530 



HAMILTON 



in 1761, the male representation of the 'red' or 

 Angus branch of the Douglases, with the titles of 

 Marquis of Douglas, Earl of Angus, &c., devolved 

 on the Dukes of Hamilton, as descendants of the 

 Duchess Anne's husband, William, Earl of Selkirk, 

 third son of the first Marquis of Douglas. Dying 

 in 1769, in his fifteenth year, James George, seventh 

 Duke of Hamilton, was succeeded by his only 

 brother, Douglas, who in 1782 took his seat in 

 parliament as Duke of Brandon, the House of 

 Lords being satisfied that the Act of Union did not 

 prohibit the crown from making a peer of Scotland 

 a peer of Great Britain. He was succeeded by his 

 uncle, ancestor of the twelfth duke (1845-95). The 

 thirteenth duke, born 1862, is descendant of a third 

 son of the fourth duke. 



DUKES OF ABERCORN, &c. Lord Claud Hamil- 

 ton, fourth son of the first Duke of Chatelherault, 

 was appointed commendator of the abbey of Paisley 

 in 1553, and created Lord Paisley in 1587. His 

 descendants obtained successively the titles of Lord 

 Abercorn ( 1603), Earl of Abercorn (1606), Viscount 

 Strabane (1701), Marquis of Abercorn (1790). On 

 the death of the second Duke of Hamilton in 1651, 

 the second Earl of Abercorn claimed the male 

 representation of the House of Hamilton ; and in 

 1861 the second Marquis and tenth Earl of Abercorn 

 (created Duke of Abercorn in 1868) was served heir- 

 inale of the first Duke of Chatelherault, in the Sheriff 

 Court of Chancery at Edinburgh, under protest by 

 the Duke of Hamilton, Brandon, and Chatelherault. 

 Dying in 1885, he was succeeded by his son James, 

 the second duke, born in 1838. The Duke of Aber- 

 corn is one of three peers who hold peerages in 

 Scotland, in Ireland, and in Great Britain. A 

 cadet of the House of Abercorn, born in 1646, was 

 Count Anthony Hamilton (q.v. ). 



OTHER PEERAGES. The third son of Anne, 

 Duchess of Hamilton, was in 1688 created Earl of 

 Selkirk : this title became extinct in 1885 on the 

 death of the sixth earl. Lord George Hamilton, 

 fifth son of Duchess Anne, was in 1696 created Earl 

 of Orkney. The sixth earl succeeded in 1877. A 

 fourth son of Duchess Anne was in 1697 created 

 Earl of Kugleu a title that became extinct in 

 1810. The Earls of Haddington are descended 

 from a younger son of the first ascertained ancestor 

 of the Hamiltons, Sir Walter Fitz-Gilbert. Sir 

 John Hamilton of Biel was created Lord Belhaven 

 and Stenton. The second lord distinguished him- 

 self by his wild but eloquent speeches against the 

 Union. On the death of the fifth lord in 1777 the 

 title and estates became separated ; the title be- 

 came dormant in 1868, but was adjudged in 1875 

 to the ninth lord. A descendant of the first Lord 

 Paisley became Viscount Boyne in 1717, and his 

 descendant became in 1866 Baron Brancepeth in 

 the peerage of the United Kingdom. Another 

 branch of the Hamiltons, settling in Ireland, 

 attained to the dignities of Viscount Claneboy 

 (1622) and Earl of Clanbrassil. The titles became 

 extinct in 1799, but the title of Lord Clanbrassil 

 in the peerage of the United Kingdom was created 

 in 1821. 



A Briefe Account of the Family of Hamilton, written 

 by Dr James Baillie of Carnbroe during the first half of 

 the 17th century, is preserved among the MSS. in the 

 Advocates' Library at Edinburgh. See Gilbert Burnet's 

 Memoirs of the Lives and A cMons of James and William, 

 Dukes of Hamilton and Chatelherault ( 1677 ) ; Ander- 

 son's Historical and Genealogical Memoirs of the House 

 of Hamilton ( 1825 ) ; ' The Manuscripts of the Duke of 

 Hamilton, K.T.' in part vi. of Appendix to the Eleventh 

 Report of the Historical MSS. Commissioners ( 1887 ) ; 

 and the history of the Earls of Haddington by Sir Wm. 

