Robert Hamilton of Byning

ROBERT HAMILTON OF BYNING

Robert Hamilton of Byning, here treated, is the son of Thomas, Earl of Haddington, and Julien Kerr. He was born before 14 May 1615, the date upon which his baptism was registered at Edinburgh in Midlothian, Scotland. [National Records of Scotland, Edinburgh Baptisms, 1610-21, reference OPR.685/1/2]

Testament Dative and Inventory

Confirmation was granted on 24 January 1643. [Nationa l Records of Scotland, Edinburgh Commissary Court, Testament Dative and Inventory of Robert Hammiltoune of Byning, brother to umquhile Thomas, Earl of Haddington, reference CC8/8/60]

Biographical Summary

The 1st Earl married again on 3 September 1613, Julian Ker (buried 30 March 1637), daughter of Sir Thomas Ker of Ferniehirst, and widow of Sir Patrick Hume of Polwarth, by whom he had another son: Robert Hamilton, born 14 May 1614 and killed in the explosion at Dunglass Castle on 30 August 1640, unmarried.

From Wikipedia - Dunglass Castle and estate

James VI of Scotland stayed with Lord Home at Dunglass Castle on 13 March 1596. He alarmed the English garrison by coming to hunt near Berwick-upon-Tweed, staying a night the house of the laird of 'Beelleys', six miles from Berwick, and then returning to Dunglass.

The castle was rebuilt, in an enlarged and improved form, and gave accommodation on 5 April 1603 to King James VI, and all his retinue, when on his journey to London to take up the English throne. It was improved by Mary, Countess of Home, but was again destroyed on 30 August 1640 when held by a party of Covenanters under Thomas, Earl of Haddington. An English page, according to Lord Scotstarvit, vexed by a taunt against his countrymen, thrust a red-hot iron into a powder barrel, and himself was killed, with the Earl, his half-brother, Richard, and many others. A pamphlet with a verse account of the explosion and a list of casualties was published by the author and poet William Lithgow. He named thirty nine dead including five women, and John White, an English plasterer working for Lady Home.

Location: Canmore - Dunglass House on site of Dunglass Castle 55.93861 -2.37556

From Dunglass Collegiate Church and Castle - The Castles of Scotland

James VI stayed at Dunglass in 1603 on how way south to claim the English crown, then Charles I in 1633 before his coronation. Alexander Home, 6th Lord Home, was made Lord Dunglass in 1605 (and Earl of Home that same year), the lordship is still held by the Earls of Home and is used by the earl's heir.

The castle was blown up in 1640. One story is that apparently an English servant was so angered by insults directed against his countrymen that he ignited the castle’s store of gunpowder, although a contemporary document refers to the incident as an accident. The explosion killed Thomas Hamilton, Earl of Haddington, his brother Robert Hamilton, his son Master Patrick Hamilton, Sir John Hamilton of Redhouse, and others. James Home, Earl of Home, was awarded reparations for the ruining of his house, yards, dykes and planting to the sum of £40,133.

From Tim's Tales: What really happened at Dunglass Castle? | East Lothian Courier

I’ve always thought this explanation never really had the ring of truth. It was initially deemed an accident, and the story of Edward’s role emerged later, instigated by a writer called William Lithgow, a man who had certain axes to grind. In one account, Edward is said to have thrust a hot poker into the gunpowder or set fire to it. The detail of this is suspect in itself, for who survived as a witness to this act? I suspect that a dreadful accident, possibly caused by incompetence and carelessness, was turned into a deliberate act of vengeance as it made a more useful explanation.

From An Intrepid Scot: William Lithgow of Lanark's Travels in the Ottoman Lands, North Africa and Central Europe 1609-1621 by C. Edmund Bosworth

[Footnote:30] See for the background of this incident, Scotland under Charles I by Mathew Page 294 From what he says in the poem, William Lithgow visited Dunglasse and talked with survivors of the explosion.

From thepeerage - Robert Hamilton

... He lived at Wester Binning, Scotland.

From Historical and genealogical memoirs of the House of Hamilton; with genealogical memoirs of the several branches of the family by John Anderson, Surgeon Published 1825 Page 294

10. Hon. Robert Hamilton of Wester Binning, who perished at [Dunglass], when it was blown up in 1640: he was unmarried.

From Dunglass Castle

[Note 2] about midday on [Thursday?], 30 August 1640.

In the autumn of the year 1640, Lady Boyd met with a painful trial in the death of three of her brothers, and others of her relatives, in very distressing circumstances. Thomas, second Earl of Haddington, and Robert Hamilton of West Binning, in the county of Linlithgow, her brothers by her father's second wife, Patrick Hamilton, her natural brother, Sir John Hamilton of Redhouse, her cousin-german, and Sir Alexander Erskine, fourth son of the seventh earl of 3 brother-in-law to her brother Thomas, all perished at Dunglass castle (in the county of Haddington) when it was blown up on the 30th of 8 that year. They had attached themselves to the covenanters; and when General Leslie marched into England that same year against Charles I, they were left behind by the Scottish parliament, in order to resist the English incursions: and Thomas, second earl of Haddington, who had the command of the party thus left, fixed his quarters at Dunglass castle. While his lordship, about mid-day, on the 30th of August, was standing in a court of the castle, surrounded by his friends now named, and several other gentlemen, to whom he was reading a letter he had just received from General Leslie, a magazine of gunpowder contained in a vault in the castle blew up; and one of the side walls instantly over-whelmed him and all his companions, with the exception of four, who were thrown by the force of the explosion to a considerable distance. The earl's body was found among the rubbish, and buried at Tyninghame. Besides this nobleman, three or four score of gentlemen lost their lives. It was reported that the magazine was designedly blown up by the earl's page, Edward Paris, an English boy, who was so enraged, on account of his master having jestingly told him that his countrymen were a pack of cowards, to suffer themselves to be beaten and to run away at Newburn, that he took a red-hot iron and thrust it into one of the powder-barrels, perishing himself with the rest.

From Scotland's People Old Parish Registers - Births and Baptisms

• 14/05/1615 birth or baptism of Robert Hamilton, son of Thomas Hamilton, Earl of Haddington [and] Julian [Only child], in the parish of Edinburgh
• 14 May 1615 birth or baptism of Robert Hamilton, son of Thomas Hamilton, Earl of Haddington and Julian [only child], in the parish of Edinburgh

From Scotland's People - Legal records, wills, testaments

• 24 January 1643 Testament Dative and Inventory of Robert Hammiltoune, of Byning, brother to umquhile Thomas, Earl of Haddington; court: Edinburgh Commissary Court