to assassinate among other noblemen Lord John Hamilton in order that his dependents might transfer their allegiance to Claud, a man of greater energy and intelligence (‘Memoria de la Nobleza de Escocia,’ in Teulet, v. 453–4). Even after the dispersion of the Armada they continued their communications with Spain, and in February 1588–9 several incriminating letters were seized on a Scotsman who had been appointed to carry them to the Prince of Parma (Cal. State Papers, Scott. Ser. i. 553–4; Calderwood, History, v. 19–36). In one of the letters they urged that the invasion of England should again be attempted by Scotland. Hamilton denied that he had any knowledge of the letters (Calderwood, v. 36), but offered to deliver himself up, and on 7 March he was sent to the castle of Edinburgh (Cal. State Papers, Scott. Ser. i. 555). He appears, however, to have received his liberty shortly afterwards, for on 5 Jan. 1589–90 the presence of him and other papists in Edinburgh caused an alarm of an intention to surprise it during the night (Calderwood, v. 70). While he had been carrying on these intrigues with Spain he had been on good terms with the king, and his extensive estates, including the pertinents of the abbacy and monastery of Paisley, had on 29 July 1587 been erected into a temporal lordship for him and his heirs male under the title of Baron of Paisley. From 1590 he, however, completely disappears from the stage of public life, and two references to him in the letters of the Ambassador Bowes show that his inactivity was due to insanity, which for many years had affected his eldest brother. On 28 Nov. 1590 Bowes informs Burghley that Paisley had returned to his senses (Cal. State Papers, Scott. Ser. ii. 584); but on 16 Dec. 1591 he reports that he is ‘beastly mad’ (ib. p. 599). From this time the name of the master of Paisley appears on the register of the privy council as attending the meetings, and in other ways representing his father. Paisley died in 1622, and was buried in the abbey of Paisley. By his wife Margaret, only daughter of George, sixth Lord Seton, he had four sons and a daughter. The sons were James, first earl of Abercorn [q. v.]; Hon. Sir Claud Hamilton, appointed on 6 Oct. 1618 constable of the castle of Toome, county Antrim, Ireland, for life; Hon. Sir George Hamilton of Greenlaw and Roscrea, co. Tipperary; and Hon. Sir Frederick Hamilton, father of Gustavus Hamilton, viscount Boyne [q. v.]. The daughter, Margaret, became wife of William Douglas [q. v.], first marquis of Douglas.
[Register P. C. Scotl. vols. ii–vi.; Cal. State Papers, Scott. Ser.; ib. For. Ser. Reign of Elizabeth, and Dom. Ser. Reign of James I; Hist. MSS. Comm. 11th Rep. Appendix, pt. vi.; Teulet's Relations politiques de la France et de l'Espagne avec l'Écosse, Paris ed.; Papiers d'État relatifs à l'histoire de l'Écosse au XVIe Siècle; Correspondance de Fénelon (Cooper and Teulet); Letters of Mary Stuart (Labanoff); Historie of James the Sext (Bannatyne Club); Moysie's Memoirs, ib.; Sir James Melville's Memoirs, ib.; Gray Papers, ib.; Lord Herries's Memoirs (Abbotsford Club); Histories of Calderwood, Spotiswood, and Keith; John Anderson's Genealogical History of the Hamiltons; Lees's Abbey of Paisley; Douglas's Scottish Peerage (Wood), i. 1–2.]
HAMILTON, Sir DAVID (1663–1721), physician, a native of Scotland, entered as a medical student at Leyden on 30 Oct. 1683, and graduated M.D. of the university of Rheims (incorrectly stated ‘Paris’ by Munk) in 1686. He was admitted a licentiate of the London College of Physicians in 1688, and fellow in 1703. Elected F.R.S. in 1708, he became a leading practitioner in midwifery, and was successively physician to Queen Anne, who knighted him, and to Caroline, princess of Wales. He is said to have acquired a fortune of 80,000l., which he lost in the South Sea scheme. He died on 28 Aug. 1721. He wrote: 1. ‘An inaugural Dissertation for M.D. “De Passione Hysterica,”’ Paris, 4to, 1686. 2. ‘The Private Christian's Witness for Christianity, in opposition to the National and Erroneous Apprehensions of the Arminian, Socinian, and Deist of the Age,’ London, 8vo, 1697. 3. ‘The Inward Testimony of the Spirit of Christ to his outward Revelation,’ London, 1701, 8vo. Both these were anonymously published (see Darling, Cyclop. Bibl.) 4. ‘Tractatus Duplex: prior de Praxeos Regulis, alter de Febre Miliari,’ London, 1710, 8vo; Ulm, 1711; English translation, London, 1737.
[Munk's Coll. of Phys. ii. 13; Donald Monro's Harveian Oration, 1775; Houstoun's Memoirs of his own Lifetime, pp. 81, 82.]
HAMILTON, DAVID (1768–1843), architect, born in Glasgow 11 May 1768, was during the early part of the century the designer of most of the principal buildings in the west of Scotland. In Glasgow he was architect of the theatre (1804), the Western Clubhouse, several of the leading banks and churches built during that period, and the Royal Exchange (1837–40). Hamilton's greatest work was the palace built for the Duke of Hamilton in Lanarkshire, remarkable no less for its extent than for its dignity and graceful proportion, its façade, and its magnificent portico. Other successful undertakings of his were Toward Castle, Lennox
