Thomas Hamilton

“ I invited them to dine with me, and after dinner, sitting at our wine, having settled our question, other conversation came on, in which a collision of opinion arose between Mr. Adams and Colonel Hamilton, on the merits of the British Constitution, Mr. Adams giving it as his opinion, that, if some of its defects and abuses were corrected, it would be the most perfect constitution of government ever devised by man. Hamilton, on the contrary, asserted, that with its existing vices, it was the most perfect model of government that could be formed; ”

“ His only other work, Men and Manners in America, published originally in 1833, is somewhat coloured by British prejudice, and by the author’s aristocratic dislike of a democracy. Hamilton died at Pisa on the 7th of December 1842. ”

“ 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. ”

“ In 1792 he made a good finish to his labours by an excavation, in conjunction with Prince Marco Antonio Borghese, on the territory of the ancient Gabii (marbles found there by him are now in the Louvre) . The excavations at Hadrian's villa were undertaken by Hamilton with James Byres and Thomas Jenkins. With the last named Hamilton often acted in partnership. Hamilton sold the antiquities which he discovered or bought up, but did not adopt the lax trading principles of the Roman art-dealers of his day. ”

“ 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 ”

“ HAMILTON, ELIZABETH (1758–1816) , miscellaneous writer, was born at Belfast on 21 July 1758. She was of the Scottish Hamiltons of Woodhall, but straitened family circumstances had sent her father, Charles Hamilton, into a mercantile house in London. He married Katherine Mackay of Dublin, and at his death in 1759 there were three children, Katherine, Charles, and Elizabeth. Her father's sister, the wife of Mr. Marshall, a Stirlingshire farmer, took Elizabeth home, and when Mrs. Hamilton died the child, aged nine, was left to the kindly and somewhat primitive care of these worthy relatives. ”

“ Hamilton's ability and ambition caused him to be selected by the party of Queen Mary as the agent in their schemes in preference to his brother John. His brother was at this time completely under his influence, and it was Claud's hope—a hope carefully fostered by Mary—that he might supplant his brother as the nearest heir to the Scottish crown. ”

“ 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.] ”

“ 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) . ”

“ Hamilton formed a close intimacy with Allan Ramsay, who informs him, in one of 'Seven Familiar Epistles which passed between Lieutenant Hamilton and the Author,' that he is indebted to certain of his lyrics for poetic inspiration and stimulus. Hamilton's contributions to this correspondence (which extended over three months in 1719) are direct and forcible in expression, and marked by very considerable metrical skill. ”

“ If there were no more to withstand I will withstand." ' The king, perceiving his servants to approach, smiled and said, 'My Lord, I did this to try your mind' (ib. p. 269) . At the parliament of May 1594 Hamilton was chosen a lord of the articles. He accompanied the king in his expedition to the north against Huntly, having command of the vanguard, and he sat as one of the jury which found Huntly guilty of high treason. After the popish riots in Edinburgh in November 1597, which caused the king to retire to Linlithgow, Robert Bruce [q. v.] ”

“ In 1792 a pamphlet was published entitled 'A Guide for Gentlemen studying Medicine at the University of Edinburgh,' by J. Johnstone, esq. (pseud.) , in which the Hamiltons were praised and other professors censured. Dr. James Gregory (1753-1821) [q. v.] charged Alexander Hamilton with its authorship; he denied the charge, and was exonerated by the senate. Gregory then charged James Hamilton with writing it. Hamilton's reply provoked Gregory to thrash him, for which he brought an action against Gregory, and recovered 100l. damages. ”

“ He therefore found it necessary in 1663 to resign all his offices (see particulars in Row, Continuation of Blair's Autobiography, p. 440) and to retire from public life. He took up his residence at his estate of Struthers, to ‘enjoy the peace of a good conscience far from court.’ He died there in 1678.
By his wife, Lady Mary Hamilton, second daughter of James, second marquis of Hamilton [q. v.] , he had two sons—William, eighteenth earl of Crawford [q. v.] , and Patrick, ancestor of the Viscounts Garnock—and three daughters: Anne, married to John, duke of Rothes ”

“ The farm of Mossgiel, in the neighbourhood of Mauchline, was rented from the owner by Hamilton, and farmed under him on a sub-lease by Burns and his brother. This interested Burns in his case, and gave additional point to the powerful ecclesiastical satires which he wrote between 1785 and 1789. Hamilton is specially banned by ‘Holy Willie’ as one that ‘drinks, and swears, and plays at cartes.’ He was apparently a man in advance of his time, whom persecution urged into a more pronounced attitude of revolt than he would spontaneously have adopted. ”

“ 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. ”

“ I minister to a church most of whose members hold slaves;—and instead of teaching my flock that in so doing they are guilty of grievous sin and must be all damned for ever unless they, at once, set all their slaves free, I am supposed to be myself a slaveholder, and as such, a partner and abettor of their crime. ”

