James was born on 12 August 1575,[2] probably at Paisley, Scotland, the eldest son of Claud Hamilton and his wife Margaret Seton.
His father's family descended from Walter FitzGilbert, the founder of the House of Hamilton,[5] who had received the barony of Cadzow from Robert the Bruce.
James and Marion had nine children, five boys: —and four girls: In 1597, Master Paisley sat for Linlithgow in the Parliament of Scotland.
In May 1603 Anne of Denmark came to Stirling Castle hoping to collect her son Prince Henry, who was in the keeping of the Earl of Mar.
Anne fainted at dinner and when Jean Drummond and Marion Boyd, Mistress of Paisley, carried her to bed she had a miscarriage.
The lawyer Thomas Haddington wrote an account of these events, and said the queen had told her physician Martin Schöner and the Mistress of Paisley that she had taken "some balm water that hastened her abort".
[35] Lord Abercorn died on 23 March 1618, at Monkton, Ayrshire, Scotland, predeceasing his father and was buried on 29 April 1618 in Paisley Abbey church.
[40] His brother, Sir George Hamilton of Greenlaw and Roscrea, helped to bring up the children and to convert them to the Catholic religion.