A Henry de Coursey [sic, though the original handwritten index is more clearly ‘de Courcy’] Hamilton is on FreeBMD births for Q3 of 1856, vol 4b, page illegible.  It could be him, even though Armorial Fams’ birth year is two years different.  Having found his brothers’ [?, sisters’ shurely?] births also in Docking, this clinches that this entry is right, so I’ve entered it.

Burke, like Armorial Fams, gives his birth as 1854 (21 Aug) so the 1856 birth would make him younger than his brother Frederick.  This is really odd,  I begin to wonder who the Henry de Courcy Hamilton on FreeBMD really was...

He was not in the UK 1881 census (to find his birth year and place).
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His actual birth index:

Well there were two births, one in 1854 and the other in 1856.  Possibly the first had an infant death. Lets get the facts...

The first birth index:

First name(s) HENRY DE COURCY
Last name HAMILTON
Birth year 1854
Birth quarter 3
District Docking
County Norfolk
Country England
Volume 4B
Page 301
Record set England & Wales Births 1837-2006

There is a Henry Hamilton death in 1856 in Guisborough, Yorks buried at St Nicholas church.

The second birth index:

First name(s) HENRY DE COURCY
Last name HAMILTON
Birth year 1856
Birth quarter 3
District Docking
County Norfolk
Country England
Volume 4B
Page 282
Record set England & Wales Births 1837-2006

So the answer must be to obtain the certificates for both these births.

The weird thing is that this Henry in adulthood gave his birth year as 1854 in both the 1871 and 1911 censuses.

He should have been in the 1939 census, but cannot be found.
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The 1937 edition of Burke’s LG says that it was this Henry that disposed of Ballymacoll, while the 1958 version makes out that it was his uncle, James Arthur Durbin Hamilton.
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The 1911 census shows him staying in Bournemouth with their daughter and her husband, later the Chief of Clan Maclean.  They, Henry and Edith, had, only, their daughter Brenda with them.  They said they had been married for 24 years and had had six children of whom four wre still living:

Name Relation  Condition/ Yrs married Sex Age Birth Year  Occupation  Where Born

MACLEAN, Henry Hugh          Head           Married  2 years   M  37  1874  Garage Owner      Isle of Mauritius  Resident
MACLEAN, Rosemund            Wife           Married  2 years   F  19  1892                    Isle of Montserrat B W I  Resident
HAMMOND, Jane                Servant        Widow              F  41  1870  Domestic Servant  Dorchester
MARTIN, Gladys               Servant        Single             F  17  1894  Domestic Servant  Wimborne
BARNE, Florence              Servant        Single             F  16  1895  Domestic Servant  Wimborne
HAMILTON, Henry De Coresey   Head  Visitor  Married  24 years  M  57  1854  Retired Planter   Sedgeford Hall Norfolk
HAMILTON, Edith De Coresey   Wife  Visitor  Married  24 years  F  48  1863                    Bayswater London
HAMILTON, Brenda De Coresey  Daughter       Single             F  17  1894                    Montserrat B W I Resident

RG number: RG14 Piece: 12289
Reference: RG14 PN12289 RG78 PN695 RD261 SD2 ED13 SN113

Registration District:  Poole
Sub District:           Poole
EnumerationDistrict:    13
Parish:                 Poole

Address:  Tetten Hall, Lindsay Road, Branksome Park, Bournemouth
County:   Dorsetshire
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Not found in 1939 Register
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Neil How has been doing some ristorical research in Monserrat for the National Turst and came across a load a material on this Henry.

Apparently Henry had spent time in Ceylon before getting to Monserrat, where he was agent for the Sturges family with massive powers, from the deed deposited with the office of the lord mayor of London.  In 1891 a botanist from kew gardens had been sent out to report on the botany in the West Indies and wrote an article praising Henry’s activities there.  It was published in ther “Bulletin of Miscellaneous Information” of The Royal Botanic Gardens, kew, vol 1891, No 53.54, pp. 1030168.  A photograph or two survives in the Stuges records of the house they lived in in Monserrat, later destroyed in the 1989 hurricane.
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His death index:

First name(s) HENRY DE C
Last name HAMILTON
Gender Male
Birth year 1855
Age 85
Death quarter 1
Death year 1940
District Surrey North Western
County Surrey
Volume 2A
Page 1005
Country England
Record set England & Wales Deaths 1837-2007
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His probate index:

HAMILTON Henry de Courcy of Camberly Court Hotel Camberley Surrey died 25 January 1940  Probate London 13 April to George Home of no occupation.  Effects £6706 10s 5d.

George Home was the husband of his eldest daughter Lorna Margaret.
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Their marriage index:

First name(s) HENRY DE COURCY
Last name HAMILTON
Marriage quarter 1
Marriage year 1887
MarriageFinder™ HENRY DE COURCY HAMILTON married one of these people
Mary Anna Humphries, Edith Margaret Gregory
District Cardiff
County Glamorganshire
Country Wales
Volume 11A
Page 301
Record set England & Wales Marriages 1837-2008
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