“ Are we to believe that they, who endured every hardship, braved every danger, and finally shed their blood to advance the cause of truth and goodness in the world, would, from dread of the consequences of denouncing it, tolerate in the infant churches they formed as models for the church in all ages, a sin so replete with evil, so enormous and so damning, as hot abolitionists now represent slaveholding to be? ”

“ After the case had been fully heard, each was required to give assurance to the other, and Douglas refusing to comply was entered in ward in the castle of Edinburgh (ib. p. 612) . On the renewal of the procedure against the Hamiltons in 1579 for the slaughter of the regents [see more particularly under Hamilton, Claud, Lord Paisley] , Hamilton escaped to England, whence, with the connivance of Elizabeth and the aid of the French ambassador, M. de Castelnau (letter of Castelnau to the king of France, 29 July 1579, in Teulet, Relations politiques, ed. 1862, iii. 54-5) , he passed over to France. ”

“ So plainly does the Bible contemplate the existence of domestic servitude—even in the church—and by its laws provide for its due regulation, and for the correction of abuses likely to spring from it, that a zealous abolitionist lately addressed me thus:—"Prove to me from the Bible that slavery is to be tolerated, and I will trample your Bible under my feet, as I would the vilest reptile on the face of the earth." Such language flows, not from humanity, but from a ferocious pride; not from reason, but from madness; not from piety, but from the very spirit of infidelity. ”

“ Every master is bound by the very nature of the relation he sustains to his servants, to see to it that they receive suitable religious instruction, that they rest on the Sabbath, and that they be encouraged, nay required, to attend seriously on the public worship of God. ”

“ So also a master has the right of property in his servants, to use them for his own benefit, in any way consistent with their nature as human beings, not only sentient, like mere animals, but also as rational, as accountable beings, having immortal souls. A man may not lawfully use his servants as if they were mere animals, without souls, and irresponsible to God. ”

“ A like spirit has invaded the church, and has already produced, in more than one ecclesiastical body, stormy discussion and stringent measures, which threaten disruption to the church, and bitter animosity in its dissevered fragments, instead of harmony and love. ”

“ Just so far as true religion, which teaches us 'to do unto others as we would they should do unto us', shall prevail among men, must the abuses of this institution become manifest, and lead to its extirpation. It follows, therefore, that no good man can be a friend to slavery; and the church is bound to attempt the removal of it at once, just as certainly as benevolence is a Christian duty. ”

“ An unfeeling, cruel master, who over-works his servants, or who allows them not a sufficiency of food, shelter, and clothing, is withholding from them that which is just and equal, and he cannot be a Christian. ”

“ A rash, boisterous, passionate, or vindictive master is a great affliction to faithful servants. A master has, it is true, the power to treat his servants harshly, but he has not the right: and if he does so treat them, he is not a Christian ”

“ Unless, indeed, we would maintain that a man may take a second and a third wife in addition to the first, and be no adulterer, so long as he keeps them all; but the moment he repudiates the first, his taking of a second renders him an adulterer, which were certainly absurd ”

“ He was buried in the burial-ground attached to the Downend baptist chapel.
Foster held not a few peculiar opinions. He believed that ‘churches are useless and mischievous institutions, and the sooner they are dissolved the better,’ his wish being that ‘religion might be set free as a grand spiritual and moral element, no longer clogged, perverted, and prostituted by corporation forms and principles’ (letter, 10 Sept. 1828) . ”

“ In the discussions of the Church Courts of which he was a member, he scarcely ever mingled, but even in the midst of his heaviest literary work he usually preached somewhere on the Sundays, his pulpit service being greatly prized. ”

“ When guilty of a sin, they should be admonished; and, if need be, corrected, with kindness, but with inflexible firmness. Nothing would tend more to improve the moral character, and the entire condition of servants; nothing would contribute more fully, in the long run, to increase their value as servants, (because it would cherish all the virtues which make their service to be depended on,) than would the recognizing, by law, of the marriage of negroes; and surrounding the domestic relations of our servants with a bulwark as sacred, as that which protects our own families. ”

“ In the case of polygamy, God has withdrawn that sanction, and declared it to be adultery for a man to have more than one wife at the same time. In the case of slaveholding, God has not withdrawn his sanction under the gospel. On the contrary, he has renewed that sanction, by prescribing, through his inspired Apostles, the rules by which masters and servants, even when members of the church of Christ, are to regulate their intercourse one with another. ”

“ Our servants are entitled to receive at our hands faithful, regular, and minute instruction, and that from their earliest childhood, up to maturity, even to old age, and in all that pertains to good conduct and pure morals. ”

“ It would bind the negroes together in strong family ties, it would endear them to each other, and attach them to their masters. It would supply powerful motives to chastity and self-respect among servants, and it would awaken in the bosom of parents among them, a desire to train their children up under suitable moral restraints, that they may become good and orderly and respectable. An honest, faithful, and virtuous servant is as truly entitled to respect, as the wealthy and perhaps accomplished master ”