WILLIAM

See also:

• HAMILTON
• HAMILTON (GRAND or ASHUANIPI)
• HAMILTON, ALEXANDER (1757-1804)
• HAMILTON, ANTHONY, or ANTOINE (1646-1720)
• HAMILTON, ELIZABETH (1758–1816)
• HAMILTON, EMMA, LADY (c. 1765-1815)
• HAMILTON, JAMES (1769-1831)
• HAMILTON, JAMES HAMILTON, 1ST DUKE OF (1606-1649)
• HAMILTON, JOHN (c. 1511–1571)
• HAMILTON, MARQUESSES AND DUKES OF
• HAMILTON, PATRICK (1504-1528)
• HAMILTON, ROBERT (1743-1829)
• HAMILTON, SIR WILLIAM
• HAMILTON, SIR WILLIAM (1730-1803)
• HAMILTON, SIR WILLIAM ROWAN (1805-1865)
• HAMILTON, THOMAS (1789-1842)
• WILLIAM HAMILTON (1704-1754)
• HAMILTON, WILLIAM GERARD (1729-1796)

HAMILTON (1704-1754)  , Scottish poet, the author of "The Braes of Yarrow," was born in 1704 at Bangour in Linlithgowshire, the son of James Hamilton of Bangour, a member of the Scottish bar . As early as 1724 we find him contributing to Allan Ramsay's Tea Table Miscellany . In 1745 Hamilton joined the cause of Prince Charles, and though it is doubtful whether he actually bore arms, he celebrated the battle of Prestonpans in verse . After the disaster of Culloden he lurked for several months in the Highlands and escaped to France; but in 1749 the influence of his friends procured him permission to return to Scotland, and in the following year he obtained possession of the family estate of Bangour . The state of his health compelled him, however, to live abroad, and he died at Lyons on the 25th of March 1754 . He was buried in the Abbey Church of Holyroodhouse, Edinburgh . He was twice married—" into families of distinction " says the preface of the authorized edition of his poems . Hamilton left behind him a considerable number of poems, none of them except " The Braes of Yarrow " of striking originality . The collection is composed of odes, epitaphs, short pieces of translation, songs, and occasional verses . The longest is "Contemplation, or the Triumph of Love" (about 500 lines) . The first edition was published without his permission by Foulis (Glasgow, 1748), and introduced by a preface from the pen of Adam Smith . Another edition with corrections by himself was brought out by his friends in 176o, and to this was prefixed a portrait engraved by Robert Strange .

In 1850 James

Paterson edited The Poems and Songs of William Hamilton . This volume contains several poems till then unpublished, and gives a life of the author.several 'treatises on earthquakes and volcanoes between 1776 and 1783 . He was a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries and of the Dilettanti, and a notable collector . Many of his treasures went to enrich the British Museum . In 1772 he was made a knight of the Bath . The last ten years of his life presented a curious contrast to the elegant peace of those which had preceded them . In 1791 he married Emma Lyon (see the separate article on Lady Hamilton) . The outbreak of the French Revolution and the rapid extension of the revolutionary movement in Western Europe soon overwhelmed Naples . It was a misfortune for Sir William that he was left to meet the very trying political and diplomatic conditions which arose after 1793 . His health had begun to break down, and he suffered from bilious fevers . Sir William was in fact in a state approaching dotage before his recall, a fact which, combined with his senile devotion to Lady Hamilton, has to be considered in accounting for his extraordinary complaisance in her relations with Nelson . He died on the 6th of April 1803 .

See E .

Edwards, Lives of the Founders of the British Museum (London, 1870) ; and the authorities given in the article on Emma, Lady Hamilton .