Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 24.djvu/168

Hamilton Attitudes faithfully copied from Nature, and humbly dedicated to Admirers of the Grand and Sublime,' 1807 (anonymous; catalogued in the British Museum under 'Rehberg ').

[The writer has to acknowledge the courtesy of Mr. Alfred Morrison in permitting him free access to his collection of manuscripts, which is particularly rich in documents relating to the private life of Lady Hamilton. Working from these, Mr. J. C. Jeaffreson published in 1887 a memoir under the title of Lady Hamilton and Lord Nelson, and in 1889 another with the title The Queen of Naples and Lord Nelson. In this last he has included an examination of the manuscripts in the British Museum (Egerton, 1613-1621), but not of the official correspondence from Naples or Spain in the Public Record Office. A selection of these, with the title 'Nelson's Last Codicil,' was published by the present writer in Colburn's United Service Magazine, April and May 1889. The Memoirs of Lady Hamilton, with illustrative Anecdotes (1815), a book of virulent abuse and pseudo-religious reflections, is of little authority, but not quite worthless. The Letters of Lord Nelson to Lady Hamilton (2 vols. 8vo, 1814) require corroboration from other sources; the same may be said of Harrison's Life of Nelson (2 vols. 8vo, 1806), inspired if not virtually written by Lady Hamilton, and crowded with falsehoods, many of which, through the influence of Southey, have passed into general currency. Nicolas's Despatches and Letters of Lord Nelson contains much interesting and valuable matter, see index at the end of vol. vii.; and in Pettigrew's Life of Nelson were published for the first time many of the Nelson-Hamilton papers, though the author's easy credulity deprives his work of much of its value. Paget's Memoir of Lady Hamilton, originally published in Blackwood's Magazine (April 1860), and afterwards in Paradoxes and Puzzles, is an interesting sketch drawn mainly from the imperfect materials at the disposal of Nicolas and Pettigrew; to this Mr. Paget has added a supplementary article (Blackwood's Mag. May 1888), severely, but unjustly, criticising Jeaffreson's examination of Lady Hamilton's claims, and especially in reference to the entry of the fleet into the harbour of Syracuse. There are besides interesting notices of Lady Hamilton in Life and Letters of Sir Gilbert Elliot, first Earl of Minto; Mrs. St. George's Journal, kept during a visit to Germany in 1799, 1800 (edited by her son, Archbishop Trench); and Miss Cornelia Knight's Autobiography. Palumbo's Carteggio di Maria Carolina. . . con Lady Emma Hamilton (1887), and Gagnière's La Reine Marie-Caroline de Naples (1886) are largely made up of the queen's correspondence, but of Lady Hamilton personally they know nothing beyond what has been handed down by scandalous rumour. Helfert's Revolution und Gegen-Revolution von Neapel (1882) and Maria Karolina von Oesterreich, Königin von Neapel und Sicilien (1884) contain no original information on the subject.]  HAMILTON, FRANCIS (1762–1829). [See ]  HAMILTON, GAVIN (1561?–1612), bishop of Galloway, was the second son of John Hamilton of Orbiston, Lanarkshire. The father, descended from Sir James Hamilton of Cadzow [see under, first ], fell at the battle of Langside, fighting for Queen Mary (13 May 1568). Gavin was born about 1561, and was educated at the university of St. Andrews, where he took his degree in 1584. He was ordained and admitted to the second charge of Hamilton in 1590, was translated to the parish of Bothwell in 1594, and again to the first charge of Hamilton in 1604. At an early period of his ministry he was appointed by the general assembly to the discharge of important duties pertaining to the office of superintendent or visitor, and after 1597 he was one of the standing commission chosen by the church from among its more eminent clergy to confer with the king on ecclesiastical matters. A supporter of the royal measures for the restoration of episcopacy, he received on 3 March 1605 the temporalities of the bishopric of Galloway, to which were added those of the priory of Whithorn on 29 Sept. and of the abbeys of Dundrennan and Glenluce. In 1606 he became dean of the Chapel Royal at Holyrood, on the revival of that office by King James. In 1606 the general assembly appointed him constant moderator of the presbytery of Kirkcudbright, and three years later he was sent up to court by the other titular bishops to confer with the king as to further measures which were in contemplation for the advancement of their order. The church, having agreed in 1610 to the restoration of the ecclesiastical power of bishops, Hamilton, with Spotiswood, archbishop of Glasgow, and Lamb, bishop of Brechin, were called up to London by the king, and were consecrated 21 Oct. of that year in the chapel of London House according to the English ordinal by the bishops of London, Ely, Rochester, and Worcester. They were not reordained, as the validity of ordination by presbyters was then recognised by the English church and state. On his return to Scotland Hamilton assisted in consecrating the rest of the bishops, and died in February 1612, aged about 51. Keith describes him as 'an excellent good man,' and in the scurrilous lampoons on the bishops by the antiprelatic party of the time he fared better than most of his colleagues. Calderwood says that he seldom preached after his consecration, and died deep in debt, notwithstanding his rich preferments. He married Alison, daughter of James Hamilton