| William Hamilton Maxwell | |
| Birth Date: | 1792 |
| Death Date: | 1850 |
| Genre: | Novelist |
| Subject: | Military history, military fiction |
William Hamilton Maxwell (30 June 1792 in Newry, County Down, Ireland – 29 December 1850 in Musselburgh, Scotland) was an Irish novelist, historian and clergyman.[1]
Maxwell William Hamilton, son of merchant James Maxwell and his wife, a daughter of William Hamilton, was born on June 30, 1792, in Market Street, Newry, County Down. Educated at David Henderson's Newry school and also Trinity College, Dublin, where he commenced his tertiary learning. He claimed to have entered the British Army and seen service in the Peninsular War and the Battle of Waterloo, but this is generally believed to be untrue. Compelled by circumstances, he pursued a path in holy orders. After his ordination in 1813, he was first assigned to the humble curacy of Clonallon, overlooking Carlingford Bay.Afterwards he took orders, but was deprived of his living for non-residence.[2]
His novels, O'Hara (1825), and Stories from Waterloo (1834) started the school of rollicking military fiction, which culminated in the novels of Charles Lever. Maxwell also wrote a Life of the Duke of Wellington (1839–1841), and a History of the Irish Rebellion of 1798 (1845) - written in a spirit hostile to the rebels, and accompanied with similarly hostile illustrations by George Cruikshank.[3]
Maxwell married Mary Dobbin, daughter of Thomas Dobbin.[4]
On December 29, 1850, William Hamilton Maxwell passed away in Musselburgh, Scotland. He was fifty-five years old.[5]