John Hamilton, 1st Baron Hamilton of Dalzell explained

John Hamilton
Order:1st
Office:Baron Hamilton of Dalzell
Term Start:1886
Term End:1900
Constituency Mp1:Falkirk Burghs
Parliament1:British
Term Start1:1857
Term End1:1859
Constituency Mp2:Lanarkshire South
Parliament2:British
Term Start2:1868
Term End2:1874
Term Start3:1880
Term End3:1886
Father:Archibald James Hamilton
Spouse:Emily Leslie-Melville
Children:4, including Gavin George Hamilton
Birth Date:16 November 1829
Death Date:15 October 1900

John Glencairn Carter Hamilton, 1st Baron Hamilton of Dalzell (16 November 1829 – 15 October 1900), was a Scottish soldier and politician.

Hamilton was born in Marseilles, France, the only son of Archibald James Hamilton, 12th of Orbiston (1793–1834), and was educated at Eton College. He served in the 2nd Life Guards, rising to the rank of commissioned cornet in 1847, lieutenant in 1849 and captain in 1854. In 1856 he was appointed major in the Queen's Own Royal Glasgow and Lower Ward of Lanarkshire Yeomanry Cavalry. Although retiring from the regular Army in 1860, he continued to serve in the Yeomanry until 1885.

He began his political career in 1857 as Whig Member of Parliament (MP) for Falkirk Burghs, serving for two years. He later sat as a Liberal for Lanarkshire South in 1868–74 and 1880–86. He also served as a justice of the peace, and as deputy lieutenant and vice-lord lieutenant for Lanarkshire.

In 1886, Hamilton was raised to the peerage as Baron Hamilton of Dalzell. He served in William Ewart Gladstone's government as a Lord-in-waiting from 1892 to 1894.

The Hamiltons made large amounts of money in the nineteenth century, as the lands they held in Lanarkshire were sold for coal exploitation. In the late 1850s and 1860s Hamilton was able to greatly extend his home of Dalzell House, a former tower house outside Motherwell, laying out landscaped grounds at the same time.

On 29 March 1864 he married Lady Emily Leslie-Melville (died 1882), daughter of David Leslie-Melville, 8th Earl of Leven, and had issue:[1]

  1. Archibald John Hamilton (1868–1870)
  2. Gavin George Hamilton (1872– 1952), later 2nd baron
  3. Leslie d'Henin Hamilton (1873–1914)
  4. John David Hamilton (1878–1900)

Notes and References

  1. Book: Heraldry of the Hamiltons. 51 - 52. National Library of Scotland. G. Harvey Johnston. 1909. W. & A.K. Johnston Ltd.