William Hamilton Drummond

Who was William Hamilton Drummond?

William Hamilton Drummond, D.D., was a poet and controversialist.

Drummond, eldest son of William Drummond, surgeon, R.N., by his wife Rose, was born at Larne, co. Antrim, in August 1778. His father, paid off in 1783, died of fever soon after entering on a practice at Ballyclare, co. Antrim. His mother, left without resources, removed to Belfast with her three children, and went into business. Drummond, after receiving an education at the Belfast Academy, under James Crombie, D.D. [q. v.], and William Bruce, D.D. [q. v.], was placed in a manufacturing house in England. Harsh usage turned the thoughts of the sensitive boy from the prospects of commercial life, and at the age of sixteen he entered Glasgow College to study for the ministry. Straitened means interrupted his course, and left him without a degree, but he acquired considerable classical culture, and as a very young student began to publish poetry, in which the influence of the revolutionary ideas of the period culminating in 1798 is apparent. Leaving Glasgow in 1798 he became tutor in a family at Ravensdale, co. Louth, pursuing his studies under the direction of the Armagh presbytery, with which he connected himself on the ground of its exacting a high standard of proficiency from candidates for the ministry. In 1799, returning to Belfast, he was transferred to the Antrim presbytery, and licensed on 9 April 1800. He at once received calls from First Holywood and Second Belfast, and accepting the latter was ordained on 26 Aug. 1800, the presiding minister being William Bryson [q. v.] He became popular, especially as a preacher of charity sermons, and dealt little in topics of controversy. On his marriage he opened a boarding-school at Mount Collyer, and lectured on natural philosophy, having among his pupils Thomas Romney Robinson, the astronomer. He was one of the first members of the Belfast Literary Society, and contributed to its transactions several of his poems. Bishop Percy of Dromore sought his acquaintance, and obtained for him the degree of D.D. from Marischal College, Aberdeen. In 1815 he was an unsuccessful candidate for the chair of logic and belles-lettres in the Belfast Academical Institution, and on 15 Oct. in that year he was called to Strand Street, Dublin, as colleague to James Armstrong, D.D. [q. v.] Installed on 25 Dec., he entered on the chief charge of his long life. He was soon elected a member of the Royal Irish Academy, contributed frequently to its Transactions, held for many years the office of its librarian, and took a scholarly interest in Celtic literature. His poetical pieces, versified from ancient Irish sources, are graceful paraphrases rather than close translations. Most of his writings show traces of very wide reading. His house was crammed with the heterogeneous results of an insatiable habit of book-collecting.