 Fraser (2 vols. 4to, 1889). 



Hamilton, ALEXANDER, one of the greatest of 

 American statesmen, was born llth January 1757 



in the West Indian island of Nevis, the son of a. 

 Scotch merchant who had married a young French- 

 woman. His father soon failed in business, and 

 Alexander at the age of twelve had to enter the 

 counting-house of a merchant named Cruger at 

 St Croix. His extraordinary abilities, however, 

 induced some of his friends to procure for him a 

 better education than could be got at home. He 

 v/as accordingly sent to a grammar-school at Eli/a- 

 bethtown, New Jersey ; and in the spring of 1774 

 he entered King's (now Columbia) College, NBAV 

 York. On the first appearance of disagreement 

 between Great Britain and her colonies, Hamilton, 

 still a collegian and barely eighteen, wrote a series 

 of papers in defence of the rights of the latter, 

 which were at first taken for the production of the 

 eminent statesman Jay, and which secured for the 

 writer the notice and consideration of the popular 

 leaders. On the outbreak of the war he obtained a 

 commission as captain of artillery, saw some active- 

 service in New York and New Jersey, and gained 

 the confidence of Washington, who made him his 

 aide-de-camp in 1777, and with whom he acquired 

 the greatest influence as his friend and adviser. In 

 1781, through hasty temper on both sides, the 

 friendship was broken for a brief period, and 

 Hamilton resigned his appointment on the staff;- 

 but he continued with the army and distinguished 

 himself at Yorktown. 



In 1780 he married a daughter of General 

 Schuyler, who was a member of a powerful New 

 York family. On the termination of the war he 

 left the service with the rank of colonel, and, 

 betaking himself to legal studies, soon became one 

 of the most eminent lawyers in New York. In 

 1782 he was returned to congress by the state of 

 New York. But there was as yet no national 

 government nor any power higher than that of the 

 several states, which were now nearly bankrupt ; 

 and in 1786 Hamilton took the leading part in the- 

 deliberations of the inter-state commercial con- 

 vention at Annapolis, which prepared the way for 

 the great convention that met at Philadelphia in 

 the following year for the purpose of revising the 

 articles of confederation. There, although his own 

 plan for the formation of an aristocratic republic 

 was set aside, the spirit of his system was to a. 

 large extent adopted. But Hamilton's best work 

 for the constitution was done after the convention 

 was dissolved. He conceived and started the' 

 famous series of essays which originally appeared 

 in a New York journal, and which were after- 

 wards collected under the title of The Federalist. 

 Fifty-one out of the eighty-five essays were the- 

 work of Hamilton. They constitute the writings 

 by which he is most widely known ; they can 

 scarcely be too highly praised for comprehensive- 

 ness, profundity, clearness, and simplicity, and 

 their strength and value have been recognised in 

 Europe as well as in America. 



On the establishment of the new government in 

 1789 with Washington as president, Hamilton was 

 appointed secretary of the treasury. The disorder 

 of the public credit, and the deficiency of official 

 accounts of the state treasury, rendered this office 

 one of peculiar difficulty. In order to re-establish, 

 public credit, he carried, in the face of much opposi- 

 tion, a measure for the funding of the domestic debt, 

 founded a national bank, rearranged the system of 

 duties, and altogether showed himself to possess- 

 the genius of the great financier. Moreover, he 

 practically organised the administration ; and his- 

 reports, many of them on subjects outside the 

 immediate scope of his own department, exhibit 

 his profound ability as a statesman. In 1795 he 

 resigned his office, and resumed the practice of law in 

 New York, where he was still constantly consulted 

 by Washington and by his cabinet. He A\as the 



