Social Victorians/People/Hamilton

Also Known As

• Family name: Hamilton
• Sir Edward Walter Hamilton
• Eddy Hamilton
• The family name of the Duke of Hamilton is Douglas-Hamilton.
• The family name of the Duke of Abercorn is Hamilton.
• The family name of Baron Hamilton of Dalzell is Hamilton.
• The family name of Baron HolmPatrick is Hamilton.
• Baron Hamilton of Dalzell
  • John Glencairn Carter Hamilton, 1st Baron (1886 – 15 October 1900)
• Baron HolmPatrick

Overview

• David Cannadine says, "Edward Hamilton was a man of letters and confidant of Arthur Sullivan." In the footnote to this sentence, he says, "He wrote a biography of his former chief, Mr Gladstone (1893), and was also an amateur composer of some note."

Acquaintances, Friends and Enemies

Friends

The Baron HolmPatrick Family

• Lady Victoria Alexandrina Wellesley Hamilton was goddaughter of Queen Victoria and granddaughter of the 1st Duke of Wellington.

Timeline

1862 December 18, Richard Vesey Hamilton and Julia Frances Delmé Murray married.

1864 March 29, John Glencairn Carter Hamilton and Lady Emily Eleanor Leslie-Melville married.

1877, or so, Edward Walter Hamilton was invited to the Devonshire House Derby party for the first time, not missing a single year until 1905.

1890 January 18, Hon. Ellinor Hamilton and Colonel Charles William Trotter married.

1894, Edward Walter Hamilton was knighted and promoted a Knight Commander of the Order of Bath. Also, he was promoted from Assistant Financial Secretary to "Assistant Secretary to the Treasury for financial business."

1894 May 7, Monday, Edward Walter Hamilton wrote in his journal,

The Duke of Devonshire came to see me this afternoon, nominally about the staff of his Labour Commission (which is at last winding up), but really about the effect of the Death duty proposals on his successor. He made out, or I presume his Solicitor had made out for him, that V. Cavendish would on succeeding have to pay £600,000 in Estate and Succession Duties, which (he said) must result in the shutting up of Chatsworth and the sale of Devonshire House, because from figures which he showed me the margin of free income, vast as are the estates in the aggregate, is comparatively not very great — not more than about £30,000 a year for living and entertaining. It is most awkward for me, as I told him, to express any opinion or take any action about a measure of this kind which is to be violently attacked by the Opposition. My own belief is that the value of the estates has been taken much too high; that is to say, Devonshire House, instead of being as heretofore estimated at the life interest of the successor on its rateable value — say £1200 or £1500* <* I find it is rated at £3000 a year [The angle brackets enclose an interpolated explanatory note.]> a year, is probably put at what it might fetch if put up for sale as building ground, very likely £250,000. I think this would be a monstrous exaction. What might be done — and I imagine it is all that the Inland Revenue (if left to themselves) would do — is to take the capital value instead of the life interest in the rateable value, and then say the question would be reopened, if the property were subsequently sold. But it seems to me to be doubtful policy to give the Department a statutory lead in this direction...

1895 January 15, Hon. Alice Susan Hamilton and Captain Hon. John Beresford Campbell married.

1897 July 2, Friday, Eddy Hamilton attended the Duchess of Devonshire's fancy-dress ball at Devonshire House (at #683 on the list of people who attended).

1899 January 12, Lilian Louisa Hamilton and Reverend Edmund Horace Fellowes married.

1899 August 2, Hon. Helena Mabel Hamilton and Henry Heywood Heywood-Lonsdale married.

1905 May 31, Wednesday, Edward Walter Hamilton wrote in his journal,

I am not going to the usual Devonshire House Derby party. I have not missed going for 28 years; but I was not invited this year. The fact is, I am too done out to get anywhere. My downward course is slow, very slow, but sure.

1912 April 17, Hon. Adele Emily Anna Hamilton and Reverend Clement Eustace Macro Wilson married.

Costume at the Duchess of Devonshire's 2 July 1897 Fancy-dress Ball

John of Gaunt, c. 1893

At the Duchess of Devonshire's fancy-dress ball, Rt. Hon. Sir Edward Walter Hamilton was dressed as John of Gaunt.

Maull & Fox's portrait of "Eddy Hamilton as John of Gaunt" in costume is photogravure #229 in the album presented to the Duchess of Devonshire and now in the National Portrait Gallery. The printing on the portrait says, "Sir E. W. Hamilton as John of Gaunt."

John of Gaunt (1340–1399), Duke of Lancaster was a son of King Edward III and the founder of the House of Lancaster. The portrait of him (right) was commissioned by Sir Edward Hoby in about 1593, two centuries after his death, and probably based on his tomb effigy. After it was commissioned, it was at Queenborough Castle, which was demolished in the second half of the 17th century. In 1929 this portrait was listed as being owned by the Duke of Beaufort, a descendant of John of Gaunt, and it is likely still in that collection at Bandminton House, Gloucestershire.

