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(1748–1815, in office 1790–1815)
In 1790, Rev. Dr James Archibald Hamilton was appointed the first Astronomer at the newly-founded Observatory. He had a private observatory in Cookstown, Co. Tyrone in the 1780s, and became known to the Astronomer Royal, Nevil Maskelyne, through his accurate observations of a transit of Mercury in 1782, which were deemed superior to those made at Greenwich.
Hamilton was born near Athlone in 1748, the son of Col. Hamilton and Jane (née Givardot). He entered The Royal School, Armagh in 1754, and Trinity College Dublin in 1765. He was interested in astronomy and supported by his patron, Archbishop Robinson. The Troughton Equatorial and Earnshaw chronometers, as well as other instruments acquired when he held office, remain at the core of the Observatory science collection to this day. He died at the Observatory on 21 November 1815, and was buried at Mullaghbrack, Co. Armagh.