Anne Hamilton, 3rd Duchess of Hamilton (6 January 1632 – 17 October 1716) was a Scottish peeress. The daughter of James Hamilton, 1st Duke of Hamilton and 3rd Marquess of Hamilton, Scottish General and premier peer of the realm, and Lady Mary Feilding, daughter of William Feilding, 1st Earl of Denbigh, and his wife, the former Lady Susan Villiers, a sister of

George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham ( ; 20 August 1592 – 23 August 1628), was an English courtier, statesman, and patron of the arts. He was a favourite and self-described "lover" of King James VI and I. Buckingham remained at the heigh ...

. She was born at the

Palace of Whitehall The Palace of Whitehall – also spelled White Hall – at Westminster was the main residence of the English monarchs from 1530 until 1698, when most of its structures, with the notable exception of Inigo Jones's Banqueting House of 1622, ...

in London, where her mother was a

Lady of the Bedchamber Lady of the Bedchamber is the title of a lady-in-waiting holding the official position of personal attendant on a British queen regnant or queen consort. The position is traditionally held by the wife of a peer. A lady of the bedchamber would gi ...

Henrietta Maria of France Henrietta Maria of France ( French: ''Henriette Marie''; 25 November 1609 – 10 September 1669) was Queen of England, Scotland and Ireland from her marriage to King Charles I on 13 June 1625 until his execution on 30 January 1649. She was ...

, wife of King Charles I. Her name is found as a shareholder in "A List of the Names of the Adventurers in the

Bank of Scotland The Bank of Scotland plc (Scottish Gaelic: ''Banca na h-Alba'') is a commercial bank, commercial and clearing (finance), clearing bank based in Edinburgh, Scotland, and is part of the Lloyds Banking Group. The bank was established by the Par ...

, February 4, 1697". Holding shares worth £8000 Scots, she was entitled to be elected as Governor.

Accession

Following the 1st Duke's execution for his part in the

Wars of the Three Kingdoms The Wars of the Three Kingdoms were a series of conflicts fought between 1639 and 1653 in the kingdoms of Kingdom of England, England, Kingdom of Scotland, Scotland and Kingdom of Ireland, Ireland, then separate entities in a personal union un ...

in 1649, his brother, William, Earl of Lanark, inherited the titles and lands. William died from wounds received at the

Battle of Worcester The Battle of Worcester took place on 3 September 1651 in and around the city of Worcester, England and was the last major battle of the 1642 to 1651 Wars of the Three Kingdoms. A Parliamentarian army of around 28,000 under Oliver Cromwell def ...

in 1651, whilst leading his regiment into some of the thickest of the fighting. In his will made at

The Hague The Hague ( ) is the capital city of the South Holland province of the Netherlands. With a population of over half a million, it is the third-largest city in the Netherlands. Situated on the west coast facing the North Sea, The Hague is the c ...

in 1650, he stipulated that the Lady Anne was his heir, over and above his own children, (all daughters, his only son having died in childhood). Lady Anne became the Duchess of Hamilton, with the subsidiary titles Marchioness of Clydesdale, Countess of Arran, Lanark and Cambridge, the Lady Aven, Innerdale, Machanshire and Polmont. She succeeded to the dukedom of Hamilton thanks to a remainder that stipulated, the dukedom should devolve upon his brother and male heirs, and that the eldest daughter of the 1st Duke should succeed to the dukedom only if her uncle died leaving no sons. Through paternal descent, Anne had a claim to the throne of Scotland, although this was dependent upon the failure of the

House of Stuart The House of Stuart, originally spelled Stewart, also known as the Stuart dynasty, was a dynasty, royal house of Kingdom of Scotland, Scotland, Kingdom of England, England, Kingdom of Ireland, Ireland and later Kingdom of Great Britain, Great ...

. She was descended from James II through the marriage of the 1st Lord Hamilton to James's daughter Mary. Her great-great-grandfather, the 2nd Earl of Arran, had been

heir presumptive An heir presumptive is the person entitled to inherit a throne, peerage, or other hereditary honour, but whose position can be displaced by the birth of a person with a better claim to the position in question. This is in contrast to an heir app ...

from the death of Regent Albany until the birth of

James VI James may refer to: People * James (given name) * James (surname) * James (musician), aka Faruq Mahfuz Anam James, (born 1964), Bollywood musician * James, brother of Jesus * King James (disambiguation), various kings named James * Prince Ja ...

, and had served as

regent In a monarchy, a regent () is a person appointed to govern a state because the actual monarch is a minor, absent, incapacitated or unable to discharge their powers and duties, or the throne is vacant and a new monarch has not yet been dete ...

of Scotland during the childhood and absence in

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

Mary, Queen of Scots Mary, Queen of Scots (8 December 1542 – 8 February 1587), also known as Mary Stuart or Mary I of Scotland, was List of Scottish monarchs, Queen of Scotland from 14 December 1542 until her forced abdication in 1567. The only surviving legit ...

Marriage and issue

She was wed in 1656, at the kirk of

Corstorphine Corstorphine (Scottish Gaelic: ''Crois Thoirfinn'') ( ) is an area of the Scottish capital city of Edinburgh. Formerly a separate village and parish to the west of Edinburgh, it is now a suburb of the city, having been formally incorporate ...

near

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

, to William Douglas, 1st Earl of Selkirk, a younger son of William Douglas, 1st Marquess of Douglas. Selkirk was created Duke of Hamilton for his lifetime, included the subsidiary titles pertaining to the Dukedom ''

jure uxoris ''Jure uxoris'' (a Latin phrase meaning "by right of (his) wife"), citing . describes a title of nobility used by a man because his wife holds the office or title '' suo jure'' ("in her own right"). Similarly, the husband of an heiress could beco ...

