James Hamilton, 1st Viscount Claneboye

James Hamilton, 1st Viscount Claneboye (c. 1560 – 24 January 1644) was a Scot who became owner of large tracts of land in County Down, Ireland, and founded a successful Protestant Scots settlement there several years before the Plantation of Ulster. Hamilton was able to acquire the lands as a result of his connections with King James I of England, for whom he had been an agent in negotiations for James to succeed Queen Elizabeth I of England.

Hamilton was the eldest of six sons of Hans Hamilton (1535/6–1608) and Jonet (or Janet), daughter of James Denham, laird of West Shield, Ayrshire. His father Hans was the first Protestant minister of Dunlop in East Ayrshire, Scotland.

He was probably the James Hamilton who studied at the University of St Andrews and received a BA in 1584 and an MA in 1585. He acquired a reputation as "one of the greatest scholars and hopeful wits in his time" and became a teacher in Glasgow.

In about 1587 he left Scotland by ship and due to storms unexpectedly arrived in Dublin, Ireland. He decided to stay and took up the position of master at the Free School in Ship Street. He employed fellow Scot James Fullerton as usher. One of their pupils was eight-year-old James Ussher, later Archbishop of Armagh. When Trinity College, Dublin was founded in 1592, the first provost Adam Loftus noted that Hamilton had "a noble spirit ... and learned head" and he and Fullerton became the first two Fellows of the College. Young Ussher followed them to Trinity. Hamilton and Fullerton were presbyterians, unlike Loftus who was episcopalian. Hamilton became bursar of Trinity in 1598.

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