Archibald Douglas Hamilton of Riccarton and Pardovan

Captain Hon. Archibald Hamilton, RN, was born circa February 1673. He was baptised on 17 February 1673. (3). He died on 5 April 1754.(1),(4) He was often known as Lord Archibald Hamilton of Riccarton and Pardovan.

Parents: 7th son of William Douglas-Hamilton, 1st Earl of Selkirk and Anne Hamilton, 3rd Duchess of Hamilton.

Married:

1. firstly, Anne Lucas, daughter of Charles Lucas, 2nd Lord Lucas of Shenfield and Penelope Leke, before 1709.(3)
2. secondly, Anne Hamilton, daughter of Claud Hamilton and Anne Hamilton, on 17 December 1718.(3) She died on 29 March 1719, without issue.
3. obtained a marriage license on 29 September 1719 with Lady Jane Hamilton (d. 1753); she was the daughter of James Hamilton, 6th Earl of Abercorn and Hon. Elizabeth Reading. Lady Jane Hamilton was first Lady of the Bedchamber, Mistress of the Robes and Privy Purse to Augusta, Princess of Wales.

Children of Lady Jane Hamilton and Captain Hon. Archibald Hamilton

1. Charles Hamilton+1 b. bt 1720 - 1728, d. 10 Sep 1751
2. Elizabeth Hamilton+1 b. c 1721, d. 24 Feb 1800
3. Jane Hamilton+1 b. 19 Aug 1726, d. 13 Nov 1771
4. Reverend Frederick Hamilton+1 b. 1728, d. 19 Feb 1811
5. Archibald Hamilton1 b. c 1729, d. 30 May 1744
6. Rt. Hon. Sir William Hamilton1 b. 13 Dec 1730, d. 6 Apr 1803

friend of pirates

• from: The Republic of Pirates, by Colin Woodard

The seventh son of Lord William Douglas, the third Duke of Hamilton, Lord Archibald was the scion of
one of Scotland's leading noble families, a family that was deeply offended when the next in line to the British throne, James Stuart, was passed over in favor of George I. Several of his relatives participated in the 1715 uprising.

A career officer in the Royal Navy, in 1711, Hamilton was appointed governor of Jamaica by Queen Anne, the last Protestant Stuart. After her death and the ascension of George I in 1714, Jacobites (as pro-Stuarts were called) began organizing an empire-wide uprising to put James Stuart on the throne. Hamilton's role was apparently to organize an undercover Jacobite naval force to support the uprising. To do so, he issued privateering commissions to a number of trusted merchant captains, including Henry Jennings, and, despite it being peacetime, sent them to attack French and Spanish shipping. Their depredations -- including Jenning's assault on a Spanish salvage camp in Florida -- triggered a storm of diplomatic protests. Rather than round up the pirates, Hamilton appears to have shared their plunder. He also conducted a sudden purge of Jamaica's colonial administration, filling the vacancies with Stuart sympathizers.

Unfortunately for Hamilton, the 1715 uprising failed, and George I had the governor brought home in chains and declared Jennings and the other privateers to be pirates. Jennings would go on to become a leading member of the pirate republic in the Bahamas. Hamilton used his considerable political ties to beat the rap for treason, and even got the British Council of Trade and Plantations to order the government of Jamaica to pay him his share of his privateers' illegal plunder. He married an earl's daughter and died comfortably on London's tony Pall Mall in 1754. He was buried at Westminster Abby.

Links

• http://thepeerage.com/p10978.htm#i109777
• http://auden.stanford.edu/cgi-bin/auden/individual.php?pid=I11580&g...
• http://www.republicofpirates.net/Hamilton.html

Citations

1. [S6] G.E. Cokayne; with Vicary Gibbs, H.A. Doubleday, Geoffrey H. White, Duncan Warrand and Lord Howard de Walden, editors, The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, Extant, Extinct or Dormant, new ed., 13 volumes in 14 (1910-1959; reprint in 6 volumes, Gloucester, U.K.: Alan Sutton Publishing, 2000), volume XI, page 616. Hereinafter cited as The Complete Peerage.
2. [S3409] Caroline Maubois, "re: Penancoet Family," e-mail message to Darryl Roger Lundy, 2 December 2008. Hereinafter cited as "re: Penancoet Family."
3. [S8] Charles Mosley, editor, Burke's Peerage and Baronetage, 106th edition, 2 volumes (Crans, Switzerland: Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books) Ltd, 1999), volume 1, page 1284. Hereinafter cited as Burke's Peerage and Baronetage, 106th edition.
4. [S15] George Edward Cokayne, editor, The Complete Baronetage, 5 volumes (no date (c. 1900); reprint, Gloucester, U.K.: Alan Sutton Publishing, 1983), volume II, page 362, says 5 Dec 1753. Hereinafter cited as The Complete Baronetage.