The manuscripts of His Grace the Duke of ... - Electric Scotland

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The Duke of Hamilton took a prominent part in the Revolution ia
favour of the Prince of Orange. He was elected president of the Convention
of Estates at Edinburgh, on 1 4th March 1689, which declared
the throne vacant and offered the crown to King William and Queen
Mary. Hamilton was constituted High Commissioner by them in June
1689. He was again made Commissioner to the parliament which met
on April 18, 1693. This was the last of the royal Commissions whick
Hamilton was spared to undertake. On his returning from London he
died on April 18, 1694 in the following circumstances, as explained in
two letters from his nephew, William,||Earl of Annandale, :— dated the 17th.
and 18th of April of that year. Annandale writes " This night about
6 a'clock Duke Hamilton came to this place and in all probabilittie cannott
be mannie days in this woild, for he is seized with a violent palsie
which affects his head, soe as he speaks non, nor knows uoe bodie, and
hes lost intyrlie the use of his limbs. This distemper begun upon him
att Darnton upon Thursday and hes increased by degrees evrie day since,
soe that he is in a greatt measure spent, and is nott like to putt itt off
long. If his temper, constancie and good humor had been suittable to
his parts his loss had been a greatt deall more sensible to the nation."
In his second letter Annandale adds :— " I can now tell you that Duke
Hamilton died this morning about six a'clock."*
Anne Duchess of Hamilton survived her husband for twenty-two
years, and died in 1716 at the age of eighty. Four years after the
death of her husband her Grace resigned all her peerages into the hands
of King William on 9th July 1698 in favour of her eldest son James
Earl of Arran, who was created Duke of Hamilton with the original
precedency.
It was suggested that her Grace Anne Duchess of Buccleuch should
follow the example of her sister Duchess and make a similar resignation
of her Buccleuch peerages in favour of her eldest son, James, Earl of
Dalkeith. But the Duchess of Buccleuch took a different view of the
subject from the Duchess of Hamilton. In a letter written by the
Duchess of Buccleuch to Lord Melville, dated London, September 3rd
1698, she writes
'*
I would have put my son in fee of my estate when
Gream would have had me given him half, but till I chang my mind,, I
will keep all the rights I injoy from God and my foirfathers. I did not
com to my estate befor my time. I was my sisters aire, and I bliss God
I have children which I trust in his mercy will be mine when 1 am dead.
The Duchess of Hamilton is but a woman, and wee are not such wis
creatures as men, so I will follow no exampuU of that sort till I see all
the noblll men in Scotland resin to ther sons ; then I will consider of the
busines."t
A few weeks subsequent to the date of this letter, the Duchess of
Buccleuch, who in the interval had been thinking over the subject of the
proposed resignation of her peerages, wrote another letter enlarging
farther on the same subject to Lord Melville. Her letter is dated
London, November 19, 1698 :— " As to the other proposition, I have
given my answr as fully as can be esspress'd ; so He say no mor to
troubll you with the matter, only this, I'le nevr light anie body doun
stares in my own hous, as the Empriour Maximilion did, for fear I
should repentt it. Tho' I love my child as well as anie body living ever
lov'd ther own flesh and bloud, but will never be so blinded whilst I
keepe my reason as to lessen my self in my own famelly, but will keepe
my outhorety and be the head of it, whilst it pleases God to give me
* Annandale Family Book, Vol. IF,, pp. 74, 75.
t The Scotts of Buccleuch, Vol. I., p. 459.