Sir William Hamilton of Sanquhar (c. 1510–1570) was pursemaster for James V and the Captain of Edinburgh Castle during the Regency of Regent Arran. He was Provost of Edinburgh in 1554 and 1555.Elaine Finnie, "The House of Hamilton", Innes Review, 36:1 (Spring 1985), p. 6.
Career William Hamilton was the son of William Hamilton, also of Sanquhar, and Katherine Kennedy, a daughter of David Kennedy, 1st Earl of Cassilis.
He was first known as Hamilton of MacNaristoun, and was appointed pursemaster to James V of Scotland in September 1524.M. Livingstone, Register of the Privy Seal of Scotland (Edinburgh, 1908), p. 493 no. 3273.
Hamilton travelled to France as a diplomat and in September 1528 brought back letters from Francis I of France co-signed by the secretary Florimond Robertet, showing that Francis was mindful of the 1517 Treaty of Rouen and would persuade the Duke of Albany to give up Dunbar Castle and would try to prevent Albany's return to Scotland.Denys Hay & Robert Kerr Hannay, The Letters of James V (Edinburgh: HMSO, 1954) p. 148.
In 1538, Hamilton gave a large sum of money to James V for the lease of lands belonging to Kelso Abbey and Lesmahagow Priory.Athol L. Murray, "The Revenues of the Bishopric of Moray in 1538", Innes Review, 4 (Spring 1968), p. 42.
Hamilton went to England with James Learmonth of Dairsie and Henry Balnaves to begin negotiations for Mary, Queen of Scots, to marry Prince Edward.Carol Edington, Court and Culture in Renaissance Scotland (University of Massachusetts, 1994), p. 59.Joseph Bain, Hamilton Papers, 1 (Edinburgh, 1890), pp. 487–488, 534. During the war known as the Rough Wooing, an English army burnt Edinburgh in May 1544. Hamilton had a lodging in the town and his family charters there were destroyed.James Beveridge, Register of the Privy Seal, 4 (Edinburgh: HMSO, 1952), p. 522 no. 2991.
In 1547, Hamilton gave money to the Abbot of Melrose Abbey to help him pay the tax levied for defence. He administered the Abbey business for James Stewart, Commendator of Kelso and Melrose.Margaret H. B. Sanderson, Scottish rural society in the sixteenth century (Edinburgh: John Donald, 1982), 68, 71.
James Hamilton, Captain of Edinburgh Castle, son of James Hamilton of Stenhouse, was killed in a riot in September 1548.Marcus Merriman, The Rough Wooings (Tuckwell, 2000), pp. 321, 334. William Hamilton was appointed in his place. As Captain of Edinburgh Castle from 1 October 1548, in April 1549, Hamilton took delivery of 24 halberds. His annual fee for being Captain was £134-6s-8d. Scots,James Balfour Paul, Accounts of the Treasurer of Scotland: 1546-1551, vol. 9, (Edinburgh, 1911), pp. 300, 433. and he received a larger fee of £533 in September 1553.James Balfour Paul, Accounts of the Treasurer of Scotland, 10 (Edinburgh, 1913), p. 212.
In 1554, Regent Arran asked William Hamilton, as Provost of Edinburgh, with others to convene in the Tolbooth and collect information from the craft incorporations. The goldsmiths answered about the charges for the making of a silver mazer cup, and pointed out the variety of works in gold were charged differently, as were the range of possibilities in silver work and engraved decoration. Prices were arranged with the owner who commissioned this work.Jean Munro & Henry Steuart Fotheringham, Edinburgh Goldsmith's Minutes: 1525–1700 (Edinburgh: SRS, 2006), pp. 213–215.
An inventory of Sir William's furniture at Newton Castle near Ayr, made in 1559 during a legal action, is notable for its description of furniture. It mentions cupboards and a door made in the "courtly manner" and "raised and carved work of the most recent and curious fashion used within the realm".Andrea Thomas, Glory and Honour: The Renaissance in Scotland (Birlinn: Edinburgh, 2013), p. 45. Another inventory of 1588 shows that some of the same furniture was still in place.Bain. J., Records of the Burgh of Prestwick (Maitland Club: Glasgow, 1834), pp. 136-138. The gardens and orchard had hawthorn hedges, gooseberry and currant bushes, roses, apple trees, plum trees, and cherry trees. There were also areas with kale and herbs.Marilyn Brown, Scotland's Lost Gardens (Edinburgh, 2015), pp. 90-1.
Marriage and family Hamilton married Jean Campbell. His children included: Isobel Hamilton (died 1604), who married George Seton, 7th Lord Seton in 1550. Hamilton paid £2,000 for the ward and marriage right of the young Lord Seton.James Balfour Paul, Accounts of the Lord High Treasurer of Scotland: 1546-1551, vol. 9, (Edinburgh, 1911), pp. 433-4. The wedding was celebrated with a feast at Edinburgh Castle on 12 August 1550 paid for by Regent Arran.Michael Pearce, A French Furniture Maker and the 'Courtly Style' in Sixteenth-Century Scotland', Regional Furniture, p. 131 citing National Records of Scotland E32/10, fol. 154v. Richard Maitland wrote that Hamilton helped Lord Seton rebuild Seton Palace, which had been damaged by the English army that burnt Edinburgh in May 1544.Richard Maitland & Viscount Kingston, History of the House of Seytoun (Glasgow, 1829), pp. 37, 39, 42-45. William Hamilton of Glenmoor. In December 1551 Regent Arran gave him the substantial sum of £53 Scots for clothes.Melanie Schuessler Bond, Dressing the Scottish Court 1543-1553: Clothing in the Accounts of the Lord High Treasurer of Scotland (Boydell, 2019), p. 379. His son Captain John Hamilton married the courtier Grissell Hamilton.George Hamilton, A History of the House of Hamilton (Edinburgh, 1933), pp. 562, 778.
References Ross Mackenzie, A Scottish Renaissance Household: Sir William Hamilton and Newton Castle in 1559 (Darvel, 1990). This presents the inventory in the National Records of Scotland, CS7/20, fol. 108ff.