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HAMILTON, Basil (1696-1742), of Baldoon, Wigtown.
Available from Boydell and Brewer
Constituency
Dates
Family and Education
b. 8 Sept. 1696, 2nd s. of Lord Basil Hamilton (s. of 3rd Duke of Hamilton), by Mary, da. of David Dunbar and h. to her gd.-fa. Sir David Dunbar, 1st Bt., of Baldoon; 1st cos. of Lord William Hamilton. m. bef. 1722, Isabella, da. of Hon. Alexander Mackenzie, M.P. (s. of 4th Earl of Seaforth [S]), 2s. 2da. suc. e. bro. 1703.
Offices Held
Provost, Kirkcudbright.
Biography
During the rebellion of 1715, Hamilton commanded a troop of horse, with which he joined the English Jacobites under Thomas Forster. Taken prisoner at Preston, he was tried and sentenced to death on 31 May 1716, but was reprieved on the intercession of his uncle, Lord Orkney, with the King and the Duke of Marlborough, though his estates, valued at £1,495 sterling p.a., were forfeited.1 In 1722, George Lockhart of Carnwarth, a prominent Jacobite, informed the Pretender that he had given the lord advocate, Robert Dundas,
an assurance that if he would preserve Mr. Basil Hamilton and some honest men’s estates from being forfaulted, I would take care so to manage matters that he should be elected to this shire [Edinburghshire].2
The estates were successfully claimed by Hamilton’s mother, the forfeiture being rescinded by Act of Parliament in 1733. In 1734 he stood unsuccessfully for Dumfries Burghs with the Duke of Queensberry’s support against a government candidate. In 1739 he was consulted by an agent of the Pretender’s about a scheme for an armed rising in Scotland, but thought ‘it was not then a proper time to make an attempt’.3 Returned in 1741 for Kirkcudbright, where he had a strong interest,4 he voted against the Government on the chairman of the elections committee in December. He died 14 Nov. 1742.