Hamilton, South Lanarkshire

“ HAMILTON, DAVID (1768–1843) , architect, born in Glasgow 11 May 1768, was during the early part of the century the designer of most of the principal buildings in the west of Scotland. In Glasgow he was architect of the theatre (1804) , the Western Clubhouse, several of the leading banks and churches built during that period, and the Royal Exchange (1837–40) . Hamilton's greatest work was the palace built for the Duke of Hamilton in Lanarkshire, remarkable no less for its extent than for its dignity and graceful proportion, its façade, and its magnificent portico. ”

“ He was the second son of James Hamilton of Bangour, advocate, whose grandfather, James, second son of John Hamilton of Little Earnock, Lanarkshire, founded the Bangour family. On the death of his elder brother, without heir, in 1750, Hamilton succeeded to the estate. His naturally delicate constitution, as well as his tastes, had all along prevented him from going much into fashionable society, and from his early years he had given himself to poetry, receiving ready commendation from his friends. ”

“ Airdrie, Hamilton and Lanark belong to the Falkirk group and Rutherglen to the Kilmarnock group of parliamentary burghs. Lanarkshire is a sheriffdom, whose sheriff-principal is confined to his judicial duties in the county, and he has eight substitutes, five of whom sit constantly in Glasgow, and one each at Airdrie, Hamilton and Lanark. The shire is under school-board jurisdiction, many schools earning grants for higher education. ”

“ On the outbreak of the rebellion in 1641 he received a commission for raising the Scots in the north, and putting them in arms. This was done by him with such expedition and thoroughness that Ulster was preserved entirely free from disturbance. Hamilton is described as having been 'of a robust, healthful body.' He died in 1643, at the age of eighty-four, and was buried in the church of Bangor. ”

“ All the fortified towns and houses in the south were forced by the ruthless mob and soldiery, or were abandoned, and the people fled for their lives to seek an asylum in Ulster. Those of Kenmare managed to get across in a small vessel to Bristol.
In all this fearful scene of devastation Hamilton, who had come over as the emissary of William, was one of the most active and unpitying agents. Enniskillen and Londonderry were the only Protestant places which now held out, and Hamilton commenced his march northward to reduce them. ”

“ Among the industries are manufactures of cotton, lace and embroidered muslins, and carriage-building, and there are also large market gardens, the district being famed especially for its apples, and some dairy-farming; but the prosperity of the town depends chiefly upon the coal and ironstone of the surrounding country, which is the richest mineral field in Scotland. Hamilton originated in the 15th century under the protecting influence of the lords of Hamilton, and became a burgh of barony in 1456 and a royal burgh in 1548. ”

“ Lanerick, the Duke’s brother, thought it possible to defend the frontiers, and perhaps next year to undertake something in the King’s favour. But a contrary movement broke out in Scotland itself. The Church had regarded the defeat of Hamilton, which took place on the anniversary of the Covenant, as the actual judgment of God. Beside the political dissentients there arose also the clergy at the head of their parishioners, and they drove the Committee of Estates from Edinburgh. ”

“ By the execution of his brother on 9 March 1649 Lanark succeeded to the title of Duke of Hamilton, and to some extent to the political position which his brother had occupied. He was present at the Hague when the commissioners of the Scotch parliament arrived to negotiate with Charles II. He was anxious, he wrote to Ormonde, that the king should, if possible, recover Scotland by fair means rather than by force, but could not advise him to 'an absolute compliance with all the extremities of their demands' (Carte, Original Letters, i. 243) . ”

“ Hamilton.—It is not certain that the Hamiltons came to Scotland before 1272. King Robert I. gave them the barony of Cadzow, Lanark, which had originally been a royal seat. In Hamilton Park there is a mote hill, which was the site of the chief messuage of this barony (N.) . It was formerly surrounded by the town of Hamilton. (N. S. A.) It is of course possible that this motte may be much older than the Hamiltons, as the site of an originally royal castle.
Hay.—First appears in the 12th century, as butler to Malcolm IV. The family first settled in Lothian, where they had lands at Lochorworth. ”

