(Douglas, Baronage of Scotland, p. 563). His father was David, ‘gude man of Bothwellhaugh,’ a designation implying that he held his estate as a vassal from a superior. George Buchanan states that his mother was the sister of Hamilton, archbishop of St. Andrews, but her name was Catherine Schaw (Pitcairn, Criminal Trials, i. 23). There were at least three sons, James, David, and John. James seems to have been the eldest, although David, on the death of the father, added the title of Bothwellhaugh to that of Monkton-mains which he formerly held, probably because the property fell to him on account of his brother's forfeiture. David and James were married to two sisters, Isabel and Alison Sinclair, coheiresses of Woodhouselee. Ignorance of the fact that James as well as David was interested in Woodhouselee has led to the supposition that David was the murderer of the regent (see Records of the Burgh of Prestwick, Maitland Club, 1834, pp. 139–42). James Hamilton first appears, 26 April 1566, as one of the cautioners for the Earl of Arran (Reg. P. C. Scotl. i. 453). He was taken prisoner at Langside on 13 May 1568 (Hist. of James the Sext, p. 26), was tried, and sentenced to death, but was pardoned at the intercession of Knox (Calderwood, ii. 417). According to the author of the ‘Historie of James the Sext,’ Hamilton's lands remained forfeited, and his wife, expecting to be allowed to remain in her house of Woodislee, was nevertheless violently expelled, and ‘quhat for greif of mynd and exceeding cold that schee had then contracted conceived sic madness of spreit as was almost incredible’ (p. 46). The lands of Woodhouselee came into the possession of Bellenden, lord justice clerk, the uncle of Hamilton's wife, and the probability is that they were formally conveyed to him to save them from forfeiture. Spotiswood states that because Bellenden would not part with them Hamilton made ‘his quarrel to the regent, who was most innocent and had restored him to life and liberty.’ According to one of the ‘Hamilton Papers,’ Bothwellhaugh killed Moray partly on account of his treatment of the queen, and partly in revenge of private injuries (Maitland Club Miscellany, iv. 123). It was given out that the whole motive was private revenge, and according to later tradition Hamilton's wife perished from the exposure to which she had been subjected at the instance of the regent. Thus Woodhouselee was supposed to have been haunted, as described in Sir Walter Scott's ballad of ‘Cadzow Castle,’ by the ‘sheeted phantom’ of the wife of Bothwellhaugh. The lady, in fact, not only survived her husband, but was alive thirty years after the battle of Langside (Acta Parl. Scot. iv. 354). Mr. Maitland traces the story of the ghost supposed to haunt Woodhouselee to the tragic death of Lady Anne Bothwell, the heroine of the ‘Lady Anne Bothwell's Lament,’ which took place at Glencorse, near Woodhouselee. He supposes that the two traditions have gradually become blended (Scottish Ballads, ii. 331–2).
Though Bothwellhaugh was probably actuated by private revenge, he was aided by the chiefs of the house of Hamilton, and the deed was fully approved by the queen's friends. The regent Moray was induced to leave Edinburgh to discuss the surrender of the fortress with Lord Fleming of Dumbarton, but on reaching Glasgow he discovered that he had been misled, and shortly afterwards returned to Stirling on his way to Edinburgh. Bothwellhaugh lay in wait for him on more than one occasion during his progress. He either preceded or dogged him to Linlithgow, where the regent slept on 22 Jan. 1569–70. He took up his position in a house belonging to the Archbishop of St. Andrews, four doors eastward from the regent's lodging. John Hamilton (1532–1604) [q. v.], abbot of Arbroath (afterwards Marquis of Hamilton), had supplied him with his own carbine and with a swift horse. He hid behind a window curtain, and at the distance of a few feet took leisurely aim at the regent as, on the morning of the 23rd, he began his journey along the narrow street. The carbine was loaded with four pellets, one of which inflicted a fatal wound; the weapon is still preserved at Hamilton Palace. The long line of high houses concealed Bothwellhaugh, who escaped by the garden at the back, mounted his horse, and galloped westwards towards Hamilton Castle. According to Robert Birrel he was speedily followed, but ‘after yat spure and vand had failed him he drew furth hes dagger and strooke hes hors behind, quhilk caused the horse to leape a verey brode stanke, by quhilk meines he escaipit and got away from all ye rest of the horses’ (Diary, p. 18). The assassination did not produce the intended political effect. The chiefs of the Hamilton family publicly disavowed the murder, and ‘sent to the rest of the Hamiltons pretending to dissuade them from all fellowship with the murderer’ (Calderwood, ii. 512), who probably by this time was safe from all prosecution in France. On 8 June 1570 he was deputed by the friends of Mary as ambassador to the king of France to obtain aid in carrying on the war in Scotland (Cal. State Papers, For. Ser. 1569–71, entry 988). Mary expressed to the Archbishop of Glasgow her fervent satisfaction that she had been
