Robert Montgomery Hamilton, 8th Lord Belhaven and Stenton, KT (1793 – 22 December 1868) was a

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

peer and politician.

Background

Born at

Wishaw House Wishaw House was a large mansion located in Wishaw, Scotland. Once the family seat of the Belhavens and Hamilton family, the mansion was abandoned by the 20th century and was demolished, now nothing more than a ruin in the woodland by the South ...

, he was the son of William Hamilton, 7th Lord Belhaven and Stenton, and Penelope Macdonald, youngest daughter of Ranald MacDonald of Clanranald. In 1814 he succeeded his father in the Lordship of Belhaven and Stenton.

Career

Hamilton sat on the Whig benches in the

House of Lords The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the Bicameralism, upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by Life peer, appointment, Hereditary peer, heredity or Lords Spiritual, official function. Like the ...

as a

Scottish Representative Peer This is a list of representative peers elected from the Peerage of Scotland to sit in the House of Lords after the Acts of Union 1707 abolished the Parliament of Scotland, where, as a unicameral legislature, all Scottish P ...

between 1819 and 1832. The latter year he was created Baron Hamilton of Wishaw, in the County of Lanark, in the

Peerage of the United Kingdom The Peerage of the United Kingdom is one of the five Peerages in the United Kingdom. It comprises most peerages created in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland after the Acts of Union 1800, Acts of Union in 1801, when it replaced the ...

. This title gave him an automatic seat in the House of Lords. Hamilton also served as High Commissioner to the General Assembly and Kirk from 1831 to 1841, from 1847 to 1851, again from 1853 to 1857 and a last time from 1860 to 1866. Having been previously the county's vice-lord-lieutenant, he was appointed

Lord Lieutenant of Lanarkshire This is a list of people who served as Lord Lieutenant of Lanarkshire. *George Douglas-Hamilton, 1st Earl of Orkney 1714 - 29 January 1737 *Douglas Douglas-Hamilton, 8th Duke of Hamilton 17 March 1794 – 2 August 1799 * Archibald Douglas-Ham ...

in 1863, an office he held until his death five years later. In 1861, Hamilton was invested as a

Knight of the Thistle A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a head of state (including the Pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church or the country, especially in a military capacity. Knighthood finds origins in the Gr ...

. He is recorded as President of the

Wodrow Society The Wodrow Society, established in Edinburgh in 1841, was a society 'for the publication of the works of the fathers and early writers of the Reformed Church of Scotland'. The society, established in May 1841, was named after Robert Wodrow, the h ...

in 1845.Oliver & Boyd's New Edinburgh Almanack, 1845, page 422.

Family

He married Hamilton Campbell, daughter of Walter Frederick Campbell and Mary Nisbet, in 1815; they had no children. Hamilton died on 22 December 1868, aged 75 and was buried in

Cambusnethan Cambusnethan is a large village and suburb on the eastern edge of Wishaw, North Lanarkshire in Scotland. It is approximately long, straddling both sides of the A722 on a hill overlooking Wishaw. Etymology The name "''Cambusnethan"'' was his ...

Kirkyard, where his large mausoleum still stands, although the kirk no longer exists. The kirkyard is located close to

Wishaw Wishaw ( sco, Wishae or Wisha ; gd, Camas Neachdain) is a large town in North Lanarkshire, Scotland, on the edge of the Clyde Valley, south-east of Glasgow city centre. The Burgh of Wishaw was formed in 1855 within Lanarkshire. it formed ...

, by the

River Clyde The River Clyde ( gd, Abhainn Chluaidh, , sco, Clyde Watter, or ) is a river that flows into the Firth of Clyde in Scotland. It is the ninth-longest river in the United Kingdom, and the third-longest in Scotland. It runs through the major cit ...

. On his death, the barony of Hamilton of Wishaw became extinct while the lordship of Belhaven and Stenton became dormant.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Belhaven and Stenton, 8th Lord Hamilton, Robert 1793 births 1868 deaths Knights of the Thistle Lords of Parliament Lord-Lieutenants of Lanarkshire Lords High Commissioner to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland Barons in the Peerage of the United Kingdom Peers of the United Kingdom created by William IV