Hamilton, WILLIAM

Hamilton, WILLIAM, a Scotch poet, was born in 1704, most probably at his father's estate of Bangour, near Uphall, Linlithgowshire. He contributed to Ramsay's Tea-table Miscellany (1724), and joined in the second Jacobite rising. On its collapse he escaped to France, but was permitted to return in 1749 and to succeed to the family estate the year after. He died at Lyons, 25th March 1754. The first collection of his poems was issued, without his consent, by Foulis of Glasgow in 1748; a fuller collection, with a portrait, appeared under the care of his friends in 1760. One of his poems alone—'The Braes of Yarrow'—will keep his name from ever being forgotten, by the depth and truth of its unsought pathos. See James Paterson, The Poems and Songs of William Hamilton (1850).