Hamilton, PATRICK, 'the protomartyr of the Scottish Reformation,' was the son of Sir Patrick Hamilton of Kincavel (Linlithgowshire) and Stanhouse (Lanarkshire) and Catherine Stewart, daughter of Alexander, Duke of Albany, second son of James II. Both his parents were illegitimate. The exact date and place of his birth are unknown. Both are approximately settled, however, by the fact that he graduated as Master of Arts in the university of Paris in 1520—the place of his birth being noted as 'the diocese of Glasgow.' As that degree could not be taken at Paris before the age of twenty-one, we may conjecture that Hamilton was born in the last years of the 15th century. It is also unknown where he received the elements of his education. His university studies seem to have been first conducted at Paris, where, about the time of his residence, the opinions of Luther were already beginning to attract attention. It may be considered the most decisive proof that Hamilton was open to the best lights of the time that on leaving Paris he proceeded to the university of Louvain, where in 1517, under the direction of Erasmus, a college was founded for the study of Latin, Greek, and Hebrew. The foundation of such a college at so early a date in the 16th century was a remarkable innovation in university studies, and the students who availed themselves of it were only such as were in ardent sympathy with the new intellectual and religious ideals of the time. In 1523 we find Hamilton at the university of St Andrews, where his sympathies with Lutheranism soon brought him under the suspicion of the church authorities. To escape the fate which afterwards overtook him he returned to the Continent (1527). After a brief stay at Wittenberg, where he probably saw Luther and Melanchthon, he settled for some months in Marburg, the seat of a university lately founded in the interest of the Reformed doctrines. At Marburg Hamilton wrote (in Latin) the only production of his which has come down to us—a series of theological propositions known as 'Patrick's Places.' In these propositions the main doctrines of the Lutheran reformers are stated with such boldness and precision that Knox has embodied them in his history of the Reformation in Scotland. Hamilton returned to Scotland in the autumn of 1527, and shortly afterwards married. The next year he was summoned to St Andrews by Archbishop Beaton, uncle of the famous cardinal, and on a renewed charge of heresy was burned at the stake before the gate of St Salvator's College, 29th February 1528. His death probably did more to extend the Reformation in Scotland than even his life could have done. 'The reek of Master Patrick Hamilton,' said one of Beaton's own retainers, 'has infected as many as it did blow upon.'
A peculiar interest has always attached to the name of Patrick Hamilton. His winning personal character, his eagerness for all the best light of his time, his courage, and his early death make him one of the most interesting figures in the religious revolution of Scotland during the 16th century. His martyrdom also gave a distinct impulse to the doctrines for which he died; and Knox himself, in the most emphatic manner, testifies to Hamilton's importance in the history of the Scottish Reformation.
See Professor Lorimer's Patrick Hamilton, the first Preacher and Martyr of the Scottish Reformation (1857), and Dr David Laing's edition of Knox's History of the Reformation in Scotland.