Marie Hamilton

MARIE HAMILTON (aka MARIE HAMILTOUN)

Contrary to what was suggested by the late Lieutenant-Colonel George Hamilton, Marie Hamilton, here treated, is not the same person as Mary Hamilton [Lieutenant-Colonel George Hamilton, A History of the House of Hamilton (J. Skinner and Company, Edinburgh, 1933), pp. 389-98 for Hamilton of Glengavill]

The Question of Identity

Marie Hamilton, here treated, is the wife of John Reid of Wester Kittochside. Her husband was the only son and heir of James Reid of Wester Kittochside. [National Records of Scotland, Particular Register of Sasines for the Sheriffdom of Lanark, reference RS40/5/ff.77v-78r]

The Duke of Hamilton

According to the oral tradition of the Reid family, Marie Hamilton was a relative of the Duke of Hamilton. It was this bond of kinship, or so the Reid family appear to have believed, that moved the noble Duke to intervene on behalf of Marie Hamilton's eldest son, John Reid of Wester Kittochside, when he was threatened with transportation to the Colonies of East New Jersey, for having taken up arms against the crown, and for having taken part in the Battle of Bothwell Bridge, on 22 June 1679. [Herbert Reid, M.C., M.A., The Reids of Kittochside (Printed for private circulation, Aird & Coghill, Glasgow, 1943), pp. 11-14]

James Hamilton of Torrance

No evidence of a relationship between Marie Hamilton and the Ducal House has been found. All that can presently be said about her membership of the Hamilton family is this: Shortly after their marriage, Marie Hamilton's husband, John Reid of Wester Kittochside, gave her a liferent secured on one half of his land. The notary public responsible for drawing up the instrument of sasine which followed from her infeftment on 8 September 1649 left spaces in the deed (which he or one of his clerks had previously prepared) for afterwards inserting the name of her father, the date upon which her marriage contract was signed, and the place of signing, but this information must have been lost, or forgotten about, for the deed was never completed. Notwithstanding these omissions, a reasonable person might think it was highly significant that it was no less a person than James Hamilton of Torrance, the last Hamilton Laird of that place, who gave sasine to John Reid, when he took formal possession of his deceased father's land on 8 September 1649, and then, immediately thereafter, acted himself as principal witness to the infeftment of Marie Hamilton. [National Records of Scotland, Particular Register of Sasines for the Sheriffdom of Lanark, reference RS40/5/ff.76v-77v for the infeftment of John Reid and reference RS40/5/ff.77v-78r for the infeftment of Marie Hamilton in her liferent]

Death

Marie Hamilton died in August 1658. It cannot have been a sudden death because John Grainger in Kirkton was afterwards paid twenty pounds for: "medicaments" which he had supplied to her during her sickness. Thereafter, but not until 2 June 1664, her husband, by this time being described as John Reid, elder, in Kittochside, gave up her testament dative, with the inventory of their joint possessions, in name and behalf of John Reid and James Reid: "bairnes lawfullie procreat betwixt the defunct & the sd Johne Reid elder". Among the debts that she and her husband owed was one hundred pounds Scots to: "Duke Hamilton of maill & dewtie". This was money due for land which John and Marie were renting, probably in East Kilbride, or in the neighbouring parish of Carmunock, perhaps. It is possible, that the kindness of this land belonged to Marie Hamilton but it does not follow from this that she was closely related to the Ducal family. [National Records of Scotland, Hamilton and Campsie Connissary Court, Testament Dative of Marie Hamilton, reference CC10/5/7]

Marriage

Marie Hamilton married John Reid of Wester Kittochside. Her husband's land was a small part of the ten merk land of old extent called Wester Kittochside, about one sixth. The date of her marriage to John Reid is not known but it may have taken place during the third quarter of 1649. The marriage contract was certainly signed on or before 8 September 1649, the date upon which her husband, identified as John Reid, only son and heir of James Reid, portioner of Wester Kittochside, gave her a liferent of one half of his twenty-two shilling two penny halfpenny land of old extent of Wester Kittochside. [National Records of Scotland, Particular Register of Sasines for the Sheriffdom of Lanark, reference RS40/5/ff.77v-78r]

Children

1. John Reid of Wester Kittochside
2. James Reid of Castlehill

Commentary by Michael Reid Delahunt

Michael Reid Delahunt cites Herbert Reid's book "The Reids of Kittochside" and notes that Herbert Reid discusses Marie Hamilton in both Parts I (1943) and Part II (1945). In Part II he reports (p. 7) that "I thought I had located the elusive Marie when I read in Col. Hamilton's monumental book (1933) "The House of Hamilton" (p. 393), that John Reid IIIrd, of Kittochside, maried Marie Hamilton, daughter of John Hamilton, Halls of Glengavill. But, alas! Further research in the Register House, Edinburgh, showed that the gallant Colonel had confused two different John Reids.

"The John Reid who appears in the Testament of Jane Cunynghame, wife of Hamilton of Glengavill, as creditor for 1,000 merks, being balance of his tocher when he married their daughter, was John Reid of Ballochmylne, near Mauchline, where Rabbie Burns at a later date (1790) was to meet the "bonnie lass o' Ballochmyle," Miss Wilhelmina Alexander. "John Reid of Ballochmylne died in 1661; "John Reid of Kittochside died in 1677; "But the Colonel's mistake is a natural one, and it is a strange coincidence that about the same period two different Marie Hamiltons should each have married a John Reid. "This still leaves the problem of the elusive Marie unsolved."

Critical Commentary by Neil Reid Ford

With regard to Herbert Reid's account of Marie Hamilton, Neil Reid Ford felt that it was appropriate to make the following observations: Herbert Reid managed to confuse Marie Hamilton's husband, John Reid of Wester Kittochside (floruit 1649-71), with another two men with the same name. Moreover, he believed that her husband was the eldest son of John Reid and Katherine Park, when he was in fact the only son of James Reid and Issobell Cunynghame. Proof of his paternity is provided by an instrument of sasine dated 8 September 1649 [source reference cited above]. The evidence for the other two men need not be discussed here but for the avoidance of doubt it should perhaps also be added that Marie Hamilton's husband did not die in 1677, as Herbert Reid believed. He was alive on 28 June 1671, when General Thomas Dalyell of Binns, at this time the new feudal superior of Wester Kittochside, issued charters of confirmation to his tenants, and he may still have been alive in 1675. More certainly, he died before 10 August 1675 when his own eldest son John received a charter of confirmation, othewise known as a precept of clare constat, from the Laird of Binns. This precept acknowledged the fact that John Reid of Wester Kittochside (floruit 1649-71) had died, last vest and seised as of fee and at the faith and peace of the sovereign, in possession of a twenty-two shilling two penny halfpenny land of old extent of Wester Kittochside, and confirmed that John Reid, younger, is his eldest son and nearest lawful heir.