Henry Hamilton's Background

From Henry Hamilton and George Rogers Clark in the American Revolution, with the unpublished Journal of Henry Hamilton:

Source

First, he was a descendant of a noble Scottish family with a record of service in government and in the army which dates back to the time of Mary Queen of Scots. Secondly, he was an army man in the French and
Indian War.... . He was also an office-holder, for he served first as lieutenant-governor of Detroit and then of Quebec, and as governor of Bermuda and finally of Dominica.

If his family is traced back to the fifteenth century, a Sir James Hamilton is found, who was the husband of Mary, a sister of James III of Scotland and a great-great-aunt of Mary Queen of Scots.

The educational opportunities offered to Henry were those which might be expected in a family such as his. He wrote that his mother encouraged him to read works of travel, history, and literature; that a French teacher corrected his pronunciation; and that he spent his vacations in learning to fence, draw, and dance.
In school he was often flogged, and, although he was frank enough to say that he always deserved the punishment, he decided to join the forces rather than submit to continued embarrassment.

His army life began at the age of twenty-one when he received a commission as an ensign in the Fifteenth Regiment of Foot. As a young officer he traveled over Ireland, Wales, and England, and a little later in Canada and the American Colonies.


Harvard University holds some of Henry Hamilton's papers.

"Hamilton married Elizabeth Lee... . They had only one child, Mary Anne Pierpoint Hamilton, who died unmarried on 1871 Dec. 12. Hamilton died in 1796 at Antigua while still holding office."