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BELHAVEN AND STENTON,
Baron, a title in the Scottish peerage, conferred by King Charles the First
on Sir John Hamilton of Biel, eldest son of Sir James Hamilton of Broomhill,
in consideration of his fidelity to his cause, by patent dated 15th
December, 1647. The title was derived from the village of Belhaven in
Haddingtonshire. In 1648 his lordship accompanied the duke of Hamilton in
his unfortunate expedition into England to attempt the rescue of the king,
and escaped from the rout at Preston. In 1675 he resigned his title into the
hands of King Charles the Second, who, by patent, dated at Whitehall, 10th
February 1675, conferred the peerage on him for life, with remainder, after
his decease, to the husband of one of his grand-daughters, John Hamilton,
eldest son of Robert Hamilton of Barncluith, one of the principal clerks of
council and session, and after the Revolution one of the judges of the
supreme court, under the title of Lord Pressmannan, and to the heirs male of
his body; which failing, to his nearest heirs male whatever. The first Lord
Belhaven married Margaret, natural daughter of James, second marquis of
Hamilton, by whom he had three daughters. He died in 1679. Margaret, his
eldest daughter, married Sir Samuel Baillie, younger of Lamington, and had
issue; Anne, the second, became the wife of Sir Robert Hamilton of
Silvertonhill, and had two sons and four daughters. Elizabeth, Lord
Belhaven’s youngest daughter, was the third wife of Alexander, first
Viscount Kingston, but had no issue.
Of John Hamilton,
the second Lord Belhaven, the most distinguished of those who have held the
title, a notice follows.
John, third Lord
Belhaven, the eldest son of the second lord, succeeded his father in 1708,
and at the general election in 1715 was chosen one of the sixteen
representatives of the Scottish peerage. He was about the same time
appointed one of the gentlemen of the bedchamber to George, Prince of Wales.
At the battle of Sheriffmuir, 13th November 1715, he commanded
the East Lothian troop of horse, on the side of the government. In 1721 he
was appointed governor of Barbadoes, and sailed for that island on board the
Royal Anne galley, which was unfortunately lost going down the Channel, on
the Stag Rocks, near the Lizard point, about midnight, 17th
November 1721, when his lordship was drowned, with the whole persons on
board, two hundred and forty in number, with the exception of two men and a
boy, who drifted on shore on pieces of the wreck. He had married Anne,
daughter of Andrew Bruce, merchant in Edinburgh, a cadet of the family of
Earlshall in Fife, by whom he had four sons and one daughter, namely, John,
fourth Lord Belhaven; Andrew, an officer in the army, died unmarried in
1736; James, fifth Lord Belhaven; Robert, a major in the army in the
expedition to Carthagena under Lord Catheart in 1741, who also died
unmarried in 1743; and Margaret, married to Alexander Baird, son of Sir
William Baird of Newbyth.
John, fourth Lord
Belhaven, succeeded his father in 1721. He was a general of the mint, and
one of the trustees for the encouragement and improvement of trade,
manufactures, and fisheries in Scotland. He died unmarried at
Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 28th August, 1764.
James, fifth Lord
Belhaven, succeed his brother. He was bred to the law, and in 1727 he became
a member of the faculty of advocates. In 1733 he was appointed
assistant-solicitor to the boards of excise and customs, and on the
abolition of the heritable jurisdictions in 1747 he was appointed
sheriff-depute of the county of Haddington. He died at Biel, 25th
January 1777.
The title remained
some years subsequently dormant. By virtue of an entail executed by the
second Lord Belhaven, 17th October 1701, confirmed by the fifth
lord by another entail of 14th May 1765, the husbands of the
heirs female being excluded from inheriting the property, and the whole make
descendants of the second lord’s father, Lord Pressmannan, having entirely
failed, the family estates, of great value, devolved upon Mrs. Mary Hamilton
Nisbet of Pencaitland, Saltcoats, and Dechmont, wife of William Nisbet, Esq.
of Dirleton. She was accordingly served heir to James, fifth Lord Belhaven
3d December, 1783. The whole male descendants of James Hamilton of
Barncleuth, from whom the second lord sprang, having likewise failed, the
title of Lord Belhaven and Stenton developed on Robert Hamilton of Wishaw,
he being the nearest male heir existing in the collateral line of John,
second Lord Belhaven, according to the usual course of descent established
by the law of Scotland. By this course of descent, it is settled that in the
case of three brothers, should the middle brother fail, the younger, and not
the elder, is entitled to succeed as heir male.
The title of Lord
Belhaven was assumed by William Hamilton, captain of the 44th
regiment of foot, lineal descendant and heir male of John Hamilton of
Coltness, the eldest of the three brothers, and he voted at the general
election in 1799 as Lord Belhaven. An objection was taken to his right, and
evidence was given that there were male descendants of the body of William
Hamilton of Wishaw, the youngest of the three brothers; consequently the
character of heir male whatever of John, second Lord Belhaven, the patentee
of 1765, could not belong to the gentleman who had assumed the title and
voted at the election. This argument was supported by the Attorney-General,
attending on behalf of the crown, and the Lords’ Committee of Privileges, on
5th June 1793, unanimously resolved that the votes given at the
election by the said Captain Hamilton, under the title of Lord Belhaven,
were not good, and this resolution was confirmed by the house of peers. Soon
after, William Hamilton of Wishaw, eldest son and heir of Robert already
mentioned as the nearest male heir, who had died in 1784, presented to the
king a petition, claiming the title, honours, and dignity of Lord Belhaven;
which petition was, as is customary, referred to the House of Peers and the
Lords’ Committee of Privileges. The claim was decided in his favour in 1799.
