The Clan Hamilton, or House of Hamilton, is a Scottish clan of the Scottish Lowlands.[Way, George and Squire, Romily. Collins Scottish Clan & Family Encyclopedia. (Foreword by The Rt Hon. The Earl of Elgin KT, Convenor, The Standing Council of Scottish Chiefs). Published in 1994. Pages 160–161.]
History
Origins of the house
The Hamilton chiefs descend from Walter fitz Gilbert of Hambledon, who appears in a charter to the
Paisley Abbey in about 1294.
His lands appear to have originally been in
Renfrewshire, however, his support for Robert the Bruce rewarded him with lands in
Lanarkshire and the
.
These lands included Cadzow, which later became the town of Hamilton, South Lanarkshire.
Wars of Scottish Independence
Walter Fitz Gilbert was rewarded with lands for his support of king Robert the Bruce.
Walter's son, David, fought at the Battle of Neville's Cross for David II of Scotland in 1346.
David was captured and was not released until a substantial ransom was paid.
15th and 16th centuries
In 1474, James Hamilton, 1st Lord Hamilton, married Princess Mary, daughter of James II of Scotland
Their son was James Hamilton, 1st Earl of Arran.
The family extended
Brodick Castle on the Isle of Arran.
The second Earl of Arran, James Hamilton, Duke of Châtellerault, was heir to the throne of both James IV of Scotland and Mary, Queen of Scots.
He was made regent of Scotland while the queen was still a child and proposed to marry his son to her, in order to secure his claim to the throne.
At this time, Friar Mark Hamilton wrote a family history.
[J. Foggie, Renaissance Religion in Urban Scotland: The Dominican Order, 1450–1560 (Brill, 2003), pp. 59, 71, 285.][Thomas James Salmon, Borrowstounness and District (Edinburgh: William Hodge, 1913), p. 24]
However, the royal marriage did not take place and Mary married an heir to the French throne instead.
James Hamilton of Bothwellhaugh was a Scotland supporter of Mary, Queen of Scots, who assassination James Stewart, 1st Earl of Moray, Regent of Scotland, in January 1570.[Donaldson, Gordon. A Dictionary of Scottish History. (1977 ed.). John Donald. p. 93. .]
The 4th Earl of Arran, James Hamilton, 2nd Marquess of Hamilton, became Lord Chancellor of Scotland and was made keeper of both of the strategic royal castles; Edinburgh Castle and Stirling Castle.
17th century and civil war
The third Marquess, James Hamilton, 1st Duke of Hamilton, was a staunch supporter of Charles I.
Charles rewarded him with the dukedom in 1643, which made Hamilton the premier peer in Scotland.
Hamilton led a royalist army into England but was defeated at the Battle of Preston (1648) by the Parliamentarians of
Oliver Cromwell.
Hamilton was later executed in 1649 at
Whitehall, shortly before the king met the same fate.
Hamilton's brother, William Hamilton, 2nd Duke of Hamilton, was also a brave soldier but was killed at the Battle of Worcester in 1651.
The title passed to Anne Hamilton, 3rd Duchess of Hamilton, daughter of the first Duke.
She was a woman of great intellect but she inherited estates heavily burdened by debt.
Matters were made worse with her kinsman Hamilton, Earl of Abercorn, challenged her right to succeed to the title.
Anne married William Douglas, 1st Earl of Selkirk (later Duke of Hamilton).
Their son was James Hamilton, 4th Duke of Hamilton, who was killed in a controversial duel in London in 1712.
Seat of the chief
Hamilton Palace in Hamilton, South Lanarkshire, had been the family's seat from the 13th century. Built by Duchess Anne and her husband, William Douglas, 3rd Duke of Hamilton, it had the distinction of being one of the largest non-royal palaces in Europe, reaching its greatest extent under the 10th and 11th dukes in the mid nineteenth century.
Excessive subsidence of the palace caused by the family's mines led to its condemnation and demolition in 1921.
In 1947, Dungavel was sold to the coal board, and then on to the government, which turned it into an open prison. Currently, it is the site of a controversial holding centre for asylum-seekers.
The family moved to Lennoxlove House in East Lothian, which remains the residence of the current Duke.
Other properties
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Brodick Castle, Brodick, Isle of Arran
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Cadzow Castle, Hamilton, Lanarkshire
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Chelsea Manor, London
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Craignethan Castle, South Lanarkshire
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Palace of Holyroodhouse, Edinburgh
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Kinneil House, Bo'ness, West Lothian
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Lochranza Castle, Lochranza, Isle of Arran
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Redhouse Tower, Longniddry, East Lothian
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Oldwoodhouselee Castle, Midlothian, Scotland
Tartan
|
| Hamyltowne tartan, as published in 1842 in Vestiarium Scoticum; note: the modern thread count calls for more than one white line. |
Swedish branch
Malcolm Hamilton Archbishop of Cashel, first son was Hugh Hamilton, 1st Viscount of Glenawly, a soldier in Swedish service, who in Sweden was created baron of Deserf. Captain John Hamilton of Monea was Malcolm's younger son. His sons, Malcolm and Hugo, went to Swedish service in 1655 and were in 1689 created barons of Hagaby. They stayed in Swedish service and Malcolm's son Gustaf David Hamilton was named the title of count in 1751, and in 1765 he gained the rank of field marshal.
Dutch branch
John Jack Hamilton was born on 13 August 1640 in Dromore,
Kirkcudbright, South Scotland. He joint the
Scots Brigade and served as the palfrenier to the Governor of 's-Hertogenbosch, John Kirkpatrick. In 1679 he married Maria Wijgherganck. He is the progenitor of the Dutch branch of the Hamilton family.
German branch
(1642–1717) went after Glorious Revolution to Germany, where he served for Philip William, Elector Palatine.
The last of his descendants was Maximilian von Hamilton, Bishop of Olomouc (1714–1776).
Hamilton DNA Project
The Hamilton DNA Project, involving hundreds of participants including a close relative of the current Duke of Abercorn, has made significant contributions to understanding the genetic lineage of Clan Hamilton. The genetic research conducted by the Hamilton DNA Project has demonstrated that all Hamilton branches descending from Sir James Hamilton, 5th Laird of Cadzow, who is the progenitor of both the mentioned branches of the Dukes of Abercorn and the Dukes of Hamilton until 1895, belong to the Y-DNA Haplogroup I-Z63. This finding suggests a most recent common ancestor for these branches who lived about 750 years ago.
Alexander Hamilton
Alexander Hamilton is one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. His Y-DNA Haplogroup was I1a.
See also
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Duke of Hamilton
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Duke of Abercorn
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Earl of Selkirk
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Earl of Arran (Scotland)
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Viscount Boyne
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Lord Belhaven and Stenton
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Baron Hamilton of Dalzell
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Lennoxlove House
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Hamilton family – descendants of the Hamilton clan in the United States
Further reading
