Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 24.djvu/234

 secret of the abortive attempt of the latter to join the Scotch royalists (Hamilton Papers, p. 256). In January 1651 Hamilton was at last permitted to join his master, and after due confession of his errors was readmitted to the Scotch church (, p. 540; Mercurius Politicus, pp. 565, 590). Argyll was still too jealous to suffer his rival to receive any command, and Hamilton took part in the march into England merely as the colonel of three hundred men raised on his own estates. It was with no great hopes of success that he started on his last campaign. 'To .go with a handful of men into England,' he wrote to his niece, seemed to him 'the least ill course to adopt, and yet very desperate' (, p. 541). After the skirmish at Warrington Hamilton urged the king to march straight on London, and in the council of war before the battle of Worcester he proposed that he should throw himself into Wales, but neither counsel was followed. In the battle itself Hamilton displayed great personal courage, and while leading his regiment against a hedge line by Cromwell's infantry received a shot which broke the bone of his leg a little below the knee. Of this wound he died nine days later, 12 Sept. 1651 (ib. p. 543). He was interred in Worcester Cathedral, as the government refused to allow his body to be transported to Scotland.

Hamilton's character is described at length by Burnet, and briefly by Clarendon. The latter contrasts him favourably with his brother; he was wiser, though less cunning; he had also unquestionable courage, 'which the other did not abound in' (Rebellion, xiii. 77; cf., Memoirs, p. 104). Burnet says he was franker, more passionate, &nd more enterprising than his brother. He had also greater literary gifts; 'the elder spoke more gracefully, but the other had the better pen' (, p. 582). In early life 'he had tasted of all the follies which bewitch the greatest part of men,' but afterwards he became deeply religious, as his 'meditations' before the battle of Worcester prove (ib. pp. 544, 555).

Hamilton left four daughters, but his only son died an infant. The estates and Scottish titles of the family therefore devolved upon his elder brother's daughter, Lady Anne Hamilton [see under, third , 1635-1694] (, Peerage, ed. Brydges, i. 540).

 HAMILTON, WILLIAM (d. 1724), antiquary, was son of William Hamilton of Wishaw, and grandson of John Hamilton of Udston, who was descended from Thomas, younger brother of James, first lord Hamilton [q. v.] His mother was Beatrix, daughter of James Douglas of Morton, and though he was a younger son in a large family, he ultimately succeeded to the estate of Wishaw, as his elder brothers died during their father's lifetime. The family to which he belonged claimed descent from John Hamilton of Broomhill, natural but legitimated brother of James, first earl of Arran, and he was nearly related to Baron Belhaven and Stenton, to which dignity his own descendant afterwards attained. William Hamilton seems to have enjoyed a high reputation among his contemporaries as an antiquary and genealogist. He is referred to by George Crawford, the historian of Renfrewshire, as 'that fam'd antiquary, William Hamilton of Wishaw,' and Nisbet acknowledges his obligations to him in the production of his standard book on 'Heraldry,' The only work which Hamilton has left is a manuscript 'Account of the Shyres of Renfrew and Lanark,' which is now preserved in the Advocates' Library, Edinburgh. The date of this manuscript is variously given as 1696 and 1710. Nisbet states that he saw it in 1722, while Crawford alludes to it in the preface to his work published in 1710. Though largely used by these two writers, the work remained in manuscript until 1832, when it was published as one of the volumes of the Maitland Club, edited by William Motherwell [q. v.] In his preface to that volume the editor acknowledges his inability to supply particulars of the life of the author, but quotes from a manuscript then in the possession of James Maidment, which showed that Hamilton's work was regarded as authoritative. The volume consists of brief topographical descriptions of the principal castles and mansions in Renfrewshire and Lanarkshire, with much valuable genealogical information regarding the leading local families.

Hamilton married, first, in 1660, his first cousin, Anne, daughter of John Hamilton of Udston, by whom he had six sons and a daughter; Robert, the second, died during his father's life; his son William inherited Wishaw on the death of his grandfather; secondly, in 1676, Mary, eldest daughter of the Hon. Sir Charles Erskine, son of John, seventh earl of Mar, by whom he had five sons and six daughters. William Hamilton, the third son of this marriage, was the father of William Gerard Hamilton [q. v.]; 