King of that country, who conferred upon him the lands of Kedsow, and several others in co. Lanark, which property was afterwards created into a barony and named Hamilton[1].
From this personage descended James second Lord Hamilton, who in 1474, espoused the eldest daughter of James II. of Scotland, and by her had issue one son and a daughter; the former of whom was sent into England by James IV., to negociate the marriage between that monarch and the eldest daughter of Hen. VII. for the performance of which service the King gave him the county or island of Arran, and created him Earl thereof in 1503. The latter married Matthew Stewart, Earl of Lennox, and by him was grandmother of Henry Lord Darnley, father of James VI. of Scotland and I. of England.
James, fourth Lord Hamilton and second Earl of Arran, succeeded his father in 1530, and about the year 1542 was chosen protector to Queen Mary, and Regent of the kingdom during her minority; and in failure of issue on the part of that princess, her successor to the throne of Scotland. The dukedom of Chatelherault, in Poitou was conferred upon him in 1549, by Hen. VII. of France. From this nobleman’s third son Claud, is descended the present Marquis of Abercorn, who is the chief representative in the male line of the illustrious house of Hamilton, and to whom the officer of whose services we are about to present a brief sketch, is the nearest of kin now living[2].
- ↑ It is said that when Sir William de Hatnbledon fled from England, he was closely pursued into a wood, where he and his servant changed coats with two wood-cutters, and took a frame saw, with which they were cutting through an oak tree when his enemies passed by; and that seeing his inan take notice of them, he spoke hastily to him THROUGH; which word became the motto of his family; and the saw cutting through the oak is the crest.
- ↑ Lord Claud Hamilton’s grand nephew James, third Marquis of Abercorn, was created Duke of Hamilton in 1643, and succeeded in the title by his brother William; who also dying without male issue, the estates and honours devolved to the Lady Anne Hamilton, eldest daughter of the first Duke, who carried them to the house of Douglas, by her marriage in 1661 with William Douglas, Earl of Selkirk, who became Duke of Hamilton in right of his wife, and assumed the name and arms of Hamilton, discontinuing those of Douglas; from him descends the present Duke of Brandon and Hamilton.
