Sir George Hamilton, 1st Baronet, of Donalong

Sir George Hamilton, 1st Baronet of Donalong and Nenagh (c. 1608 – 1679), was born in Scotland, but inherited land in Ireland.

Despite being Catholic, he served his Protestant brother-in-law, the 1st Duke of Ormond, lord lieutenant of Ireland, in diplomatic missions during the Confederate Wars and as receiver-general of the royalists.

[7] His uncle, Sir George Hamilton of Greenlaw and Roscrea, became his guardian and converted him like all his siblings to the Catholic faith.

[1][8] Hamilton's father had been an undertaker in James I's 1611 Plantation of Ulster and had as such acquired large estates in Ireland, mainly around Strabane, County Tyrone.

Hamilton's eldest brother, James, succeeded as 2nd earl of Abercorn, but the Irish lands were shared among the younger sons according to his father's will.

[10] Hamilton's eldest brother, James, the 2nd Earl of Abercorn, inherited at that time the title of Lord Paisley and the family's Scottish lands.

[11] In 1627 Hamilton succeeded Sir Roger Hope to the command of a company of foot in the Irish Army.

[19][20][21] Her eldest brother, the 12th earl of Ormond, later marquess and duke, and also lord lieutenant of Ireland, thereby became his brother-in-law.

[19][d] In May 1640, Ormond, Hamilton's brother-in-law, granted him the manor, castle, town, and lands of Nenagh for 31 years.

[44] Jean Gordon, widow of his elder brother Claud (died in 1638),[45] lost her home when Phelim O'Neill burned Strabane Castle in December 1641.

[46][47] In February 1642 the Knockaunderrig Silver Mine, which Hamilton operated together with Basil Brooke and Sir William Russell,[11] was attacked by local rebels led by Hugh O'Kennedy and his English miners were killed.

[52] In June at Benburb the Confederate Ulster army under Owen Roe O'Neill defeated the Covenanters under Robert Monro.

[57] Phelim MacTuoll O'Neill stormed Nenagh in 1648,[58] but it was retaken by Inchiquin in the same year by undermining the castle's wall.

[63] In January 1649 Ormond appointed Hamilton receiver-general of the revenues for Ireland succeeding to Lord Roscommon.

[65] Near the end of 1650 when the parliamentarian army under Henry Ireton was on its way back from the unsuccessful siege of Limerick to its winter quarters at Kilkenny, troops under Daniel Abbot attacked Nenagh Castle, which Hamilton tried to defend.

He surrendered the castle end of October or beginning November after the Parliamentarians had menaced to breach its walls with artillery.