| Anne (Hamilton) Hamilton Duchess of Hamilton was a prominent member of a Scottish Clan. Join: Scotland Project Discuss: Scotland |
Anne Hamilton, Duchess of Hamilton
Preceded by William Hamilton, 2nd Duke of Hamilton |
Duchess of Hamilton 1651-1698 |
Succeeded by James Hamilton KG, KT, 4th Duke of Hamilton |
Contents |
Anne Hamilton, 3rd Duchess of Hamilton (16 January 1632 – 17 October 1716) was a Scottish peeress. [1] Note date of birth: appears, on some sites, as 1631 or 1631/32. This dating is old calendar when the New Year was at Easter, under the modern calendar the date is 16 Jan 1632. This is what is shown on this profile.
The daughter of Sir James Hamilton, 1st Duke of Hamilton and 3rd Marquess of Hamilton, Scottish General and premier peer of the realm, and Lady Mary Feilding, daughter of William Feilding, 1st Earl of Denbigh and Lady Susan Villiers, a sister of George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham. She became Duchess of Hamilton in her own right, in terms of the charter of 1643, being the eldest daughter of the first Duke of Hamilton. [2]
She was born on 16 January 1632 at the Palace of Whitehall in London, where her mother was a Lady of the Bedchamber to Henrietta Maria of France, wife of King Charles I of Scotland and of England.[3]
Following the 1st Duke's execution for his part in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms in 1649, his brother, William, Earl of Lanark, inherited the titles and lands. William died from wounds received at the Battle of Worcester in 1651, whilst leading his regiment into some of the thickest of the fighting. In his will made at the Hague in 1650, he stipulated that the Lady Anne was his heir, over and above his own children, (all daughters, his only son having died in childhood).
Lady Anne became the Duchess of Hamilton, with the subsidiary titles Marchioness of Clydesdale, Countess of Arran, Lanark and Cambridge, the Lady Aven, Innerdale, Machanshire and Polmont.[1][2] She succeeded to the Dukedom of Hamilton thanks to a remainder that stipulated, the Dukedom should devolve upon his brother and male heirs, and that the eldest daughter of the 1st Duke should succeed to the Dukedom only if her uncle died leaving no sons.
Through paternal descent, Anne had a claim to the throne of Scotland, although this was dependent upon the failure of the House of Stewart. She was descended from James II through the marriage of the 1st Lord Hamilton to James's daughter Mary. Her great great grandfather, the 2nd Earl of Arran, had been heir presumptive from the death of Regent Albany until the birth of James VI, and had served as Regent of Scotland during the childhood and absence in France of Mary, Queen of Scots.
She died October 1716, age 84, at Hamilton, Scotland.
She was married, 29 April 1656, [4] at the kirk of Corstorphine near Edinburgh, to William Douglas, a younger son of William Douglas, 1st Marquess of Douglas. Her husband was created Earl of Selkirk, Lord Daer and Shortcleuch in 1646 but he resigned these titles and, in 1660, was created Duke of Hamilton, Marquess of Clydesdale, Earl of Arran, Lanark and Selkirk, Lord Aven, Mauchanshire, Pomond and Dair, for life only, the title of Innerdale being omitted. [5] He died 18 April 1694, at Holyrood House, and was buried at Hamilton.
Between 1657 and 1673, the couple produced 13 children.
After her marriage the Duchess and her husband set about laying the foundations for what would be, under later Dukes, the largest private residence in the western hemisphere, Hamilton Palace.
This was constructed on the site of what was commonly called either the 'Palace' or 'The Orchard', a courtyard style building in the "Low Parks of Hamilton". The Hamiltons had lived in the "Low parks" the more formal area of their estate, in the Clyde valley, since the fourteenth century.
In 1684 she commissioned the architect, James Smith to remodel the existing buildings, removing the southern part of the previous courtyard building on the site and increasing the scale of the edifice to form a U-shaped mansion house.
Today, the Palace is no more, and the "Low Parks" now form part of Strathclyde Park, having been given to the nation in lieu of death duties upon the passing of the 14th Duke of Hamilton in 1973.
Another of the Duchess's works was the building of a new school building to house the Grammar School of Hamilton (in 1848 renamed the Hamilton Academy) which had originally been endowed in 1588 by her great grandfather John Hamilton, 1st Marquess of Hamilton and sited near the churchyard adjoining Hamilton Palace. In 1714 the Duchess presented this new school building on the newly named Grammar School Square to the Town Council of Hamilton. The building remained in the school's use until 1848 when, as now the Hamilton Academy, the school relocated to a further purpose-built building. Duchess Anne's building of 1714 survived until its demolition in 1932, a plaque commemorating the site being subsequently erected by Hamilton Civic Society, the Hamilton family continuing as benefactors of the school (see article Hamilton Academy.)
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