Demographics

Nationality

• Baron HolmPatrick: Anglo-Irish
• Edward Walter Hamilton: British

Family

The Baron Hamilton of Dalzell Family

• John Glencairn Carter Hamilton, 1st Baron Hamilton of Dalzell (16 November 1829 – 15 October 1900)
• Lady Emily Eleanor Leslie-Melville ( – 11 November 1882)

1. Hon. Helena Mabel Hamilton ( – 21 May 1930)
2. Hon. Adele Emily Anna Hamilton ( – 26 August 1946)
3. Hon. Ellinor Hamilton (1865 – 14 January 1957)
4. Hon. Alice Susan Hamilton (1866 – 25 January 1949)
5. Archibald John Hamilton (24 May 1868 – 20 May 1870)
6. Gavin George Hamilton, 2nd Baron Hamilton of Dalzell (20 June 1872 – 23 June 1952)
7. Major Hon. Leslie d'Henin Hamilton (19 December 1873 – 29 October 1914)
8. Hon. John David Hamilton (23 December 1878 – 22 May 1900)

The Baron HolmPatrick Family

• Ion Trant Hamilton, 1st Baron HolmPatrick (14 July 1839 – 6 March 1898)
• Lady Victoria Alexandrina Wellesley Hamilton ( – 31 July 1933)

1. Hon. Winifred Hamilton ( – 3 September 1944)
2. Hon. Margaret Augusta Hamilton ( – 1 February 1905)
3. Hon. Georgina Hamilton ( – 20 December 1960)
4. Hon. Sybil Evelyn Hamilton ( – 22 April 1958)
5. Hon. Clare Hamilton ( – 13 October October 1935)
6. Hans Wellesley Hamilton, 2nd Baron Holmpatrick (8 August 1886 – 5 September 1942)

The Admiral Sir Richard Vesey Hamilton Family

• Sir Richard Vesey Hamilton (28 May 1829 – 17 September 1912)
• Julia Frances Delmé Murray Hamilton (c. 1842 – 4 June 1897)

1. Lilian Louisa Hamilton ()
2. Rosalind Hamilton
3. James Hamilton
4. Violet Hamilton ( – 1886)
5. William Hamilton

Rt. Hon. Sir Edward Walter Hamilton

• Rt. Rev. Walter Kerr Hamilton (12 November 1808 – 1 August 1869)
• Isabel Elizabeth Lear (1825–)
  1. Ethel Linda Hamilton ()
  2. Alice Sidney Hamilton ( – 3 August 1939)
  3. Maude Isabel Mary Hamilton ( – 16 April 19420
  4. Lucy Constance Farquhar Hamilton ( – 19 July 1902)
  5. Rt. Hon. Sir Edward Walter Hamilton (7 July 1847 – 2 September 1908)
  6. Clement Edward Hamilton (8 March 1854 – 1923)
  7. Eleanor Frances Hamilton (1859–1907)
  8. Sydney William Henry Hamilton (25 May 1865 – 4 November 1926)

Questions and Notes

1. Rt. Hon. Sir Edward Walter Hamilton is a guess for E. W. Hamilton or Eddy Hamilton, but he's got all the right honors and is the only man with the right initials born at about the right time in the aristocracy as listed by The Peerage. (The Wikipedia article on him says he was called Eddy.) Rt. Hon. Sir Edward Walter Hamilton's father was Bishop of Salisbury; his mother was born in Wiltshire. He never marrried. He was a civil servant because of his family connections, served under and wrote about Gladstone and was "a confidant of Arthur Sullivan."

Archives and Memoirs

Rt. Hon. Sir Edward Walter Hamilton

1. Conversion and Redemption: an Account of the Operations under the National Debt Conversion Act, 1889. Eyre and Spottiswoode, 1889.
2. Mr. Gladstone. John Murray, 1898.
3. The Diary of Sir Edward Walter Hamilton, 1880–1885. D. W. R. Bahlman, ed. 2 vols. Clarendon Press, 1972. Internet Archive Vol. I: https://archive.org/details/diaryofsiredward0001hami; Vol. 2: https://archive.org/details/diaryofsiredward0002hami/page/n7/mode/2up.
4. The Destruction of Lord Rosebery: From the Diary of Sir Edward Hamilton, 1894–1895, ed. David Brooks. Historian's Press, 1986.
5. The Diary of Sir Edward Walter Hamilton, 1885–1906. D. W. R. Bahlman, ed. University of Hull Press, 1993. Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/diaryofsiredward0000hami.