HAMILTON, Sir James (d. 1665), of Orbiston, Lanarkshire.

The Hamiltons of Orbiston were descended from Gawin Hamilton, a brother of the 1st Lord Hamilton, who had settled in Clydesdale in the later fifteenth century, purchasing the castle and estate of Orbiston, near Motherwell.13House of Hamilton, 636-45. The family remained only of local importance until the early seventeenth century, when Sir John Hamilton of Orbiston entered royal service, as Charles I’s justice-clerk and privy councillor, before being appointed lord of session in 1637. In 1638 he acted as royal agent in negotiations with the Covenanters, and was rewarded with grants of the baronies of Dunnotar and Erskine, among other lands.14House of Hamilton, 645-6. Despite this royal favour, in the early 1640s Sir John became an influential Covenanter, sitting on the committee of estates in 1644, 1645 and 1648 and being returned as commissioner for Renfrewshire in the Scottish Parliament of 1645. Sir John sided with the 1st duke of Hamilton in the later 1640s, and as a result was stripped of his offices by the Scottish government in 1649.15Young, Parliaments of Scot. i. 323.

Sir James Hamilton, fiar of Orbiston, was born in or around 1634, and necessarily followed his father’s line in the 1640s; but in the 1650s he was one of the first Scotsmen to embrace the Cromwellian government, probably through the influence of his brother-in-law William Lockhart of Lee*. The connection between the two men began in 1646, when Lockhart married Hamilton’s sister, Anna, and both the laird and the fiar of Orbiston were witnesses to the marriage contract drawn up in October of that year.16NLS, Lockhart Charters A.1, folder 2, no. 4. In 1652, following the conquest of Scotland by the New Model army, Hamilton joined Lockhart in actively promoting a formal union between the two countries. He was chosen as deputy for Dunbartonshire in February, and in August he was included, with Lockhart, among the 21 commissioners summoned to London to negotiate the terms of union.17Cromwellian Union ed. Terry, 53, 183; Diary of John Nicoll ed. D. Laing (Edinburgh, 1836), 99. He attended meetings of the commissioners between October 1652 and March 1653, and shortly afterwards was paid by Parliament for expenses incurred during this period.18R. Landrum, ‘Recs. of Anglo-Scottish Union Negotiations, 1652-3’, Scot. Hist. Soc. Misc. xv. 199-278; Worcester Coll. Oxf. Clarke MS XLIV, p. 6; cf. Dow, Cromwellian Scot. 308-9. Perhaps as a reward for his services, in May 1653 the gardens and grounds of Orbiston Castle were protected from requisitioning parties by Colonel Robert Lilburne’s* order.19Worcester Coll. Oxf. Clarke MS XLV, unfol.: 13 May 1653.

Hamilton’s collaboration with the commonwealth regime was bitterly resented by the Scottish royalists. In November 1653, as Lilburne reported to Oliver Cromwell*, Lord Kenmore’s men crossed the Clyde, kidnapped Hamilton, ‘for complying with us as they pretended’, and ravaged his estates.20Scot. and Commonwealth ed. Firth, 265. In early December Hamilton petitioned the council of state in London, possibly asking that a ransom be paid.21CSP Dom. 1653-4, p. 284. A pass issued to him on 25 May 1654, allowing him to go ‘to the enemy’s quarters where the Lord of Glencairn is’, might also be connected with this incident.22Worcester Coll. Oxf. Clarke MS XLV, unfol.: 25 May 1654. Hamilton had certainly been released by the summer of 1654, when he was elected as MP for Dunbartonshire, Argyllshire and Bute for the first protectorate Parliament. Hamilton may have been elected on his own interest in the region, but no doubt he also benefited from his association with the influential Lockhart clan. Hamilton was named to two committees while at Westminster: the committee for Scottish affairs (29 Sept.) and the committee to examine disputed Irish elections (5 Oct.), but nothing more is known of his activities in London.23CJ vii. 371b, 373b. Hamilton’s continued support for the Cromwellian government – and his straitened financial circumstances – can be surmised from the efforts made by George Monck* to ensure his parliamentary fees were paid. In August 1655 the general asked the marquess of Argyll (Archibald Campbell*) to use his influence in the region on Hamilton’s behalf, and in November he wrote a more urgent letter to the collector of Argyllshire, complaining that he had received ‘no return what is done’, and implying that the marquess had not acted on his earlier request.24Worcester Coll. Oxf. Clarke MS XLVII, unfol.: 23 Aug. and 28 Nov. 1655. Monck’s efforts reveal the government’s concern to keep Hamilton on board (with even Cromwell adding his ‘recommendation’ to the Scottish government’s efforts); they also provide evidence of tensions between Argyll and the Lockhart affinity, which were to resurface during the elections of 1656.25supra, Argyllshire, Dunbartonshire and Bute.

