on the site of the present Bangor Castle, and was knighted in 1608. In 1611 it was noted that ‘Sir James Hamylton, Knight, hath buylded a fayre stone house at the towne of Bangor … about 60 foot longe and 22 foote broade; the town consists of 80 newe houses, all inhabited with Scotyshmen and Englishmen’. He also built the Tower House in 1637. 

Settlements: Hamilton’s tenants built Bangor, Groomsport, Holywood, Dundonald, Killyleagh, Killinchy, Ballywalter, Ballyhalbert and a settlement called ‘New Comber’. 

Churches: Hamilton restored Bangor Abbey and brought John Gibson to be Dean of Down in 1609. He also brought Rev Robert Cunningham to be minister at Holywood in 1615. When Gibson died in 1623 he was succeeded by Presbyterian minister Robert Blair. Hamilton famously told Blair that he would only kneel for communion as long as he could do so inside his own pew, out of public view. James Hamilton restored or built churches at Comber, Ballyhalbert, Ballywalter Holywood, Dundonald, Killyleagh and Killinchy. 

Description
The Hamilton Manuscripts give the following description of James: ‘he was very learned, wise, laborious, noble (especially to strangers and scholars), so there is great ground to judge he was truly pious, as he was certainly well principled … his younger education seasoned him well; He was observedly a great studier of the Scripture and an enemy to profaneness… he was very charitable to distress’d people that came in great numbers from the upper countrys. He was of a robust, healthfull body, and managed to the best advantage; died without sickness unexpectedly ere he finished his will’. 

James got married three times, first to Penelope Cooke, then to Ursula, daughter of Edward, 1st Lord Brabazon and finally to Jane Philips, daughter of Sir John Phillips of Picton Castle in Pembrokeshire. Jane was the mother of Hamilton’s only son, also called James. The Hamilton Manuscripts say, ‘His two first ladies proved but little comfortable to him, and his putting away of his second lady was not with general satisfaction to his friends and contemporaries’. 

In 1641, with tensions rising in Ulster between the Irish and the Scottish and English settlers, which culminated in the 1641 Rebellion of October of that year, James Hamilton returned to Scotland to build both Clandeboye School and a mausoleum to his parents in the grounds of Dunlop Church, Ayrshire. He died in January 1644 and was buried in Bangor Abbey in a specially constructed vault.

Associated sites:
Killyleagh Castle
North Down Museum (Raven Maps)
Castle Ward (portrait)
Bangor Abbey