Robert Hamilton of
Wishaw, who, as above explained, on the death of James, fifth Lord Belhaven,
in 1777, became, in the legal course of succession, entitled to the honours,
was of right the sixth Lord Belhaven, but he did not assume the title He
married at Edinburgh, 1st February 1764, Susan, second daughter
of Sir Michael Balfour of Denmiln, in Fife, Baronet, and by her, who died 9th
January 1789, he had three sons and five daughters; the younger children
taking the style of Honourable, as their father was legally entitled to the
peerage of Belhaven.
The eldest son,
William, seventh Lord Belhaven, was born 13th January 1765, and
succeeded his father in 1784, but did not assume the title till the decision
of the house of peers in his favour in 1799. His lordship was an officer in
the third, or king’s own regiment of dragoons, afterwards colonel of the
Lanarkshire and Dumbartonshire Fencible cavalry, and lieutenant-colonel of
the Royal Lanarkshire Militia. He married at Edinburgh, 3d March 1789,
Penelope, youngest daughter of Ronald Macdonald of Clanronald in
Inverness-shire, and had issue two sons and five daughters, namely, Robert
Montgomery, eighth Lord Belhaven; Hon. William, East India Company’s
service, born in 1797, married Mrs. M.A. Mendes, widow of J.P Mendes, Esq.,
and died in 1838; Hon. Penelope; Hon. Susan-Mary married 16th
November, 1820, to Peter Ramsay, Esq., Banker, Edinburgh; Hon. Flora; Hon.
Jean, and Hon. Bethia.
Robert Montgomery
Hamilton, eighth Lord Belhaven, was born in 1793, and succeeded his father,
on his death, in 1814. He was one of the sixteen representatives of the
Scottish peerage, and in 1831 was created Baron Hamilton of Wishaw, in the
peerage of the United Kingdom. For many successive years Lord High
Commissioner to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, and always
reappointed under the Whig administration; Vice-lieutenant and Convener of
the county of Lanark. He married, in 1815, Hamilton, second daughter of
Walter Campbell, Esq. of Shawfield, and Mrs. Mary Hamilton of Pencaitland,
Saltcoats, &c.; without issue. Heir presumptive to the title believed to be
James Hamilton, son of the Hon. William Hamilton, who, as already stated,
died in 1838.
BELHAVEN,
second Lord, whose own name was John Hamilton, a distinguished patriot, was
born July 5, 1656. He was the eldest son of Robert Hamilton of Barncluith,
one of the senators of the college of justice, under the name of Lord
Pressmannan, as stated above; and he married Margaret, grand-daughter of the
first Lord Belhaven, who died in 1679. After his accession to the title he
took a prominent part in public affairs, and soon became conspicuous for his
opposition to the tyrannical measures of Charles the Second’s government in
Scotland. In the Scots parliament of 1681, when the act for the test was
brought forward, Lord Belhaven declared “that he saw a very good act for
securing our religion from one another among the subjects themselves; but he
did not see an act for securing our religion against a popish or fanatical
successor to the Crown.” For these words, he was committed prisoner to the
Castle of Edinburgh, and the King’s Advocate declared that there was matter
for an accusation of treason against him. But a few days thereafter his
lordship was, on his submission, restored to liberty.
After the
Revolution, he attended the meeting of the Scottish nobility in London, held
in January 1689, and concurred in the address to the Prince of Orange to
assume the government. He was present in the subsequent Convention of
Estates, and contributed much to the settling of the Crown upon William and
Mary. He was chosen one of the new king’s privy councillors for Scotland,
and appointed a Commissioner for executing the office of lord register. At
the battle of Killiecrankie, July 27, 1689, he commanded a troop of horse.
On the accession of Queen Anne he was continued a privy councillor, and in
1704 was nominated one of the commissioners of the treasury, which office he
only held a year.
When the treaty of
union with England was under discussion, Lord Belhaven was one of those who
principally distinguished themselves by their determined opposition to the
measure: and his nervous and eloquent speeches on the occasion are preserved
in various publications. In 1708, when the Pretender, assisted by the
French, attempted to make a descent on Scotland, Lord Belhaven was
apprehended on suspicion of favouring the invasion, and conveyed to London.
His high spirit burst at the disgrace, and he died of inflammation of the
brain, June 21, 1708, immediately after his release from imprisonment. A
contemporary writer says that he was of a good stature, well set, of a
healthy constitution, a graceful and manly presence; had a quick conception,
with a ready and masculine expression, and was steady in his principles,
both in politics and religion. The following is a portrait of his lordship
from one in Pinkerton’s Scottish Gallery:
The
following are Lord Belhaven’s publications, in virtue of which he has been
admitted into Walpole’s Royal and Noble Authors:
An
Advice to the Farmers of East Lothian to Cultivate and Improve their
Grounds.
His
speech in the Scots Parliament concerning the union, published in 1706.
Memorable Speeches in the Last Parliament of Scotland, 1706, reprinted in
1733. |