“ Boyd fled the country; the king’s sister, divorced from young Arran, married the Lord Hamilton; and his family, who were Lords of Cadzow under Robert Bruce, and had been allies of the Black Douglases till their fall, became the nearest heirs of the royal Stewarts, if that family were extinct. The Hamiltons, the wealthiest house in Scotland, never produced a man of great ability, but their nearness to the throne and their ambition were storm-centres in the time of Mary Stuart and James VI., and even as late as the Union in 1707. ”

“ Lo! high-born Beauty rules the steed,
Or graceful guides the silken rein.
And long may Peace and Pleasure own
The maids, who list the minstrel's tale;
Nor e'er a ruder guest be known
On the fair banks of Evandale!
NOTES
ON
CADYOW CASTLE.
[Pg 427]
First of his troop, the chief rode on.—P. 418. v. 5.
The head of the family of Hamilton, at this period, was James, Earl of Arran, Duke of Chatelherault, in France, and first peer of the Scottish realm. In 1569, he was appointed by Queen Mary her lieutenant-general in Scotland, under the singular title of her adopted father. ”

“ In 1631 Hamilton took over a force of 6000 men to assist Gustavus Adolphus in Germany. He guarded the fortresses on the Oder while Gustavus fought Tilly at Breitenfeld, and afterwards occupied Magdeburg, but his army was destroyed by disease and starvation, and after the complete failure of the expedition Hamilton returned to England in September 1634. He now became Charles I.’s chief adviser in Scottish affairs. In May 1638, after the outbreak of the revolt against the English Prayer-Book, he was appointed commissioner for Scotland to appease the discontents. ”

“ From the third son, Claud, descends the duke of Abercorn, heir male of the house of Hamilton.
The first marquess of Hamilton had a natural son, Sir John Hamilton of Lettrick, who was legitimated in 1600 and was ancestor of the lords Bargany. His two legitimate sons were James, 3rd marquess and first duke of Hamilton, and William, who succeeded his brother as 2nd duke and was in turn succeeded under the special remainder contained in the patent of dukedom, by his niece Anne, duchess of Hamilton, who was married in 1656 to William Douglas, earl of Selkirk. ”

“ In August 1689 he was sent by the governor and officers of Enniskillen as their agent to King William and Queen Mary, with a certificate stating that Hamilton had been a member of their association from its inauguration on 9 Dec. 1688; that he had raised a troop of horse and a company of foot; that a force under the Duke of Berwick had burnt his houses in ten villages, and carried off over a thousand cows, two hundred horses, and two thousand sheep from him and his tenants ”

“ Before the defeat of Hamilton’s army, Lanark had raised three regiments of horse, which were now under his command. These, with the accessions of force which were daily arriving from different parts of the kingdom, were quite sufficient to have put down the insurrection in the west; but instead of marching thither, Lanark, to the surprise of every person, proceeded through East Lothian towards the eastern borders to meet Sir George Munro, who was retiring upon Berwick before the army of Cromwell. ”

“ Hamilton’s conduct had at last incurred Charles’s resentment and he was sent, in January 1644, a prisoner to Pendennis Castle, in 1645 being removed to St Michael’s Mount, where he was liberated by Fairfax’s troops on the 23rd of April 1646. Subsequently he showed great activity in the futile negotiations between the Scots and Charles at Newcastle. In 1648, in consequence of the seizure of Charles by the army in 1647, Hamilton obtained a temporary influence and authority in the Scottish parliament over Argyll, and led a large force into England in support of the king on the 8th of July. ”

“ The name is not fifty years old, and twenty years ago Hamilton had less than 4000 inhabitants. Its growth bears no comparison with that of some American cities, but it is still very remarkable, and its wealth, importance, and defencelessness are quite sufficient to make it an object of attack. The houses are built of stone. Banks, hotels, manufactories, churches—well constructed and handsome—give proof of the prosperity of the community; and the residence there of Sir Alan MacNab, who lived somewhere in the vicinity in a brand new mediæval castle, should be some guarantee for their loyalty. ”

