HAMILTON, THE FAMILY OF. This great historical family is known to be of English origin, but when or how it took root in Scotland has not been clearly ascer tained. Some genealogists have sought to trace its lineage to Robert, surnamed blanch mains, third earl of Leicester, who died 1190. There is nothing improbable in the claim—the earl's second son was bishop of St. Andrews, he had other relations beyond, the Tweed, and the cinquefoil on a bloody shield, which was the heraldic bearing of his house, seems from an early period to have been the heraldic bearing of the Scottish Hamiltons. But however probable such a descent may be, it wants proof. The name of the family, obviously territorial, was doubtless taken from some one of the many English manors called Hamilton, scattered through Buckinghamshire, Hampshire, Sur rey, Lancashire, Rutlandshire, Yorkshire, and Leicestershire. In the 17th c. the Leices tershire Hamilton—a petty manor in the parish of Barkby, containing only a shepherd's cottage—was shown as the cradle of the house. Several persons of the name of Hamil ton appear both in English and in Scottish records about the middle of the 13th c., and one of them seems to have held the Yorkshire manor of Hamilton, together with lands in the parish of Oxnam in Scotland. But the pedigree of the family cannot be carried beyond (1). " Walter Fitz-Gilbert (or Gilbertson) of Hamilton," who, in 1296, held lands in Lanarkshire, and swore fealty to king Edward I. of England as overlord of Scotland, and in 1314 kept the castle of Bothwell, on the Clyde, for the English. His early sur
render of this strong fortress, and of the English knights and nobles who had fled to it from the field of Bannockburn, was rewarded by king Robert Bruce by grants of the ]ands and baronies of Cadyow and Machanshire in Clydesdale, Kinneil and Larbert in West Lothian, Kirkinner and Kirkowen in Galloway, and other lands forfeited by the Cumyns and other adherents of England. He attained the rank of knighthood, and_, married Mary, daughter of sir Adam of Gordon of Huntly, by whom he left two sons. The elder (2), "sir David Fitz-Walter Fitz-Gilbert," or, as he was sometimes more shortly called, "sir David Fitz-Walter," or " sir David of Hamilton," was taken pris oner by the English at the battle of Neville's Cross in 1346, founded a chantry in the cathedral of Glasgow in 1361, and appears among time barons in the Scottish parliaments of 1363, 1371, and 1373. His eldest son (3), "sir David of Hamilton of Cadyow," died before 1392, leaving by his wife, Janet of Keith, only daughter and heiress of sir Wil liam of Keith of Galston, five sons and a daughter. The eldest son (4). "sir John of Hamilton of Cadyow," married Janet, daughter of sir James of Douglas of Dalkeith, by whom he was time father of (5), " sir James of Hamilton of Cadyow," who, about 1422, married Janet, daughter of Alexander of Livingston of Callander, by whom he had (6) "sir James of Hamilton of Cadyow," and four other sons.