Lord Frederick was born in
Brighton, the sixth son and thirteenth child of
James Hamilton, Marquess of Abercorn and
Louisa, Marchioness of Abercorn, who were "long remembered as the most handsome and most distinguished young couple of their generation." His father was created the 1st Duke of Abercorn in 1868. His mother, the daughter of the
6th Duke of Bedford, was the half-sister to Prime Minister
John Russell. As he recounts, he used to "slide down the toboggan slides at Ottawa on them, to universal derision". He was told they were "unsuited to Canadian conditions, and would never be popular in Canada". From 1896 to 1900 he was editor of the
Pall Mall Magazine. He never married and died without children, aged 71, at 13
Great College Street, Westminster. ==Ancestry==