James Hamilton, 7th Earl of Abercorn

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For other persons named James Hamilton, see James Hamilton (disambiguation).

James Hamilton, 7th Earl of Abercorn FRS PC (March 22, 1686 – January 11, 1744) was a Scottish and Irish nobleman, the son of James Hamilton, 6th Earl of Abercorn and Elizabeth Reading.

In April 1711, he married Anne Plumer (1690–1776), by whom he had eight children:

James Hamilton, 8th Earl of Abercorn (1712–1789)
Captain Hon. John Hamilton (c. 1714–1755)
Hon. William Hamilton, died young
Reverend Hon. George Hamilton (August 11, 1718 – November 26, 1787), Canon of Windsor, married Elizabeth Onslow (d. 1800) and had issue
Hon. Plumer Hamilton, died young
Hon. William Hamilton (February 18, 1721 – 1744)
Lady Anne Hamilton (June 12, 1715 – December 14, 1792), married on August 16, 1746 Sir Henry Mackworth, 6th Baronet

A scientist, he became a Fellow of the Royal Society on November 10, 1715, and published Calculations and Tables on the Attractive Power of Lodestones, a book on magnetism, in 1729.

He was sworn a Privy Counsellor in Great Britain on July 20, 1738 and a Privy Counsellor in Ireland on September 26, 1739. On October 17 of that same year, George II issued a royal charter to the nation's first orphanage for abandoned children, the Foundling Hospital, of which Hamilton was a founding Governor.