'', and in 1660 he assumed the surname Hamilton. Between 1657 and 1673, the couple produced 13 children: * Lady Mary Hamilton (1657–1666) *

James Hamilton, 4th Duke of Hamilton Lieutenant-General James Hamilton, 4th Duke of Hamilton and 1st Duke of Brandon (11 April 1658 – 15 November 1712), was a Scottish nobleman, soldier and politician. Hamilton was a major investor in the failed Darien scheme, which cost many of ...

(1658–1712), until 1698 he was styled as Earl of Arran * Lord William Hamilton (1659–1681) * Lady Anna Hamilton (1661–1663) * Lady Catherine Hamilton (1662–1707), married John Murray, 1st Duke of Atholl * Lord Charles Hamilton (1664–1739), later 2nd

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* Lord John Hamilton (1665–1744), later 1st Earl of Ruglen and 3rd Earl of Selkirk * Field Marshal

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(1666–1737), later 1st

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* Lady Susan Hamilton, married firstly John Cochrane, 2nd Earl of Dundonald; married secondly John Hay, 3rd Marquess of Tweeddale * Lady Margaret Hamilton (1668–1731), married James Maule, 4th Earl of Panmure * Lady Anna Hamilton (b. 1669), died in infancy * Lord Basil Hamilton (1671–1701) *

Lord Archibald Hamilton Lord Archibald Hamilton (1673 – 5 April 1754) was a Royal Navy officer, nobleman and Whigs (British political party), Whig politician who sat in the House of Commons of Great Britain, House of Commons from 1708 to 1747. In the 1690's, he was ...

(1673–1754) James, Earl of Arran's father died in 1694, and in July 1698 his mother resigned all her titles into the hand of King William, who regranted them to Arran a month later in a charter signed at

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, Netherlands. He was conferred with the titles: Duke of Hamilton, Marquess of Clydesdale, Earl of Arran, Earl of Lanark, Earl of Cambridge, Lord Aven, Polmont, Machansyre, and Innerdale.Scot's Peerage Vol IV, p. 383 This regrant of title was presumably because of the loyalty of Arran's parents to the King, as his own affection to the House of Orange was questionable due to his suspected

Jacobitism Jacobitism was a political ideology advocating the restoration of the senior line of the House of Stuart to the Monarchy of the United Kingdom, British throne. When James II of England chose exile after the November 1688 Glorious Revolution, ...

. The Duchess died at Hamilton on 17 October 1716, and is buried there, in the Bent Cemetery.

Building works

After her marriage, the Duchess and her husband set about laying the foundations for what would be, under later Dukes, the largest private residence in the

western hemisphere The Western Hemisphere is the half of the planet Earth that lies west of the Prime Meridian (which crosses Greenwich, London, United Kingdom) and east of the 180th meridian.- The other half is called the Eastern Hemisphere. Geopolitically, ...

Hamilton Palace Hamilton Palace was a country house in Hamilton, South Lanarkshire, Scotland. It was the seat of the Dukes of Hamilton and is widely acknowledged as having been one of the grandest houses in the British Isles.Clyde valley, since the fourteenth century. In 1684 she commissioned the architect, James Smith to remodel the existing buildings, removing the southern part of the previous courtyard building on the site and increasing the scale of the edifice to form a U-shaped

mansion A mansion is a large dwelling house. The word itself derives through Old French from the Latin word ''mansio'' "dwelling", an abstract noun derived from the verb ''manere'' "to dwell". The English word ''manse'' originally defined a property l ...

house. Today, the palace is no more, and the Low Parks now form part of Strathclyde Park, having been given to the nation in lieu of

death duties International tax law distinguishes between an estate tax and an inheritance tax. An inheritance tax is a tax paid by a person who inherits money or property of a person who has died, whereas an estate tax is a levy on the estate (money and prop ...

upon the passing of the 14th Duke in 1973. Another of the Duchess's works was the building of a new school building to house the Grammar School of Hamilton (in 1848 renamed the Hamilton Academy) which had originally been endowed in 1588 by her great-grandfather

John Hamilton, 1st Marquess of Hamilton John Hamilton, 1st Marquess of Hamilton (1540–1604) was the founder of the long line of the Duke of Hamilton, marquesses and dukes of Hamilton in Scotland. Birth and origins John was born about 1540 in Scotland. He was the third son of Ja ...

and sited near the churchyard adjoining Hamilton Palace. In 1714 the Duchess presented this new school building on the newly named Grammar School Square to the Town Council of Hamilton. The building remained in the school's use until 1848 when, as now the Hamilton Academy, the school relocated to a further purpose-built building. Duchess Anne's building of 1714 was demolished in 1932; a plaque commemorating the site was subsequently erected by Hamilton Civic Society, the Hamilton family continuing as benefactors of the school (see article Hamilton Academy).

References

Notes

Bibliography

* Balfour Paul, Sir James, ''The Scots Peerage IX Vols.'' Edinburgh, 1907 * Rosalind K. Marshall, ''The Days of Duchess Anne-Life in the Household of the Duchess of Hamilton 1656–1716''. Edinburgh: Tuckwell Press, 1973 (2000ed.)

External links

Royal Commission on Ancient & Historical Monuments of Scotland, Reconstruction of Hamilton Palace
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hamilton, Anne, 03 Duchess of Hamilton 1632 births 1716 deaths Nobility from South Lanarkshire 103 Hamilton, Anne Hamilton, 3rd Duchess of Scottish duchesses 17th-century Scottish peers

Anne Anne, alternatively spelled Ann, is a form of the Latin female name Anna (name), Anna. This in turn is a representation of the Hebrew Hannah (given name), Hannah, which means 'favour' or 'grace'. Related names include Annie (given name), Annie a ...