which appointment Hamilton Place, Piccadilly, derives its name. By letters patent of the 15th May, 1672, he granted him a pension of 850l. per annum; but this he did not live very long to enjoy. In the engagement against the Dutch, 4th June, 1673, he had one of his legs taken off by a cannon-ball, and dying on the 6th, was buried next day, as the register records, in Westminster Abbey.
"1673, Coll. Hamilton, recd his death wound in ye engagemt agst ye Dutch, was bd wthn ye north mont door, June 7."
It deserves to be told, to the credit of the king, that he was not forgetful of the widow and children of James Hamilton. I have letters patent before me, dated 20th July, 1673, granting a yearly pension of 850l. to Mrs. Hamilton, in trust for her three sons, and a yearly pension of 500l. for herself. Mrs. Hamilton died in 1709, aged seventy-two. Of her three sons, James, the eldest, was sixth Earl of Abercorn; George, the second, was killed at the battle of Steinkirk, in 1692; and William, the youngest, settled at Bocton Place, near Lenham, in Kent, and acquired a large property there.[1] And this is all I have been able to discover of the
- ↑ They would appear to have had another son, who probably died young:—
4 Nov. 1664.—John Hambleton, S. to James Hambleton, Esq., by Dame Eliz. his wife.—Baptismal Register of St. Margaret's, Westminster.
