Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 24.djvu/192

 In the debate in the council in January 1623-1624 on the question of the marriage Hamilton voted 'neutral,' and on the question of declaring war with Spain he, although usually opposed to Spain, advocated peace; but two months later he was suspected by Laf uente, the Spanish ambassador, of employing Frenchmen to rob him of his despatches near Amiens, at Buckingham's instigation, in order to increase the difficulties between England and Spain. In the following April Hamilton dissuaded Buckingham from avenging his personal animosity by submitting the Earl of Bristol to the indignity of imprisonment in the Tower, and in September strongly opposed Buckingham's policy of subserviency to France. In 1624 he was instructed to report on the propositions of the treaty of Frankenthal. He died of a malignant fever at Whitehall on 2 March 1624-5, and his body, after being carried to 'Fisher's Folly,' his house outside Bishopsgate, by torchlight and with much ceremony, was conveyed to Scotland for interment. When the news of his death was communicated to the king he exclaimed, 'If the branches be thus cut down, the stock cannot continue long' (, iii. 382). The kin followed his servant to the grave on the 23rd of the same month. Hamilton's protegé, George Eglisham, unwarrantably charged Buckingham, in his 'Prodromus Vindictæ,' 1626, with having poisoned his patron. Sir Philip Warwick describes Hamilton as 'a goodly, proper, and graceful gentleman' (Memoirs, p. 102), and Chamberlain, the letter-writer, says that he was 'held the gallantest gentleman of both nations,' and 'the flower of that nation' (Scotland) (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1617-25). Chamberlain also says that the Scots wished the marquis to marry Elizabeth, eldest daughter of King James (ib. 1612); but he married (contract dated 30 Jan. 1603) Lady Anne Cunningham, fourth daughter of James, earl of Glencairn,by whom he had two sons, James, third marquis and first duke [q. v.], and William, second duke [q. v.], with three daughters. The marchioness survived her husband, and was prominent on the side of the covenanters in their conflict with Charles I. She raised a troop of horse in 1639, and rode at their head to the field, armed with pistol and dagger. Their coronets bore as a device a hand repelling a book (the service book), and, as a motto, 'For God, the King, Religion, and the Covenant.' Her elder son, James, in the interests of the king, led a fleet into the Firth of Forth, and she dared him to land, at the risk of being shot by his mother's hand. She had silver bullets specially provided for the occasion (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1639, pp. 146, 163, 282). She made her last will in 1644, and it is a highly characterisic document (quoted fully in the Historical MSS. Commission Report, No. xi. pt. vi.; Hamilton MSS. pp. 55-7). Hamilton's portrait was painted by Paul Van Somer. There are engravings by Martin Droeshout, 1623, and by Vaughan.  HAMILTON, JAMES, (1559–1643), was the eldest son of Hans Hamilton, vicar of Dunlop, Ayrshire, by Janet, daughter of James Denham of West Shield. He was probably educated at the university of St. Andrews, where a James Hamilton was made M.A. in 1585. His reputation as 'one of the greatest scholars and hopeful wits of his time' secured him the notice of James VI of Scotland, by whose direction he was sent in 1587, along with Sir James Fullerton, on a secret political mission to Ireland. To mask their purpose they opened a Latin school in Great Ship Street, Dublin, which they carried on with as much energy and zeal as if it were the main purpose of their stay in the city. Among their pupils were the future Archbishop Ussher, who was accustomed to reckon it among God's special providences to him that he had the opportunity and advantage of his education from those men who came thither by chance, and yet proved so happily useful to himself and others ' (, Life of Ussher, p. 3). On the establishment of Trinity College, Dublin, he was in 1592 appointed one of the fellows. In August 1600 he was sent by James to London to act as his agent in connection with the negotiations for the succession to the English throne (Cal. State Papers, Scott. Ser. ii. 784, 785). While there he witnessed the Essex rebellion, of which he wrote an account in a letter of 8 Feb. 1600-1. After the accession of James to the English throne he for some years attended on the court at Whitehall, and besides receiving the honour of knighthood was made serjeant-at-law. On the forfeiture of Irish lands he received large grants from the king, including a grant on 16 April 1605 of the territories of Upper Claneboye and the great Ardes (State Papers, Irish Ser. 1603-6, p. 271). Additional grants were bestowed in subsequent years, and he ultimately became one of the most powerful and wealthy of the English settlers in the north of Ireland. At Killelagh he built 'ane very stronge castle; the lyk is not in the northe.' He also specially interested himself in the further- 