George William Hamilton

Son of John Hamilton of Northpark and Helen nee Bogle. Formed a relationship and had at least three children with Martha Bryce (q.v.), a free woman of colour whom he subsequently married.

1. 'George William Hamilton matriculated at the University in 1799. He was the third son of John, a merchant in Glasgow. He became a merchant in Jamaica. He died at 27 Clarence Street, Edinburgh, on 18 October 1857, aged 71.' Following his death, his estate was valued at £8706 17s 1d.

2. George William Hamilton was the object of criticism in 1839 by Benjamin M'Mahon, who described him as: 'formerly a book keeper but who afterwards became the agent of several estates in the above parish [St Thomas-in-the-Vale]...a man of liberal education and gentlemanly demeanour...I have no wish to impeach him personally of cruelty; but I cannot acquit him of conniving at the shocking barbarities committed on the estates..Mr Hamilton's overseers were generally the worst planters I ever knew.'

3. George William Hamilton was the centre of a dense network of attorneys in Jamaica, linked to a total of 19 the men acting as agents and attorneys in 1832. In 1820 and again in 1838 he was elected member of the Jamaica Assembly as member for St. Thomas-in-the-Vale. He was also active in raising subscriptions for the Presbyterian Institute and towards the construction of a Presbyterian Church in St. Thomas-in-the-Vale.

4. George William Hamilton inspired the fictional character Aaron Bang in Michael Scott's novel “Tom Cringle's Log” (1829-1833). On first arriving in Jamaica, Michael Scott was mentored by George William between 1806 and 1810, when he left to join Robert Bogle's mercantile house in Kingston, later returning to the UK to become a merchant in Glasgow.

5. In the 1841 census, a George W. Hamilton aged 50 born Scotland was recorded as living with four servants in Conduit Street, St. George, Hanover Square, London. In the 1851 census, George William Hamilton "late planter in Jamaica" aged 64 is shown as living with his brother Archibald and family at 5 Woodside Crescent, Barony, Lanarkshire.

6. In his will of 04/11/1857 (proved 12/06/1858) he directed that his gold watch be delivered to his son John Robert Hamilton "presently residing in Cincinatti" in the USA. His trustees were to pay his wife Martha Bryce or Hamilton residing in Spanish Town, Jamaica, for "so long only as she remains unmarried a free liferent annuity of ninety pounds sterling per annum and to pay to Mrs Helen Hamilton ... my daughter by the said Martha Bryce and now widow of John Ewart Esquire ... a free liferent annuity of one hundred and eighty pounds sterling". Martha was also to receive £20 per annum towards the support of George William Hamilton "my grandson", only child of his now deceased son Larchim Lynch Hamilton (b. 1827). The omission of their names suggests that his other children by Martha Bryce had already died, namely George William Hamilton (1816-1818), Andrew Bogle Hamilton (b. 1820), and George Hamilton. George's provisions were constrained because his own inheritance from his father, John Hamilton of Northpark (1754-1829), had still not been settled.

John Guthrie Smith and John Oswald Mitchell, The old country houses of the old Glasgow gentry (2nd edn., Glasgow, James MacLehose & Sons, 1878), Northwoodside House.

1. The University of Glasgow Story http://universitystory.gla.ac.uk/biography/?id=WH25740&type=P [accessed 17/02/2017]; Edinburgh Sheriff Court Inventories SC70/1/102.

2. Benjamin M'Mahon, Jamaica Plantership (London, 1839) p. 165.

3. Higman, Plantation Jamaica pp. 73-74; Jamaica Almanac, Civil Lists 1824 and 1839; Jamaica Royal Gazette15 June 1822; 22 Dec 1832, p. 19.

4. Friends of Glasgow Necropolis website; F. Cundall Historic Jamaica (London 1915) p. 70.

5. Ancestry.com, 1841 England and Wales Census; 1851 Scotland census [databases online].

6. Email from Michael Rhodes 07/11/2019 sourced to SC70/4/58 (Edinburgh Sheriff Court Wills).

We are grateful for the help of Dr Michael Rhodes with this entry.