Lord Anne Hamilton (12 October 1709 – 25 December 1748) was a Scottish nobleman. He is said to have married the richest woman in the UK and they had a child.

Early life

Hamilton was born at St. James's Square,

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

, the third son of Lieutenant-General

James Hamilton, 4th Duke of Hamilton Lieutenant General James Hamilton, 4th Duke of Hamilton and 1st Duke of Brandon (11 April 1658 – 15 November 1712) was a Scottish nobleman, soldier and politician. Hamilton was a major investor in the failed Darien Scheme, which cost many o ...

, and his wife the Honourable Elizabeth Gerard, daughter of Digby Gerard, 5th Baron Gerard. His feminine forename is due to his being named after his godmother, Queen Anne. Hamilton's other godparents were

John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough General John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, 1st Prince of Mindelheim, 1st Count of Nellenburg, Prince of the Holy Roman Empire, (26 May 1650 – 16 June 1722 O.S.) was an English soldier and statesman whose career spanned the reign ...

and

Charles Spencer, 3rd Earl of Sunderland Charles Spencer, 3rd Earl of Sunderland, KG, PC (23 April 167519 April 1722), known as Lord Spencer from 1688 to 1702, was an English statesman and nobleman from the Spencer family. He served as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland (1714–1717), Lord P ...

. Hamilton was commissioned into the

Coldstream Guards The Coldstream Guards is the oldest continuously serving regular regiment in the British Army. As part of the Household Division, one of its principal roles is the protection of the monarchy; due to this, it often participates in state ceremonia ...

as an ensign on 4 April 1731, and resigned in May 1733.

Personal life and death

260px, "Edwards Hamilton family on a Terrace", 1734 by William Hogarth Lord Anne Hamilton reputedly married Mary Edwards, in or before 1731, in a clandestine marriage said to have been in the chapel of the Fleet Prison. It was reported in

The Gentleman's Magazine ''The Gentleman's Magazine'' was a monthly magazine founded in London, England, by Edward Cave in January 1731. It ran uninterrupted for almost 200 years, until 1922. It was the first to use the term '' magazine'' (from the French ''magazine ...

but the chapel records do not include details and Mary Edwards denied it and never changed her name. She was the daughter and heiress of Francis Edwards of Welham Grove, Leicestershire. She was one of the greatest heiresses of her day with a fortune of between £50,000 and £60,000. Lord Anne assumed Mary Edwards' name and arms as Lord Anne Edwards Hamilton. Their portraits were painted by

William Hogarth William Hogarth (; 10 November 1697 – 26 October 1764) was an English painter, engraver, pictorial satirist, social critic, editorial cartoonist and occasional writer on art. His work ranges from realistic portraiture to comic strip-like ...

with their son Gerard Anne Edwards. Mary Edwards also commissioned Hogarth to paint Taste in High Life in 1742. The couple had one child, a son: *Gerard Anne Edwardes (1734–1773), married in 1754, Lady Jane Noel, daughter of Baptist Noel, 4th Earl of Gainsborough of the first creation. They were the parents of

Sir Gerard Noel, 2nd Baronet Sir Gerard Noel Noel, 2nd Baronet (17 July 1759 – 25 February 1838), of Welham Grove in Leicestershire and Exton Park in Rutland, known as Gerard Edwardes until 1798, was an English Member of Parliament. Background Gerard Noel was born Ger ...

, ancestor of the Earls of Gainsborough of the second creation. Sometime after 1734, because she felt that Lord Anne was becoming spendthrift with her money, Mary Edwards left him and took the extraordinary step of repudiating her marriage. She declared herself a single woman and took steps to create evidence that no marriage had ever taken place; their child, Gerard Anne Edwards, was rendered illegitimate, and took his mother's surname. After this unprecedented development, Hamilton married Anna Charlotta Maria Powell, daughter of Charles Powell, in October 1742. They had two sons: *

Lieutenant-Colonel Lieutenant colonel ( , ) is a rank of commissioned officers in the armies, most marine forces and some air forces of the world, above a major and below a colonel. Several police forces in the United States use the rank of lieutenant colo ...

James Hamilton (1746–1804) * Admiral

Charles Powell Hamilton Admiral Charles Powell Hamilton (26 December 1747 – 12 March 1825) was an officer of the Royal Navy, who saw service during the American War of Independence, and the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, eventually rising to the rank of ...

(1747–1825, whose great-grandson succeeded in 1895 as 13th Duke. Hamilton died in France at the age of 39, and was buried at

St James's Church, Piccadilly St James's Church, Piccadilly, also known as St James's Church, Westminster, and St James-in-the-Fields, is an Anglican church on Piccadilly in the centre of London, United Kingdom. The church was designed and built by Sir Christopher Wren. Th ...

on 7 July 1749.''The Register of Burials in the Parish of St James within the Liberty of Westminster. 1723-1754''. 7 July 1749. Upon the death of the 12th Duke of Hamilton in 1895, without male issue, Lord Anne's descendant, Alfred Douglas-Hamilton succeeded to the dukedom of Hamilton.

Early life

Personal life and death

References

Further reading