James Hamilton

“ Amongst the greatest, the Duke of Hamilton put himself at their disposal, urged thereto by a particular letter from my Lord Harrington and his own love of beauty. He dangled about them daily, and it must be owned that from the first moment of meeting Mrs Gunning fixed the eye of cupidity on his Grace. For of all the matches of the Kingdom James Hamilton was the greatest available. Duke of Brandon in England, of Chatelherault in France, of Hamilton in Scotland, of vast possessions, of suitable age and gallant presence, a princess need not have disdained his hand. ”

“ HAMILTON, JAMES, sixth Earl of Abercorn (1656–1734) , was eldest son of James Hamilton, by Elizabeth, daughter of John, lord Colepeper [q. v.] , and grandson of Sir George Hamilton of Dunalong [see under Hamilton, James, first Earl of Abercorn] . He was groom of the bedchamber to Charles II, and in the following reign commanded a regiment of horse. At the Revolution he sided against King James, and in February 1688-9 was sent to Ireland to assist in the defence of Londonderry (Hist. MSS. Comm. 12th Rep. App. pt. vi. 162-73) . ”

“ Moreover, the James Hamiltons were delightful people, and life on the Islands was a trifle monotonous at times; they brought into Nevis society fresh and unusual personalities, spiced with a salient variety. Hamilton might almost be said to have been born an astute man of the world. He opened his doors with an accomplished hospitality to the most intelligent and cultivated people of the Island, ignoring those who based their social pretensions on rank and wealth alone. ”

“ Hamilton was thoroughly old-fashioned in his treatment, believing in free blood-letting and profuse purging, and in strong mercurial treatment for syphilis. He was very jocular, kind-hearted, and athletic. There are amusing accounts of him in the 'Lives' of Sir Astley Cooper and Sir R. Christison, and in Kay's 'Edinburgh Portraits.' Till lately the works of three James Hamiltons were catalogued as by one man in the 'British Museum Catalogue:' (1) the above-mentioned, always known as James Hamilton, senior ”

“ Now that gout and failing sight had forced him from public life, he found his chief enjoyment in Hamilton's society. General Schuyler survived the death of several of his children and of his wife, but Hamilton's death killed him. Assuredly, life dealt generously with our hero in the matter of fathers, despite or because of an early oversight. James Hamilton had never made the long and dangerous journey to the North, and he had died on St. Vincent, in 1799, but what filial regret his son might have dutifully experienced was swept away on the current of the overwhelming grief for Washington. ”

“ Andrew Hamilton, 'jun.' (Cotton) , was admitted to priest's orders on 7 Aug. 1661, and graduated M.A. at an unknown date and university. He was collated to the union of Kilskerry and Magheracross 4 April 1666, in succession to James Hamilton. He took an active part in the measures of self-defence adopted by the protestants in Ireland under James II, and lost heavily by the wanton destruction of his property. ”

“ You could always make sure that James Hamilton would do you no wrong, but you were also impressed [Pg 173] with the certainty that neither would he do you any good; and if it be possible that there can be an excess of circumspection and prudence, he erred in that excess. Rarely giving way to feeling himself, he could hardly believe that it existed in others, or, if he did acknowledge its existence, he despised it as only the symptom of an unworldly character. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Hamilton was a politician as well as a financier, but he carried the same spirit into all his proceedings, and displayed the clear and just views which spring from a high mind, combined with the noble and generous feelings which originate in a fine heart.
Such was the English Banker; it is certain that he might have some faults, that there might be an error here or a weakness there; but I envy not the man whose mental eye can gaze through the smoked glass of a misanthropical philosophy, to discover spots amid such light as that. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Hamilton, during his unfortunate career, had often been suspected of betraying the king’s cause, and, as an heir to the Scottish throne, of intentionally playing into the hands of the Covenanters with a view of procuring the crown for himself. The charge was brought against him as early as 1631 when he was levying men in Scotland for the German expedition, but Charles gave no credence to it and showed his trust in Hamilton by causing him to share his own room. ”

“ Hamilton had raised another 100 horse on his own account, and was ready to support them. The invaders fled without striking a blow to Maguire’s Bridge, and the next day to Cavan. Hamilton then accepted the office of governor, and a few days later the news came of James having left London, after which there was no hesitation, though it was long before the full facts were known. Some said he had gone to Rome, others to a monastery, and others that he was dead. Until after his landing in Ireland there was no further attempt against Enniskillen. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Hamilton will smile," he thought, "if he have occasion to open this will, and may well smile, if he should ever know that Helen Barham I have seen twice, Juliet Carr perhaps once--perhaps not at all;" and leaning his head on his hand, he began again to think of the scene which had taken place in the road under his own park wall, and of the beautiful being he had there beheld, upon whom his imagination had fixed a name which might very well belong to some one else. ”

“ As a citizen of Hamburg Hamilton started a business in Paris, and during the peace of Amiens maintained a lucrative trade with England; but at the rupture of the treaty he was made a prisoner of war, and though the protection of Hamburg was enough to get the words effacé de la liste des prisonniers de guerre inscribed upon his passport, he was detained in custody till the close of hostilities. His business being thus ruined, he went in 1814 to America, intending to become a farmer and manufacturer of potash ”

