| J. Hooker Hamersley | |
| Birth Name: | James Hooker Hamersley |
| Birth Date: | January 26, 1844 |
| Birth Place: | New York City, New York, U.S. |
| Death Place: | Garrison-on-Hudson, New York, U.S. |
| Alma Mater: | Columbia University Columbia Law School |
| Occupation: | Lawyer, poet |
| Parents: | John William Hamersley Catherine Livingston Hooker |
| Children: | 3, including Louis |
| Relatives: | James Hooker (grandfather) Charles Stickney (brother-in-law) John H. Livingston (brother-in-law) |
James Hooker Hamersley (January 26, 1844 – September 15, 1901) was an American heir, lawyer and poet from New York City during the Gilded Age.
James Hooker Hamersley was born in New York City on January 26, 1844. He was the son of Col. John William Hamersley (1808–1889) and his wife, born Catherine Livingston Hooker (1817–1867).[1] His siblings included Helen Reade Hamersley, who married Charles Dickinson Stickney, a New York City lawyer and banker; Virginia Hamersley, who married Cortlandt de Peyster Field (son of Benjamin Hazard Field); and Catherine Livingston Hamersley, who married John Henry Livingston.[2]
His paternal grandparents were Elizabeth (née Finney) Hamersley and Lewis Carré Hamersley, himself a grandson of William Hamersley,[1] who emigrated to America in 1700. Hamersley was also a cousin of Louis Carré Hamersley, the first husband of Lilian Warren Price, later Duchess of Marlborough. His maternal grandparents were James Hooker, a Yale graduate and Erie Canal Commissioner,[3] and Helen Sarah (née Reade) Hooker.[2] Through this grandmother, Hamersley was a fifth-generation descendant of Robert Livingston the Elder, the Scottish immigrant who was granted the Livingston Manor by royal charter. Thomas Gordon, a Scottish immigrant who became a judge in New Jersey, was another fifth-generation ancestor.
Hamersley graduated from Columbia University in 1865,[4] and from the Columbia Law School in 1867.
Hamersley was affiliated with the law office of James W. Gerard, and practiced law for ten years. He then withdrew from active practice to manage his, and his family's property. He was nominated for the New York State Assembly, but withdrew in favor of William Waldorf Astor.[4]
Hamersley published The Seven Voices, a volume of poetry, in 1898.[5]
Hamersley was one of Edith Kermit Carow Roosevelt's boyfriends.[6] Later on April 30, 1888, he married Margaret Willing Chisolm (1863–1904), daughter of William Edings Chisolm and his wife, née Mary Ann Rogers,[7] a niece of William Augustus Muhlenberg.[8] They had three children:
Hamersley died at his country estate, "Brookhurst," on September 15, 1901, at Garrison-on-Hudson, New York.[5] His funeral was held at Grace Church in Manhattan and he was buried at Trinity Church Cemetery. His wife died a few years later on January 5, 1904 in her home at 1030 Fifth Avenue in New York City.