The Probert Encyclopaedia of People

HAMILTON

The Hamilton family are a family long connected with Scotland, though probably of English origin, the name being evidently territorial. The first person of the name in Scotland of whom we have reliable information was Walter Fitz-Gilbert of Hamilton, who, in 1296, swore fealty to Edward I of England for lands in Lanarkshire, and held Bothwell Castle for the English at the time of the Battle of Bannockburn. For his early surrender of this fortress King Robert Bruce gave him important grants of land. He continued faithful to King David Bruce, and had a command at Halidon Hill under the Steward of Scotland.

In 1445 the family was ennobled in the person of Sir James Hamilton of Cadyow, who was created Lord Hamilton of Cadyow. At first he adhered to the Douglases against the crown; but, deserting them opportunely, he was rewarded by large grants of their forfeited lands, and at a later period by the hand of the Princess Mary, eldest daughter of King James II and widow of Thomas Boyd, earl of Arran. He died in 1479.

His only son was James, second Lord Hamilton and first Earl of Arran, who died in 1529, and was succeeded by his son James, whose nearness to the throne, and his great possessions and following, made him a person of such mark and consequence that Henry II of France gave him a grant of the duchy of Chatelherault; and his eldest son was proposed at one time as the husband of Elizabeth I of England, and at another as that of Mary of Scotland. This son having become insane, the second son, Lord John Hamilton, created Marquis of Hamilton in 1599, succeeded in 1575 to the family estates.

Dying in 1604 he was succeeded by his son James, who was created Earl of Cambridge in 1619, and died in 1625. His son James, the third marquis, one of the ablest and most distinguished of the family, created Duke of Hamilton in 1643 by Charles I was taken prisoner by the parliamentary forces soon after the battle of Preston, and beheaded in March, 1649.

A successor was created Duke of Brandon in 1711, and was killed in a duel with Lord Mohun in 1712.

James George, seventh duke, on the death of Archibald, duke of Douglas, in 1761, became also the male representative and chief of the red or Angus branch of the house of Douglas, with the titles of Marquis of Douglas and Earl of Angus. He died in 1769, and was succeeded by his brother, Douglas, eighth Duke of Hamilton, who, in 1799, was succeeded by his uncle Lord Archibald Hamilton. He died in 1819, and was succeeded by his eldest son Alexander, who, dying in 1852, was succeeded by his only son William Alexander Anthony Archibald. In 1843 he married the Princess Marie of Baden, and he died at Paris July 15, 1863.

William Alexander Louis Stephen Douglas Hamilton, twelfth Duke of Hamilton, and ninth Duke of Brandon, premier peer of Scotland, and hereditary keeper of Holyrood House, died in 1895, and, leaving only a daughter, was succeeded by a distant kinsman.

The ennobled offshoots of the Hamiltons are numerous and distinguished. Among these are the Dukes of Abercorn, the Earls of Selkirk, Orkney, and Haddington, and the Viscounts Boyne.
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