Reverend William Vaughan Hamilton

"Probably son of Andrew Hamilton of St. Kitts, by Hannah Vaughan. He went out to Nevis in 1805 (Fothergill)." Reverend William Vaughan Hamilton was an assistant judge or magistrate in St Elizabeth in 1817.

Father of Mrs Eliza Singer, Mrs Caroline Dawes and Shakespear Hamilton.

1. William Vaughan Hamilton, born 08/03/1775 and baptised 25/04/1775 at St Andrew, Holborn, London, son of Andrew Hamilton and his wife Hannah.

2. Appointed Justice of the Peace and an Assistant Judge of the Common Pleas, St.Elizabeth, 14/09/1811.

3. Resigned as Chaplain of the Island’s Council prior to 09/11/1816.

4. Rector of St.Catherine’s and a member of Jamaica’s Ecclesiastical Court, June 1818; officiated at marriages in the church at Spanish Town, 1818.

5. Married Eliza, daughter of David Shakespear (q.v.); she died in May 1808 when Hamilton was described as of Nevis.

6. His son, Shakespear Hamilton, sailed from Black River on the vessel Kains (master, Shakespear), June 1818; the son was probably the man of that name who was master of the Brig Ann Wise, of Workington, 1832; the namesake who died at Albany, Western Australia, 1852, was described as pilot.

Vere Langford Oliver, Caribbeana being miscellaneous papers relating to the history, genealogy, topography, and antiquities of the British West Indies (6 vols., London, Mitchell, Hughes and Clarke, 1910-1919) vol. III p. 210.

1. Ancestry.com, London, England, Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1538-1812 [database online].

2. Royal Gazette of Jamaica, 05/10/1811.

3. Ibid, 09/11/1816.

4. Ibid, 13/06/1818 and 27/06/1818; and 28/03/1818 and 26/9/1818.

5. Familysearch.org, St Elizabeth Parish Register, Baptisms, Marriages and Burials 1795-1820, p. 344.

6. Royal Gazette of Jamaica, 13/06/1818; Cumberland Pacquet, 19/06/1832; Familysearch.org, Australian Deaths 1816-1980 [database online].

We are grateful to Paul Hitchings for his assistance with compiling this entry.