HAMILTON, Lady MARY (1739–1816), novelist, born at Edinburgh in 1739, was youngest daughter of Alexander Leslie, fifth earl of Leven and Melville, by his second wife Elizabeth, daughter of David Monypenny. She was married first to Dr. James Walker of Innerdovat on 5 Jan. 1762, and secondly to Robert Hamilton of Jamaica. She published: 1. 'Letters from the Duchesse de Crony,' 1777. 2. 'Munster Village,' 1778. 3. 'The Life of Mrs. Justman,' 1782. 4. 'The Duc de Popoli,' 1810. She and her second husband settled in France before the revolution, and their two daughters married respectively the dramatist Jouy and General Thiébaut. After Hamilton's death Lady Mary lived near Amiens, where she was very intimate with Sir Herbert Croft (1751–1816) [q. v.], who introduced to her Charles Nodier. Nodier became her literary factotum, and translated, or rather rewrote, some of her novels. She died at Amiens, shortly before Croft, in 1816.
[Bibliophile Français, 1869–70; Mem. de Madame de Genlis; Nichols's Illustr. Lit. Hist. v. 216, viii. 632; Burke's Peerage, s.v. 'Leven and Melville.']
HAMILTON, PATRICK (1504?–1528), Scottish martyr, was a younger son of Sir Patrick Hamilton of Kincavel in Linlithgowshire and Stanehouse in Lanarkshire. His mother was Catherine Stewart, daughter of Alexander, duke of Albany, second son of James II. Sir Patrick, his father, an illegitimate son of Sir James Hamilton of Cadzow, first lord Hamilton [q. v.], was legitimated by a letter under the great seal dated 20 Jan. 1513, and by another charter of that year was nominated heir to the Hamilton estates by James, second lord Hamilton and first earl of Arran [q. v.], failing his own lawful children and Sir James Hamilton of Finnart [q. v.], his natural son. Patrick Hamilton was born probably in 1504, but possibly a few years earlier, at Stanehouse, his father's residence near Hamilton, or at Kincavel. He entered himself in the register of the university of Paris as 'Patricius Hamelton, Glasguensis nobilis,' which seems to refer to the diocese of Glasgow, in which Stanehouse is situated; but the later entry of his name on the wall of Marburg University as 'A Litgovien, Scotus,' would apply to Kincavel. He was probably educated at Linlithgow school. In 1517 the abbey of Feme, vacated by the death of Andrew Stewart, bishop of Caithness, was conferred on him, and in that or the previous year he went to the university of Paris, where he graduated as master of arts in 1520. He studied either at the College de Grisy, the Scots College endowed by David Murray, bishop of Moray in the reign of Robert the Bruce, or at the College of Montague, where the fame of John Major [q. v.], the theologian and historian, attracted many of his countrymen. Luther's writings, burnt by a decree of the Sorbonne in 1521, were already exciting attention in France, and must have first come under Hamilton's notice when a student at Paris.
Alexander Alesius [q. v.], who afterwards made the acquaintance of Hamilton at St. Andrews, states that Hamilton studied at Louvain as well as Paris. The study of Hebrew, Greek, and Latin had been introduced at Louvain by Hieronymus Busleidius at the instance of Erasmus in 1517, twelve years before the foundation of the Collegium Trilingue by Francis I. Alesius mentions that Hamilton was in favour 'of banishing all sophistry from the schools, and recalling philosophy to its sources the original writings of Aristotle and Plato.' The reference to Plato, whose study in the works of Pico de Mirandola had been condemned by the university of Paris, supports the view that Hamilton during or after his Paris course went to Louvain. But no record of his residence there has been discovered. Nor is the precise date of his return to Scotland known, but he was incorporated in the university of St. Andrews on 9 June 1523, the same day as John Major, who had been brought from the university of Glasgow by James Beaton, created in that year archbishop of St. Andrews. The Earl of Arran, the head of the Hamiltons, had married a niece of Beaton, and this connection, or the desire to continue under the instruction of Major, may have induced Hamilton to go to St. Andrews. Still a minor, he found himself an orphan on his return home, his father having fallen in the fight of 'Cleanse the Causeway ' with the rival house of Douglas in 1520. His elder brother, Sir James, followed the profession of arms, but Patrick, as was natural in a younger son, was destined for the church. On 3 Oct. 1524 Patrick Hamilton was admitted ad eundem to the degree of master of arts in St. Andrews. It is not said in the records to which of its colleges he attached himself, but it was probably to St. Leonard's, where Major taught, and where the pupils going beyond their teacher were most inclined to the new learning and doctrines. Hamilton pursued his studies in theology, and perhaps took part in the teaching of arts. A knowledge of music, especially the Gregorian chant, was required as a condition of entrance to St. Leonard's, and in music Hamilton was a proficient. Alesius records that he composed a mass for nine voices, in-
