Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 24.djvu/219

 and spoke in favour of catholic emancipation. In 1829 he officiated for the independent church of Hamburg on the occasion of a special celebration, and in 1833 published a volume of sermons directed against deists and Unitarians. In 1834 he issued his 'Pastoral Appeals,' a series of discourses on devotion. Albion Chapel proving now too small, Belgrave Chapel, Leeds, was erected for him at a cost of 5,500l. On 16 Dec. 1834 he married Harriet, daughter of John Robson, esq., of Sutton Hall, Yorkshire. In 1838 Hamilton published a volume of 'Prayers and Thanksgivings,' and in 1841 obtained a prize of fifty guineas for an 'Essay on Christian Missions.' Two years later he undertook a long tour in Scotland for the London Missionary Society. On 1 Feb. 1844 he was made LL.D. by the university of Glasgow, and D.D. by the university of the city of New York. Hamilton won a prize of one hundred guineas, offered by a citizen of Manchester, for the best essay upon the extension of education. In 1846 he delivered the congregational lecture upon 'The Revealed Doctrine of Rewards and Punishments;' and in 1847 he was elected chairman of the Congregational Union of England and Wales. Shortly afterwards he formed part of a deputation to the government to oppose the contemplated grants of public money by parliament in aid of education. In the following winter he prepared for publication a memoir of the Rev. John Ely, and published 'Horæ et Vindiciæ Sabbaticæ; or, Familiar Disquisitions on the Revealed Sabbath.' He died at Leeds on 18 July 1848.

Hamilton was a man of ability and rather turgid eloquence, and at his death one of the most prominent members of his denomination. He was somewhat unfortunate in his biographer (Stowell), whose work was 'welcomed with a general disappointment.'  HAMILTON, ROBERT (1650–1701), second baronet of Preston, one of the leaders of the covenanters, was the younger son of Sir Thomas Hamilton of Preston, a zealous royalist, who fought as lieutenant-colonel at Dunbar in 1650, distinguished himself at Worcester, and in many ways was noted for his sacrifices and exertions in the cause of the Stuarts. After his death in 1672 a baronetcy was conferred in 1673 on his eldest son. Sir William, who, becoming dissatisfied with the arbitrary policy of James II, took part in the unfortunate expedition of the Earl of Argyll in 1685, and, having on its failure made his escape to Holland, accompanied the Prince of Orange to England in 1688, but died suddenly at Exeter, when the troops were on the march to London. Robert, the younger son, was educated at the university of Glasgow under the care of Bishop Burnet (whose sister was his step-mother), and who describes him as at that time a 'lively, hopeful young man' (Own Time, ed. 1838, p. 313). Before his twenty-sixth year he began to attend conventicles, and soon became one of the most enthusiastic and fanatical of the extreme covenanters. Along with Thomas Douglas and Hackston of Rathillet [q.v.] he, in 1679, drew up a declaration and testimony (afterwards known as the Rutherglen declaration), which they intended on 29 May, the king's birthday, to nail to the market-cross of Glasgow. The advance of the troops of Claverhouse to that city a day or two previously prevented their carrying out their purpose there, and Rutherglen, about two miles to the east of Glasgow, was chosen instead. They extinguished the bonfire in the king's honour and lit another, where they proceeded to burn all the acts of parliament and royal proclamations made since the Restoration. They then retired towards Evandale and Newmilns, preparatory to holding an armed convention on the following Sunday at Loudon Hill. Claverhouse, who had gone to Rutherglen, came suddenly in sight of the gathering. Sending away their women and children the covenanters drew up in battle array on the farm of Drumclog, a little to the east. Nominally Hamilton was in command, but it was entirely to the experienced officers, such as Hackston and Cleland, who led the separate detachments of the covenanters, that the defeat of Claverhouse was due. Hamilton, however, showed some energy after the fight. In a vindication of his conduct, 7 Dec. 1685, published in 'Faithful Contendings displayed,' for having put to death one of the prisoners after the battle with his own hand, he asserted that before the battle began he had given 'out the word that no quarter should be given,' and that since he had set his 'face to his work' he never 'had nor would take a favour from enemies either on the right or left hand, and desired to give as few.' His courage, however, was doubted. Burnet, in a passage omitted from the earlier editions of his 'Own Time,' calls him an 'ignominious coward,' and even Wodrow speaks of his behaviour at Bothwell Bridge as 'ill conduct, not to say cowardice.' During the attack on Glasgow he is said to have waited the issue in a place of safety. In any case he was utterly incompetent as a commander, 