“ They valued each other, were in habits of intercourse, visited in the same circles—that is, the best informed societies in London,—and he wished now to test whether public opinion would stamp as sterling that reputation which in private life had been freely awarded him.
Hamilton was one of those men whose history presents some anomalies in English public life, not always easy to reconcile. Elsewhere I have glanced at the earlier portion of his career. He has left us little of himself to contemplate ”

“ Mary's friends suspected the motives of the Hamiltons, and Hamilton was obnoxious because he remained a protestant. The king of Scots had granted the rich abbey of Arbroath, which Hamilton had held, to his new favourite, Esme Stuart, duke of Lennox, and the efforts of Castelnau to bring about an arrangement by which Stuart might be induced to resign it were entirely fruitless. ”

“ Claverhouse, who was in the garrison of Glasgow, instantly marched against the insurgents, at the head of his own troop of cavalry and others, amounting to about one hundred and fifty men. He arrived at Hamilton, on the 1st of June, so unexpectedly, as to make prisoner John King, a famous preacher among the wanderers, and rapidly continued his march, carrying his captive along with him, till he came to the village of Drumclog, about a mile east of Loudon Hill, and twelve miles south-west of Hamilton. ”

“ Afterwards, on the forfeiture of Douglas, he obtained a grant of Finnart in Renfrewshire and other lands. In 1455 he was sent along with other commissioners to York to arrange a treaty of peace with England, and on 1 July of the same year he was made sheriff of the county of Lanark. On 14 Jan. 1459–60 Hamilton granted a charter of four acres to the college of Glasgow, on condition that the master and students should daily after supper pray for the souls of Lord Hamilton and his wife Euphemia. In 1457 he entered into a bond with George Douglas, fourth earl of Angus [q. v.] ”

“ He was opposed to the expedition under the Duke of Hamilton in 1648 for the relief of the king, and after the defeat of Hamilton at Preston on 17 Aug. became known he gathered a body of western covenanters, with which he routed a number of horse under the Earl of Lanark, quartered in Ayrshire. ”

“ Through that marriage Debden Hall and Holyfield Hall (in Waltham) came into the Hamilton family. Mr. Alexander Hamilton, we may note in passing, was an uncle of the famous ‘Single Speech’ Hamilton. By his second wife he left a son, William, who succeeded him at Debden Hall, where one of his daughters, who married Mr. Nicholas Pearse, afterwards lived. To her memory there is a window in the chancel of the parish church, and it is in illustration of her works of charity that the subject of it is Christ surrounded by little children. ”

“ James Hamilton, 3rd earl (c. 1537–1609) , was styled earl of Arran after the creation of his father as duke of Châtelherault in 1549; the latter title did not descend to him, having been resumed by the French crown. His father’s ambition destined him for the hand of Mary queen of Scots, and his union with the princess Elizabeth was proposed by Henry VIII. as the price of his father’s adherence to the English interest. He was early involved in the political troubles in which Scotland was then immersed. ”

“ People hurry about as if their lives depended on their speed. "I guess" and "I calculate " are frequently heard, together with "Well posted up," and "A long chalk" and locomotives and steamers whistle all day long. Hamilton is a very Americanised place. I heard of "grievances, independence, and annexation," and, altogether, should have supposed it to be on the other side of the boundary-line.
It is situated on a little lake, called Burlington Bay, separated from Lake Ontario by a narrow strip of sandy shingle. ”

“ He was the second son of a retired cavalry officer, who lived in Hampshire. Besides his elder brother, there were three sisters, one of whom died. His father was a wealthy man, and had built himself a small country house, and planted the few acres of ground round it very skillfully. Major Hamilton was a very religious man, of the self-sufficient, puritanical, and evangelical type, that issues from discipline ”

“ Then, with Martha beside him, Wales drove fast up the steep streets southeast.
"Jay—look!" she cried, when they reached a crest. She was looking back. He stopped the car, and looked back with her.
The whole downtown section of Castletown blazed high toward the stars. The wind whirled sparks away in burning clouds, and a great pall of smoke lay toward them.
Southward from the center of town moved a river of torches. And from those streets, only now just kindling, above the crackle of flames came the distant boom of the Brotherhood drums, and their rising and falling chant. ”