William Hamilton of Sanquhar explained

Sir William Hamilton of Sanquhar (c. 1510–1570) was pursemaster for James V and the Captain of Edinburgh Castle during the Regency of Regent Arran.

William Hamilton was the son of William Hamilton, also of Sanquhar, and Katherine Kennedy, a daughter of David Kennedy, 1st Earl of Cassilis.

He was first known as Hamilton of MacNaristoun, and was appointed pursemaster to James V of Scotland in September 1524.^[1]

Hamilton travelled to France as a diplomat and in September 1528 brought back letters from Francis I of France co-signed by the secretary Florimond Robertet, showing that Francis was mindful of the 1517 Treaty of Rouen and would persuade the Duke of Albany to give up Dunbar Castle and would try to prevent Albany's return to Scotland.^[2]

Hamilton was involved in the failed negotiation for Mary, Queen of Scots, to marry Edward of England. During the war known as the Rough Wooing, in 1547, Hamilton gave money to the Abbot of Melrose Abbey to help him pay the tax levied for defence. He administered the Abbey business for James Stewart, Commendator of Kelso and Melrose.^[3] As Captain of Edinburgh Castle from 1 October 1548, in April 1549, Hamilton took delivery of 24 halberds. His annual fee for being Captain was £134-6s-8d. Scots.^[4]

An inventory of Sir William's furniture at Newton Castle near Ayr, made in 1559 during a legal action, is notable for its description of furniture. It mentions cupboards and a door made in the "courtly manner" and "raised and carved work of the most recent and curious fashion used within the realm".^[5] Another inventory of 1588 shows that some of the same furniture was still in place.^[6] The gardens and orchard had hawthorn hedges, gooseberry and currant bushes, roses, apple trees, plum trees, and cherry trees. There were also areas with kale and herbs.^[7]

Marriage and family

Hamilton married Jean Campbell. His children included:

• Isobel Hamilton (died 1604), who married George Seton, 7th Lord Seton in 1550. Hamilton paid £2,000 for the ward and marriage right of the young Lord Seton.^[8] The wedding was celebrated with a feast at Edinburgh Castle on 12 August 1550 paid for by Regent Arran.^[9] Richard Maitland wrote that Hamilton helped Lord Seton rebuild Seton Palace, which had been damaged by the English army that burnt Edinburgh in May 1544.^[10]
• William Hamilton of Glenmoor. In December 1551 Regent Arran gave him the substantial sum of £53 Scots for clothes.^[11]

References

• Ross Mackenzie, A Scottish Renaissance Household: Sir William Hamilton and Newton Castle in 1559 (Darvel, 1990). This presents the inventory in the National Records of Scotland, CS7/20, fol. 108ff.

Notes and References

1. M. Livingstone, Register of the Privy Seal of Scotland (Edinburgh, 1908), p. 493 no. 3273.
2. Denys Hay & Robert Kerr Hannay, The Letters of James V (Edinburgh: HMSO, 1954) p. 148.
3. Margaret H. B. Sanderson, Scottish rural society in the sixteenth century (Edinburgh: John Donald, 1982), 68, 71.
4. James Balfour Paul, Accounts of the Treasurer of Scotland: 1546-1551, vol. 9, (Edinburgh, 1911), pp. 300, 433.
5. Andrea Thomas, Glory and Honour: The Renaissance in Scotland (Birlinn: Edinburgh, 2013), p. 45.
6. Bain. J., Records of the Burgh of Prestwick (Maitland Club: Glasgow, 1834), pp. 136-138.
7. Marilyn Brown, Scotland's Lost Gardens (Edinburgh, 2015), pp. 90-1.
8. James Balfour Paul, Accounts of the Lord High Treasurer of Scotland: 1546-1551, vol. 9, (Edinburgh, 1911), pp. 433-4.
9. Michael Pearce, A French Furniture Maker and the 'Courtly Style' in Sixteenth-Century Scotland', Regional Furniture, p. 131 citing National Records of Scotland E32/10, fol. 154v.
10. Richard Maitland & Viscount Kingston, History of the House of Seytoun (Glasgow, 1829), pp. 37, 39, 42-45.
11. Melanie Schuessler Bond, Dressing the Scottish Court 1543-1553: Clothing in the Accounts of the Lord High Treasurer of Scotland (Boydell, 2019), p. 379.