FRANCIS HAMILTON (ONCE BUCHANAN). ш 
Thomas Buchanan, the father of the subject of this sketch, was a younger son of 
John Buchanan of Spittal, a small property in the county of Dumbarton? consisting of 
а few farms and possessing now no mansion house? As & younger son Thou 
Buchanan hal to adopt a profession and he is described variously as a physician? Bes 
as an officer in the Dutch service;* he is, moreover, usually spoken of as Thomas 
Buchanan of Spittal. Тһе statements regarding his occupation, which are not necessari- 
ly incompatible, the writer has not succeeded in verifying; his territorial designation 
though correct, requires some explanation. 
In an entry in the Service of Heirs in Scotland, dated 12th January, 1759, Thomas 
Buchanan is erroneously described as the son of Robert Buchanan of Spittal.’ Robert 
Buchanan was the elder brother, not the father of Thomas Buchanan. Robert inherited 
Spittal from his father, John Buchanan, about 1730. The estate being encumbered was 
disposed of by Robert Bunchanan to a younger brother, Peter Buchanan, in 1735, -Peter 
in turn sold it, in or about the year 1755, to his brother Thomas Buchanan. By an 
entail, dated 10th December 1786, the succession to, as apart from possession of, Spittal 
was vested in Thomas Buchanan, who had already been in possession for over 30 years, and 
his heirs. Ав both Robert and Peter Buchanan* died without issue, Thomas Luchanan thus, 
about 1755, acquired by purchase a property that he or his successors must ultimately have 
obtained by inheritance.’ 
Thomas Buchanan married, as his first wife, Katherine Buchanan, daughter of 
Henry Buchanan of Leny, in Perthshire, the head of a house that has been intimately 
associated with the parent house of Buchanan of Buchanan throughout their joint history. 
Allan Buchanan, second son of Sir Maurice Buchanan, whose charter of confirmation in 
the lands of Buchanan was granted by David IL, married the daughter and heiress 
of the last male representative of the house of Leny of Leny, and founded the house 
of Buchanan of Leny. Тһе last male representative of this first line of Buchanan 
of Leny was John Buchanan, great-grandson of Allan Puchanan, whose daughter and 
heiress, Janet Buchanan, married John Buchanan, eldest son of Walter Buchanan of 
Buchanan, whose charter of confirmation was granted by Robert II. This John 
Buchanan, who predeceased his father, left three sons: (1) Sir Alexander Buchanan, a 
notable soldier, who was killed, leaving no heir, at the battle of Vernenil on 17th 
August 1421; (2) Sir Walter Buchanan, who married a daughter of Murdoch, Duke of 
š — 
1 Burke: Landed Gentry for 1900—article Buchanan-Hamilton of Spittal, Leny and Bardowie. 
* Though comparatively unimportant. in a material sense this small estate has been of much historical and 
genealogical consequence to the branch of the house of Buchanan to whom it belongs; it was in virtue of his ability 
to demonstrate that he was the representative of his ancestor Walter Buchanan, younger of Buchanan and first of Spittal, 
that Dr. Francis Hamilton established his claim to represent also the house of Buchanan of Buchanan and to be 
ehief of the name. 
3 Chambers: Biographies of Eminent Scotsmen. Higginbotham: Мел India has known. 
* Anderson: Scottish Nation. 
5 This entry refers, it may be remarked, to his second wife, Elizabeth Hamilton, not to himself, a fact that 
probably explains the error. 
The widow of Peter Buchanan of Spittal, whose name was Agnes Hamilton, was still living on 15th January 1809. U 
In connection with this it is interesting to find that although, on the death of his own elder brother Colonel John 
Hamilton, Dr. Francis Buchanan acquired possession of the property of Spittal in 1818, he considered it necessary, 
аз а preliminary to the establishment of hislarger claim to represent his ancestor Walter Buchanan, first of Spittal, 
to serve himself heir, on 18th September 1826, to his father's elder brother, and his own uncle, Robert Buchanan cf 
Spittal, : | : x 
B 2 
