James Hamilton FLS (27 November 1814 – 24 November 1867) was a Scottish minister and a prolific author of religious tracts.

Life

Born in Paisley, Scotland, seven miles west-southwest of

Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

, Hamilton was the eldest son of William Hamilton, a

Church of Scotland The Church of Scotland (CoS; ; ) is a Presbyterian denomination of Christianity that holds the status of the national church in Scotland. It is one of the country's largest, having 245,000 members in 2024 and 259,200 members in 2023. While mem ...

minister of

Strathblane Strathblane (, ) is a village and List of civil parishes in Scotland, parish in the registration county of Stirling, situated in the southwestern part of the Stirling (council area), Stirling council area, in central Scotland. It lies at the foo ...

and religious author of local renown.Robert Chambers, Thomas Thomson, ''A Biographical Dictionary of Eminent Scotsmen, Volume 3'' (1875), p. 214-216. James Hamilton was therefore destined from an early age to enter the ministry, and to that end he studied at the universities of

and

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 ...

. He enjoyed courses on the natural sciences, particularly

chemistry Chemistry is the scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a physical science within the natural sciences that studies the chemical elements that make up matter and chemical compound, compounds made of atoms, molecules a ...

and

botany Botany, also called plant science, is the branch of natural science and biology studying plants, especially Plant anatomy, their anatomy, Plant taxonomy, taxonomy, and Plant ecology, ecology. A botanist or plant scientist is a scientist who s ...

, and contemplated a career in one of those fields. Although Hamilton enjoyed poetry, he once read a novel by Sir

Walter Scott Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet (15 August 1771 – 21 September 1832), was a Scottish novelist, poet and historian. Many of his works remain classics of European literature, European and Scottish literature, notably the novels ''Ivanhoe'' (18 ...

and had the following reaction: He became assistant to

Robert Smith Candlish Robert Smith Candlish (23 March 1806 – 19 October 1873) was a Scottish minister who was a leading figure in the Disruption of 1843. He served for many years in both St. George's Church and St George's Free Church on Charlotte Square in Ed ...

at St. George's Church in Edinburgh, in 1838, and upon finishing his college studies, he was licensed to preach by the Presbytery of Edinburgh in 1839 and "commenced his clerical life as assistant minister in the small secluded parish of Abernyte, in Perthshire". In January 1841, he was formally ordained as a minister, at Roxburgh Church in south Edinburgh, and in July of that year became pastor of the National Scotch Church, Regent Square, London, where he would remain until his death. In 1849 he became editor of the ''Presbyterian Messenger'', and in 1864 editor of ''Evangelical Christendom'', the organ of the Evangelical Alliance. He was an incessant literary worker and the author of some of the most widely circulated books of his day. His best known works were: ''Life in Earnest'' (London, 1845), of which 64,000 copies had been sold before 1852; ''The Mount of Olives'' (1846); ''The Royal Preacher'' (1851), a homiletical commentary on Ecclesiastes; and ''Our Christian Classics'' (4 vols., 1857–59). Following his death, his collected works were published in London (6 vols., 1869–73); and his Select Works appeared in New York (4 vols., 1875). In addition to his religious writings, Hamilton continued to have an interest in botany throughout his life, publishing several articles in journals on the subject.Ray Desmond, ''Dictionary of British and Irish Botanists and Horticulturists'' (1994), p. 311.

Family

In 1847 he married Anne Hovenden Moore (d.1886) daughter of John Moore of Calcutta. Their children included: *Anne Hamilton (1849-1910) married

Sir Frederick Wills, 1st Baronet Sir Frederick Wills, 1st Baronet (22 November 1838 – 18 February 1909) was a businessman, philanthropist and politician in the United Kingdom. He was a director of W. D. & H. O. Wills, a famous tobacco company headquartered in Bristol which ...

. *James Hamilton (1850-1911) *Mary Isabella Hamilton (1853-1887) married Alexander Lawrence *Christina Jean Hamilton (1856-1885) *Herbert William Hamilton (b.1861) *Ada Frances Hamilton (1864-1902)

References

Citations

Sources

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External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Hamilton, James 1814 births 1867 deaths Burials at Highgate Cemetery People from Paisley, Renfrewshire Alumni of the University of Edinburgh 19th-century ministers of the Church of Scotland 19th-century Scottish Presbyterian ministers