Sir Patrick Hamilton of Kincavill, Kt.

SIR PATRICK HAMILTON OF KINCAVILL

• 'Sir Patrick Hamilton (died 1520) was a Scottish nobleman. He was an illegitimate son of James Hamilton, 1st Lord Hamilton, and a younger brother of James Hamilton, 1st Earl of Arran. He was also nephew of King James IV of Scotland.
• 'In March 1516, the infant James V of Scotland and the Governor, Regent Albany leased Patrick to rights to mine for gold, silver, tin and other metals on Crawford Moor and other places.[1] In 1520, as a result of rivalry between the Hamiltons and the 'Black' Douglases, he helped instigate the street brawl in Edinburgh known as 'Cleanse the Causeway'. The fight turned out badly for the Hamiltons, and Sir Patrick and about 70 others were killed. His heir was his oldest son, Sir James Hamilton of Kincavil.
• 'A younger son, Master Patrick Hamilton went on to become one of the first preachers and Lutherans in Scotland, and in 1528 a martyr of the Scottish Reformation.
• Further reading
• 1.^ Register of the Privy Council of Scotland, vol. 1 (1908), p.421, no.2729.
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sir_Patrick_Hamilton_of_Kincavil
• _____________________
• 'The manuscripts of the Duke of Hamilton, K.T. .. (1887)
• http://www.archive.org/details/manuscriptsofduk00greauoft
• http://www.archive.org/stream/manuscriptsofduk00greauoft#page/20/mo...
• 27. Letters of Legitimation by King James the Fourth, setting forth that the King knew that James Earl of Arran had no heirs lawfully born of his body to succeed him in his heritage, and considering the Earl's nearness of blood to the King, the latter being desirous of the preservation of his blood in the family of the Earl, who belonged to an ancient and honourable house, and having granted the Earl a new infeftment of his lands, etc., to be held to him and his heirs male, whom failing to his natural son and brothers, the King grants to James Hamilton of Finnart, Knight, natural son of the Earl of Arran, 'Patrick Hamilton of Kyncavil, Knight', and John Hamilton of Broomhill, natural brothers of the Earl of Arran, and to each of them, that whether they be sick or well, or at the time of their decease, they shall be able freely to dispose of all their lands and possessions, notwithstanding their bastardy, etc. ; the King also of his royal power and free will legitimates the said James, 'Patrick' and John, each in their proper order and place as they are named in the charter of entail, to succeed to the Earl in all his lands, etc. Given under the great seal at Edinburgh, 20 January 1512-13.
• _________________________
• Cleanse the Causeway
• The skirmish known as Cleanse the Causeway, or Clear the Causeway, took place in the High Street of Edinburgh, Scotland, on April 30, 1520, between rivals James Hamilton, 1st Earl of Arran, chief of Clan Hamilton, and Archibald Douglas, 6th Earl of Angus, chief of Clan Douglas.
• The skirmish was the result of enmity between the House of Hamilton and the "Red" Angus line of the House of Clan Douglas, both powerful noble families jealous of each other's influence over King James V. The Hamiltons, led by 'Sir Patrick Hamilton of Kincavil', half-brother of the Earl of Arran, and Sir James Hamilton of Finnart, the earl's bastard son, attempted to apprehend the Earl of Angus, and prompted a street fight.
• The Earl of Arran had become Lord Provost of Edinburgh in 1517 and head of the King’s Council. In a dispute over the sale of a cargo of timber from a Dutch ship, he had sided with Leith merchants over the Edinburgh burgesses. The Leithers, supported by Robert Barton, had ignored any of the rights of the burgesses, but Arran still gave them his support, enraging the Edinburgh traders. During the skirmish, the burgesses of Edinburgh saw the opportunity for revenge, and took the side of Angus.
• The fight went badly for the Hamiltons, and 'Sir Patrick Hamilton' and about 70 others were killed in the incident. The Earl of Arran and Sir James fought their way out, and escaped along a narrow close. Stealing a nearby pack-horse that had come into the city with coals, they fled through the shallows of the Nor Loch marshes.
• http://www.douglashistory.co.uk/history/Battles/causeway.htm
• ________________
• 'Patrick Hamilton. The first Lutheran preacher and martyr of Scotland (1918)
• http://www.archive.org/details/patrickhamiltonf00dall
• http://www.archive.org/stream/patrickhamiltonf00dall#page/1/mode/1up
• Patrick Hamilton was born near Glasgow, about 1504. His father was 'Sir Patrick Hamilton', son of Lord of Hamilton and Princess Mary, daughter of King James II of Scotland. Sir Patrick was the first of Scottish knights when Scottish chivalry was in the height of its glory. The mother of our hero was 'Catherine Stewart', daughter of the Duke of Albany, second son of King James II. So, then, Hamilton was of royal- blood, both on his father's and on his mother's side.
