Robert Hamilton

Landowner in Grenada in 1780, owner of Samaritan estate.

Tentatively identified as Dr Robert Hamilton, son of Robert Hamilton of Saltcoats and brother of Sir Alexander Hamilton (d. 1809, who later owned Samaritan estate). Deceased by 1798 when his daughter Mary Ann married Andrew Loughnan (q.v.). His widow, Mary, died in Berners Street, London, in 1815, aged 73 years.

Oxford Journal 23/06/1798; Gentleman's Magazine vol. 85 part 2 p. 636 (1815). See also the will of Sir Alexander Hamilton, PROB 11/1502/703, which identifies Mary Ann Loughnan as his niece.

Newspaper reports in 2007 connected the ancestors of the racing driver Lewis Hamilton to enslaved people attached to the Samaritan estate The Herald 23/07/2007 via https://www.pressreader.com/uk/the-herald/20070723/281784214690402 [accessed 14/05/2018]. The connection appears to have been based on inference from the status of the estate as the only estate with more than 100 enslaved people on Grenada owned by a family named Hamilton.

We are grateful to Stephen Lewis for his assistance with compiling this entry.