JAMES DOUGLAS

This article appears in Volume V12, Page 880 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

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JAMES DOUGLAS , 4th duke of Hamilton (1658-1712), eldest son of the preceding and of Duchess Anne, succeeded his mother, who resigned the dukedom to him in 1698, and at the accession of Queen Anne he was regarded as leader of the Scottish national party. He was an opponent of the union with England, but his lack of decision rendered his political conduct ineffective. He was created duke of Brandon in the peerage of Great Britain in 1711; and on the 15th of November in the following year he fought the celebrated duel with Charles Lord Mohun, narrated in Thackeray's Esmond, in which both the principals were killed. His son, James (1703-1743), became 5th duke, and his grandson James, 6th duke of Hamilton and Brandon (1724-1758), married the famous beauty, Elizabeth Gunning, afterwards duchess of Argyll. James George, 7th duke (1755-1769), became head of the

house

of Douglas on the death in 1761 of Archibald, duke of Douglas, whose titles but not his estates then devolved on . the duke of Hamilton as

heir

HEIR (Lat. heres, from a root meaning to grasp, seen in heres or erus, master of a
house
- HOUSE
- HOUSE (O. Eng. hiss, a word common to Teutonic languages, cf. Dut. huis, Ger. Haus; in Gothic it is only found in gudhiss, a temple; it may be ultimately connected with the root of " hide," conceal)
, Gr. xeip, hand, Sans. hat ana, hand)

-male. Archibald's brother Douglas (1756-1799) was the 8th duke, and when he died childless the titles passed to his uncle Archibald (1740-1819). His son Alexander, loth duke (1767-1852), who as marquess of Douglas was a great collector and connoisseur of books and pictures (his collections realized 397,562 in 1882), was

ambassador

AMBASSADOR (also EMBASSADOR, the form sometimes still used in America; from the Fr. ambassadeur, with which compare Ital. ambasciatore and Span. embajador, all variants of the Med. Lat. ambassiator, ambassiator, ambasator, &c., derived from Med. Lat. amba

at St

Petersburg

PETERSBURG

in 1806-1807. His sister, Lady Anne Hamilton, was lady-in-waiting and a faithful friend to Queen Caroline, wife of George IV.; she did not write the

Secret

SECRET (Lat. secretum, hidden, concealed)

History of the Court of England . . . (1832) to which her name was attached. William Alexander, 1th duke of Hamilton (1811-1863), married Princess Marie Amelie, daughter of Charles, grand-duke of Baden, and, on her mother's side, a

cousin

Napoleon

NAPOLEON

III. The title of duke of Chatellerault, granted to his remote ancestor in 1548, and claimed at different times by various branches of the Hamilton family, was conferred on the 11th duke's son, William Alexander, 12th duke of Hamilton (1845-1895), by the emperor of the French in 1864. His sister, Lady Mary Douglas-Hamilton, married in 1869 Albert, prince of Monaco, but their

marriage

MARRIAGE

was declared invalid in 1880. She subsequently married Count Tassilo Festetics, a Hungarian noble. The 12th duke left no male issue and was succeeded in 1895 by his kinsman, Alfred Douglas, a descendant of the 4th duke. Claud Hamilton, 1st Baron Paisley, brother of the 1st marquess of Hamilton, was, as mentioned above, ancestor of the Abercorn branch of the Hamiltons. His son, who became

earl

EARL

of Abercorn in 16o6, received among a number of other titles that of Lord Hamilton. This title, and also that of Viscount Hamilton, in the peerage of Great Britain, conferred on the 8th

earl

EARL

of Abercorn in 1786, are borne by the dukes of Abercorn, whose eldest son is usually styled by courtesy marquess of Hamilton, a title which was added to the other family honours when the 2nd marquess of Abercorn was raised to the dukedom in 1868.
See John Anderson, The House of Hamilton (1825); Hamilton Papers, ed. J. Bain (2 vols., Edinburgh, 189o1892) ; Gilbert Burnet, Lives of James and William, dukes of Hamilton (1677) ; The Hamilton Papers relative to 1638-165o, ed. S. R. Gardiner for the Camden Society (188o) ; G. E. C[okayne], Complete Peerage (18871898) ; an article by the Rev. J. Anderson in Sir J. B. Paul's edition of the Scots Peerage, vol. iv. (1907).

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