• _______________________________
• PATRICK HAMILTON: 1503 - 1528
• In St. Andrews, on North Street, at the entry to St. Salvator’s College and outside the University Chapel, the letters PH are marked out in the cobbles on the pavement. The letters are the initials of Patrick Hamilton.
• Patrick Hamilton was the son of 'Sir Patrick Hamilton of Kincavel and Stanehouse and Catherine Stewart', born ‘in the diocese of Glasgow’. On his mother’s side he was a great grandson of King James II. James V, although just a baby, came to the throne after his father’s death at the battle of Flodden in 1513 and the country was ruled by the Queen Mother as regent and councillors, including a very powerful churchman, James Beaton who was Archbishop of Glasgow.
• It was intended that Patrick would become a priest and, while still a young man, was made the Abbot of Fearn in Easter Ross. He would not have to perform religious duties - a priest would do these for him, but the income from the church and lands would be his, giving him financial support for his studies. The country at this time was Roman Catholic in its religious loyalty and had not experienced the spiritual awakening of the Reformation.
• However, he went to Paris to study in the university there and graduated as Master of Arts in 1520 before going on to the University of Louvain where a college had been founded by the humanist scholar, Erasmus, for the study of Latin, Greek and Hebrew. Almost certainly he came in contact at that time with the ideas of Luther and other reformers which had been stirring the academic world of the time.
• He came to the University of St. Andrews in 1523 and was received into the Faculty of Arts in October 1524 as Abbot of Fearn, in the diocese of Ross. There seems to be no clear record of what he was doing during the next two years, but it seems that he was discovering for himself the power of revealed truth. Archbishop James Beaton, now archbishop of St. Andrews, suspected Hamilton of heresy and decreed that he should be summoned and accused. Hamilton fled to the continent early in 1527.
• After a brief stay in Wittemberg where he may well have seen Martin Luther and Philip Melancthon, he went on to Marburg where a new Protestant university was opened on 30th May, 1527 and Patrick enrolled on that very day. While there he set out a series of statements outlining Biblical teaching with boldness and precision. John Knox was later so impressed with them that he included them in his History of the Reformation in Scotland.
• In the autumn of 1527, he returned to Scotland and was married shortly afterward to a lady of noble rank. His preaching made many converts for he showed the errors that had crept into the Christian religion and denounced the corruption of the Roman Church. As one writer put it, “A great following he had both for his learning and courteous behaviour to all sorts of people”.
• In February of the following year, he was invited to St. Andrews and discussed his views with leading churchmen, one of whom, Alexander Campbell, seems to have led him on by expressing sympathy with his views. From his room one evening he was taken to the Castle, kept there overnight, tried in the morning, condemned and burned to death early in the afternoon.
• His winning character, his eagerness to find the truth, his courage and his early death at the age of twenty-four make him one of the most interesting figures in the religious history of Scotland during the Sixteenth Century. George Buchanan described him as ‘a young man of the greatest genius, and most singular erudition’. His martyrdom gave a distinct impulse to the doctrines for which he suffered. The letters PH in the cobbles of the North Street pavement mark the spot where he is thought to have died.
• http://www.buccleuchfreechurch.co.uk/february.htm
• _________________
• Patrick Hamilton (1504 – February 29, 1528) was a Scottish churchman and an early Protestant Reformer in Scotland. He travelled to Europe, where he met several of the leading reforming thinkers, before returning to Scotland to preach. He was tried as a heretic by Archbishop James Beaton, and burned at the stake in St Andrews.
• Early life
• He was the 'second son of Sir Patrick Hamilton and Catherine Stewart, daughter' of Alexander, Duke of Albany, second son of James II of Scotland. He was born in the diocese of Glasgow, probably at his father's estate of Stanehouse in Lanarkshire, and was most likely educated at Linlithgow. In 1517 he was appointed titular Abbot of Fearn Abbey, Ross-shire. The income from this position paid for him to study at the University of Paris, where he became a Master of the Arts in 1520.[1] It was in Paris, where Martin Luther's writings were already exciting much discussion, that he first learned the doctrines he would later uphold. According to sixteenth century theologian Alexander Ales, Hamilton subsequently went to Leuven, attracted probably by the fame of Erasmus, who in 1521 had his headquarters there.
• Return and flight
• Returning to Scotland, Hamilton selected St Andrews, then the Scottish capital of the church and of learning, as his residence. On June 9, 1523 he became a member of St Leonard's College, part of the University of St Andrews, and on October 3, 1524 he was admitted to its faculty of arts, where he was first a student of, and then a colleague of the humanist and logician John Mair. At the university Hamilton attained such influence that he was permitted to conduct, as precentor, a musical mass of his own composition in the cathedral.
• The reforming doctrines had now obtained a firm hold on the young abbot, and he was eager to communicate them to his fellow-countrymen.[2] Early in 1527 the attention of James Beaton, Archbishop of St Andrews, was directed to the heretical preaching of the young priest, whereupon he ordered that Hamilton should be formally tried. Hamilton fled to Germany, enrolling himself as a student, under Franz Lambert of Avignon, in the new University of Marburg, opened on May 30, 1527 by Philip of Hesse. Among those he met there were Hermann von dem Busche, one of the contributors to the Epistolæ Obscurorum Virorum, and probably William Tyndale, translator of the Bible.