Hamilton had returned to the south west of Scotland by the summer of 1655 and over the next 12 months he helped the Lockharts to assert their political hegemony over the area.26Worcester Coll. Oxf. Clarke MS XLVII, unfol.: 22 Aug. 1655. Hamilton was appointed as assessment commissioner for Dunbartonshire, Lanarkshire and Renfrewshire in December 1655, and as justice of the peace for Dunbartonshire and Lanarkshire in 1656; and in the latter year he also became sheriff of Lanarkshire.27Acts Parl. Scot. vi, pt 2, 839-41; Scot. and Protectorate ed. Firth, 311, 313, 316. Hamilton’s colleagues included the commissary of Lanarkshire, George Lockhart I* of Tarbrax, who was William Lockhart’s brother-in-law, while his uncle, James Hamilton of Dalzell, also sat as magistrate and assessment commissioner for the shire.28Worcester Coll. Oxf. Clarke MS XLIII, ff. 81v-82; House of Hamilton, 649. The parliamentary election for Lanarkshire, held on 20 August 1656, was sewn up easily: Hamilton, as sheriff, presided; the electorate was largely made up of his kinsmen and associates; and William Lockhart was returned without a contest.29C219/45, unfol. Hamilton was not returned for Dunbartonshire, Argyllshire and Bute in 1656: the seat was instead taken by John Lockhart*, brother of William. In the later 1650s, Hamilton continued to be an influential figure in the local administration. He was named to the assessment commissions in Dunbartonshire, Lanarkshire and Renfrewshire in 1657 and 1660, served as justice of the peace for Dunbartonshire and Lanarkshire in 1658, and in January 1660 joined Lord Fleming as the Dunbartonshire representative at the Edinburgh Convention called by Monck.30A. and O.; NRS, JC26/26, unfol.; NLS, MS 20775, ff. 72, 74.

Hamilton took no further part in national affairs after the Restoration, perhaps sharing in the ostracism of the Lockharts, although he continued to serve on local commissions and was twice appointed sheriff of Dunbartonshire in the early 1660s.31House of Hamilton, 646. During this period he seems to have concentrated on settling his estates, which were confirmed by charters under the great seal in March 1664. His second wife was allowed a life-rent from the estate, while his eldest son, William Hamilton, was made his legal heir.32Regs. Gt. Seal Scot. 1660-8, pp. 284-6. Sir James Hamilton drew up his testament in May 1664 and died a year later.33NRS, CC9/7/31, unfol. William, who succeeded him, married a daughter of the 9th earl of Glencairn, sat in the Scottish Parliaments of 1678, 1681 and 1685, and was imprisoned as a Jacobite in 1696. William’s overspending ruined the estate, and before his death in 1713 he had sold Orbiston to pay his debts.34Young, Parliaments of Scot. i. 323. William was succeeded by his brother, James, and on the latter’s death without heirs, the title and remaining estates passed to the Hamiltons of Dalzell.35House of Hamilton, 647-8.