“ Hamilton does not quite approve of all you have done, and does not encourage, or assist you in doing all that you would, be willing to do. Nor can any one say that he is wrong, for indeed, Sir Morley Ernstein, I cannot but feel that you have already done more than the calm judgment of any man of the world would approve. ”

“ In the absence of James in England Hamilton had greater responsibilities, and tried to make himself indispensable by studying to gratify the whims of his master's Scottish policy. In 1604 he was named by the Scottish parliament one of the commissioners for the union with England, and on 28 Aug. the king wrote to him stating that he intended before the Scottish commissioners arrived to hold a meeting of the privy council for th purpose of establishing a uniform coinage in the two countries, and requested Hamilton's presence at Hampton Court (Melrose Papers, i. 5) . ”

“ He is admitted to have been a man of exceptional ability, but was wild and impetuous, regardless of principles, and yet a bigot in religion. Though the stain on his birth precluded him from all hope of succession to his father's title, he was deemed a fitting companion for the youthful king, James V, over whom he latterly wielded considerable power. Hamilton's early years were spent abroad, and he seems to have developed his great natural taste for architecture at the court of Francis I, where he resided for some time. ”

“ These were the work of Hamilton, of John Jay, afterward, chief-justice, and of James Madison, afterward president of the United States. The Federalist papers, though written in a somewhat ponderous diction, are among the great landmarks of American history, and were in themselves a political education to the generation that read them. Hamilton was a brilliant and versatile figure, a persuasive orator, a forcible writer, and as secretary of the treasury under Washington the foremost of American financiers. ”

“ They were the men who were to throw their weight on the side of the new government. How persistently Hamilton sought to inform himself of the precise nature of the interests needing protection in the separate localities, from New Hampshire to Georgia, is evidenced by his unpublished correspondence with business men in all the commercial centres. [221]
The third interest which Hamilton consolidated was composed of the land speculators and promoters and embraced all the leading men of the time—Washington, Franklin, Robert Morris, James Wilson, William Blount, and other men of eminence. ”

“ His father was George Hamilton, younger brother of James, 2nd earl of Abercorn, and head of the family of Hamilton in the peerage of Scotland, and 6th duke of Châtellerault in the peerage of France; and his mother was Mary Butler, sister of the 1st duke of Ormonde. According to some authorities he was born at Drogheda, but according to the London edition of his works in 1811 his birthplace was Roscrea, Tipperary. ”

“ After the death of John’s brother James in 1777 the title was for a time dormant; then in 1799 the House of Lords declared that William Hamilton (1765–1814) , a descendant of John Hamilton, the paternal great-grandfather of the 2nd baron, was entitled to the dignity. ”

“ The direct charge, however, that Hamilton had violated the solemn obligations of his own office by buying up public securities, as distinct from the charge that he had employed his high authority in the interests of his friends and his class, first took on a serious form in 1797, when the notorious pamphleteer J.T. Callender, in his History of the United States for the Year 1796 published a series of papers purporting to show that in 1791 and 1792 Hamilton had been engaged in speculative ventures with one James Reynolds and Mr. Duer. ”

“ On 3 Oct. 1524 Patrick Hamilton was admitted ad eundem to the degree of master of arts in St. Andrews. It is not said in the records to which of its colleges he attached himself, but it was probably to St. Leonard's, where Major taught, and where the pupils going beyond their teacher were most inclined to the new learning and doctrines. Hamilton pursued his studies in theology, and perhaps took part in the teaching of arts. A knowledge of music, especially the Gregorian chant, was required as a condition of entrance to St. Leonard's, and in music Hamilton was a proficient. ”

“ All in one voice meet the foe with the cry: 'liberty or death.' Today, America, forced to war, still loving peace, pledges every son and the woman of his house to the cause of liberty and the honor of our flag. ”

“ In the following year Hamilton began publicly to show his sympathy with the proscribed doctrines. The suspicion of Beaton was roused, and an inquisition or theological commission of inquiry was issued in Lent 1527, whose report confirmed it. Hamilton, to avoid further proceedings, went abroad early in spring. He was accompanied by Gilbert Wynram of Lothian, John Hamilton of Linlithgow, and one servant, and went at once to Wittenberg, where he made the personal acquaintance of Luther and Melanchthon. ”

“ Hamilton, James, 1st Duke of Hamilton: for eighteenth year read nineteenth year ii 22 for 1636 read 1631 185 i 23 Hamilton, James (fl. 1640-1680) : for 1666 read 1662 24 for 1733 read 1736 192 i 15 Hamilton, John (1511?-1571) : after together insert in facsimile 16 omit by authority of the Church of Scotland 200 ii 27 Hamilton, Sir John (1755-1835) : for eighty-two read eighty 203 ii 14 Hamilton, Patrick: for T. B. Johnston of Cairnie read T. P. Johnston of Carnbee 209 i 11 f.e. ”

“ There is nothing that indicates an alliance, or can be, with foreign forces to join with them in controversies they may have with their neighbors in the prospect of war they may have with other nations.
Why should the countrymen in our own land choose to dishonor our own country by discrediting it upon a false basis and holding it up before the world as unworthy of legitimate confidence that attends all business enterprises? ”