William Hamilton (1755–1797), was an Irish Protestant minister, geologist, meteorologist and antiquarian, killed by a mob for his pro-British views.
His book, Letters Concerning the North Coast of Antrim, was pivotal in the vulcanist understanding of the history of the planet and was translated into several languages.
[3] In 1790 he was appointed Church of Ireland Rector of Clondavaddog (sometimes called Faust) on the Fanad Peninsula on the north coast of County Donegal in Ulster.
On 2 March he took a boat trip on Lough Swilly and bad weather caused him to divert to the small hamlet of Sharon Glebe, near Manorcunningham.
The servants hid behind the locked door and on opening it in the early hours of 3 March found Hamilton's corpse still lying there.