Family - Hamill

The Siege

Hugh Hamill and his brother William were not soldiers but in "Walkers Diary of the Siege of Derry " written in 1689 we find the following. "The garrison finding itself deserted resolved to defend the town against the enemy and to this purpose from their number they selected eight Colonels and the men were regimented thus."

Col Walker	15 companies
Col Baker	25 companies
Col Crofton	12 companies
Col Mitchelburn	17 companies
Col Lance	13 companies
Col Munroe	13 companies
Col Hamill	14 companies

When the siege was finally lifted it had lasted 105 days and cost the lives of 10,000 men, woman and children.Hugh Hamill survived and returned to his home at Cavanavor, Lifford. His brother William also survived but found himself somewhat out of pocket having acted as paymaster to most

of the garrison.
   Brian Lacy in his book "Siege City" includes the following reference to William Hamill.
   "Several of the individuals who were virtually bankrupt went to London in order to press their claims. A number of them ended up in Newgate Debtors Prison. One of the jailed claimants, William Hamill of Bushmills, North Antrim calculated in 1721 that the accumulated debt and unpaid wages owed to the citizen garrison had by then reached a total of almost £350,000. Hamill lambasted the government in a passionately argued pamphlet entitled "A view of the danger and folly of being public spirited and sincerely loving one's country."
   He protested "that despite the extraordinary sacrifices which the defenders of Derry had made they had nothing for it these thirty years but Royal promises". The money was never paid. William died in Newgate prison.
   In 1776 at the Battle of King's Mountain, in the Carolinas the all conquering British Army of Cornwallis came face to face with the grandchildren of these defenders of Derry. The subsequent crushing defeat of the British became the turning point in The American War of Independence.
   By 1700 the Hamill family were firmly established in an area of North Antrim called "the Route" which stretched