HAMILTON, a town of Scotland, in Clydesdale, seated on the river Clyde, eleven miles south-east of Glasgow; from whence the noble family of Hamilton take their name, and title of duke. The town is seated in the middle of a very agreeable plain; on one side of which the Hamilton family has a large park, which is near seven miles in circumference, enclosed with a high wall, and well stocked with fallow deer. The rivulet called Aon runs through the park, and falls into the river Clyde, over which last there is a bridge of free-stone. W. Long. 4. 16. N. Lat. 55. 58. The original name of this place, or the lands about it, was Cadrow or Cadgow, a barony granted to an ancestor of the noble owner, on the following occasion. In the time of Edward II. lived Sir Gilbert de Hamilton, or Hampton, an Englishman of rank; who happening at court to speak in praise of Robert Bruce, received on the occasion an insult from John de Spenser, chamberlain to the king, whom he fought and slew. Dreading the resentment of that potent family, he fled to the Scottish monarch;
who received him with open arms, and established him at the place possessed by the duke of Hamilton. In aftertimes the name was changed from Cadrow to Hamilton: and in 1445 the lands were erected into a lordship, and the then owner Sir James sat in parliament as Lord Hamilton. The same nobleman founded the collegiate church at Hamilton in 1451, for a provost and several prebendaries. The endowment was ratified at Rome by the pope's bull, which he went in person to procure.—Hamilton house or palace is at the end of the town; a large heavy pile, with two deep wings at right angles with the centre: the gallery is of great extent; and furnished, as well as some other rooms, with most excellent paintings.