The subject of this memoir is the eldest son of the late Sir John Hamilton, Bart.[1], by Cassandra, third daughter of Edmund Chamberlayne, of Maugersbury, co. Gloucester, Esq.; and brother of Rear-Admiral Sir Edward Hamilton, Bart. He was born Aug. 25, 1767; entered the naval service on board the Hector, of 74 guns, commanded by his father in Sept. 1776; and thence removed to the Royal Academy at Portsmouth, in Aug. 1777, where he continued about two years. His first promotion as a Lieutenant was into the Tobago sloop, on the Jamaica station; and towards the latter end of 1789, he was advanced from that rank in the Jupiter, of 50 guns, to the command of the Scorpion, at Antigua. His post commission bears date Nov. 22, 1790; some time previous to which he had been elected M.P. for the borough of St. Germains, co. Cornwall. He subsequently represented Honiton, in Devonshire, and Dungannon, co. Tyrone; the latter we believe in two parliaments.
At the breaking out of the war with France in 1793, Sir Charles Hamilton was appointed to the Dido of 28 guns, and cruised during the ensuing summer off the coast of Norway, where he ran on shore when in chace of a French privateer, which he afterwards captured, and was in consequence thereof obliged to dock his ship at Copenhagen. From the North Sea he proceeded to the Mediterranean under the orders of Lord Hood, whose despatches relative to the reduction of Corsica bear ample testimony to his meritorious conduct and steady perseverance in maintaining the station assigned him off Calvi, under manifest difficulties. During the operations carried on in that quarter, we find the Dido and Aimable, with a party of 300 Corsicans, the whole commanded by Sir Charles, acting against the out: post of Girilotte, a fort similar in construction to that of Mortella[2], but on a larger scale; which surrendered after a siege often days.
- ↑ Sir John Hamilton received the thanks of Parliament, and was raised to the dignity of a Baronet, July 6, 1776, for his very judicious and gallant conduct during the siege of Quebec in the preceding year, at which period he commanded the Lizard frigate; and having landed his guns and other necessaries, formed a battalion of seamen, and materially assisted in the preservation of that important place.
- ↑ See p. 250.
