the repairs of St. Paul's Cathedral, and also contributed liberally to the fabrics of All Hallows Barking, of St. Clement's, Eastcheap, and of St. Luke's, Chelsea. He also gave a great bell to Chelsea Church, with the inscription, ‘Baldwinus Hamey Philevangelicus Medicus Divo Lucæ medico evangelico, D.D.D.’ He was still more generous to the College of Physicians, and became its largest benefactor. He gave a large sum towards its rebuilding after the fire of 1666, and wainscoted the dining-room with carved Spanish oak, some of which, with his arms, is preserved in the present college. In 1672 he gave the college an estate near Great Ongar in Essex. The rents of this, among other objects, were to pay annual sums to the physicians of St. Bartholomew's, provided that hospital accepted the nominees of the College of Physicians. On a vacancy the college is informed of it by letter and makes a nomination, which is rejected by the hospital, while the senior-assistant physician is appointed. Thus the physicians of St. Bartholomew's have never received Hamey's benefaction; but to make up to them the hospital pays each one hundred guineas a year, so that, circuitously, his good wish is carried out. Hamey's thesis was his only printed work, but several of his manuscripts remain in the College of Physicians. They are: 1. ‘Bustorum aliquot Reliquiæ ab anno 1628, qui mihi primus fuit conducti seorsim a parentibus non inauspicato hospitii.’ Besides the original there is a beautiful copy of this manuscript, and another copy exists in the British Museum. It begins with an account of Theodore Goulston [q. v.], and then gives histories of fifty-three other physicians, contemporaries of Hamey. 2. ‘Universa Medicina,’ a folio book of notes on medicine. 3. ‘Gulstonian Lectures.’ 4. ‘Notes on Aristophanes.’ After his death Adam Littleton edited in 1693 Hamey's ‘Dissertatio epistolaris de juramento medicorum qui ὅρκος Ἱππoκράτους dicitur.’ Vandyck painted his portrait in 1638 (Palmer, manuscript). A portrait of him at the age of seventy-four, at present in the great library of the College of Physicians, is by Snelling. In it busts of Hippocrates and Aristophanes, his favourite Greek authors, lie before him.
[Munk's Coll. of Phys. i. 207; Hamey's Bustorum Aliquot Reliquiæ, manuscript copy in the College of Physicians' Library; Palmer's Life of the Most Eminent Dr. Baldwin Hamey, original manuscript in College of Physicians' Library.]
HAMILTON, Dukes of. [See Douglas, Alexander Hamilton, tenth Duke (1767–1852); Douglas, James, fourth Duke (1658–1712); Douglas, William, third Duke (1635–1694); Douglas, William Alexander Anthony Archibald, eleventh Duke (1811–1863). For other dukes and marquises see Hamilton below.]
HAMILTON, Mrs. (fl. 1745–1772), actress, made her first recorded appearance at Covent Garden on 12 Dec. 1745 as the Queen in ‘King Henry V.’ She was then, and for some years later, known as Mrs. Bland, her husband being an actor of small parts in the theatre. In the summer season of 1746 she supported Garrick in a short engagement, playing Regan in ‘Lear,’ Lady Anne in ‘King Richard III,’ Emilia in ‘Othello,’ and Dorinda in the ‘Stratagem.’ She went to Dublin in 1748, and played at Smock Alley Theatre. She improved greatly, and reappeared at Covent Garden on 25 Sept. 1752 as Clarinda in the ‘Suspicious Husband.’ Rich signed a long engagement on favourable terms. She remained at Covent Garden until 1762. She played Queen Elizabeth in the ‘Earl of Essex’ of Henry Jones on 21 Feb. 1753, an original part, and long a special favourite with her. She played Emilia when Murphy appeared as Othello on 18 Oct. 1754, and spoke the prologue that he wrote for the occasion. She was now described as Mrs. Hamilton, late Mrs. Bland. She appeared as Portia, Lady Jane Grey, Hypolita, Jane Shore, and Cleopatra in ‘All for Love,’ Mrs. Sullen, Millamant, Rosalind, &c. Her second husband seems to have lived upon her, and robbed her at one time of 2,000l. She was fine-looking, inclined from the first to portliness, and in the end very stout; had a mass of black hair, wore no powder, was generous, but vulgar, quarrelsome, and conceited. She had much comic spirit, and was respectable in tragedy, which was scarcely her forte. An unlucky quarrel with George Anne Bellamy won her the nickname of ‘Tripe.’ Beard and Bencraft, who succeeded Rich at Covent Garden, found her intractable. Believing herself to be quite necessary to the theatre, she let out that a secret clause in her agreement with Rich released either of them in the case of a change of management, and was dismissed at the close of the season 1761–62. She went to Dublin, and was unsuccessful, married in Ireland (at Kilkenny?) a third husband, Captain Sweeney, who also lived upon her. Tate Wilkinson found her at Malton playing the Nurse in ‘Romeo and Juliet’ with a wretched company, and engaged her through charity. She appeared at York in January 1772 as Queen Elizabeth, and some interest was inspired by her misfortunes.