• Late in the autumn of 1527 Hamilton returned to Scotland, living up to his convictions. He went first to his brother's house at Kincavel, near Linlithgow, where he preached frequently, and soon afterwards he married a young lady of noble rank; her name is unrecorded. David Beaton, avoiding open violence through fear of Hamilton's high connections, invited him to a conference at St Andrews. The reformer, predicting that he was going to confirm the pious in the true doctrine by his death, accepted the invitation, and for nearly a month was allowed to preach and dispute, perhaps in order to provide material for accusation.
• With the publication of Patrick’s Places[3] in 1528, he introduced into Scottish theology Martin Luther's rediscovery of the distinction of Law and Gospel.
• Trial and martyrdom
• At length, he was summoned before a council of bishops and clergy presided over by the archbishop. There were thirteen charges, seven based on the doctrines affirmed in the Loci Communes. On examination Hamilton maintained their truth, and the council condemned him as a heretic on all thirteen charges. Hamilton was seized, and, it is said, surrendered to the soldiery on an assurance that he would be restored to his friends without injury.[citation needed] However, the council convicted him, after a sham disputation with Friar Campbell, and handed him over to the secular power, to be burned at the stake as a heretic, outside the front entrance to St Salvator's Chapel in St Andrews. The sentence was carried out on the same day to preclude any attempted rescue by friends. He burned from noon to 6 PM. His last words were "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit".[4] The spot is today marked with a monogram of his initials set into the cobblestones.
• His courageous bearing attracted more attention than ever to the doctrines for which he suffered, and greatly helped to spread the Reformation in Scotland. It was said that the "reek of Master Patrick Hamilton infected as many as it blew upon".[5] His fortitude during martyrdom won over Alexander Ales, who had undertaken to convert him, to the Lutheran cause.[6] His martyrdom is unusual in that he was almost alone in Scotland during the Lutheran stage of the Reformation. His only book, Loci communes, known as "Patrick's Places", set forth the doctrine of justification by faith and the contrast between the gospel and the law in a series of clear-cut propositions. It is to be found in John Foxe's Acts and Monuments.
• By a tradition of superstition, students at the University of St Andrews prefer not to step on the monogram of Hamilton's initials outside St Salvator's Chapel for fear of failing their degree.
• Katherine Hamilton
• Patrick's sister, the wife of the Captain of Dunbar Castle, was also a committed Protestant. In March 1539 she was forced in exile to Berwick upon Tweed for her beliefs. She had been in England before and met the Queen, Jane Seymour.[7]
• According to the historian John Spottiswood, Katherine was brought to trial for heresy before James V at Holyroodhouse in 1534, and her other brother James Hamilton of Livingston fled. The King was impressed by her conviction shown in her short answer to the prosecutor. He laughed and spoke to her privately, convincing her to abandon her profession of faith. The other accused also recanted for the time.[8]
• See also
• Scottish Reformation
• Bibliography
• This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
• Tjernagel, Neelak S. "Patrick Hamilton: Precursor of the Reformation in Scotland". Retrieved 2007-10-11.
• Dallmann, William. "Patrick Hamilton: The First Lutheran Preacher and Martyr of Scotland". Retrieved 2008-01-03.
• Rainer Haas, Franz Lambert und Patrick Hamilton in ihrer Bedeutung für die Evangelische Bewegung auf den Britischen Inseln, Marburg (theses) 1973
• The most recent biography in almost 100 years Patrick Hamilton – The Stephen of Scotland (1504-1528): The First Preacher and Martyr of the Scottish Reformation, by Joe R. D. Carvalho, AD Publications, Dundee 2009.
• References
• 1.^ Dallmann, p.2
• 2.^ McCrie, Thomas (1850). Life of John Knox (New ed.). Edinburgh: William Blackwood and Sons, p. 18
• 3.^ Patricks Places (1528)[1]
• 4.^ Tjernagel, p.6
• 5.^ Mitchell, Alexander F., The Scottish Reformation: Its Epochs, Episodes, Leaders and Distinctive Characteristics (Being the Baird Lecture for 1899), William Blackwood and Sons (Edinburgh: 1900), p. 34; available online at http://www.gutenberg.org/files/22023/22023-h/22023-h.htm
• 6.^ Jacobs, Henry Eyster. “Hamilton, Patrick.” Lutheran Cyclopedia. New York: Scribner, 1899. p. 212.
• 7.^ State Papers Henry VIII, vol. 5 part 4 cont. (1836), p.155 & note
• 8.^ Spottiswood, John, The History of the Church of Scotland, (1668), Bk. 2, pp.65-66
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrick_Hamilton_(martyr)