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A Biographical Dictionary of the Maryland Legislature 1635-1789 by Edward C. Papenfuse, et. al.
Volume 426, Page 390   View pdf image (33K)
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HAM BIOGRAPHIES

County. NATIVE: at least third generation. RE-
SIDED: in Chestertown, Kent County. FAMILY
BACKGROUND. FATHER: Christopher Hall (?-1746).
MOTHER: Mary. SISTERS. Elizabeth; Sarah; Mary;
Rachel; and Margaret. PRIVATE CAREER. EDUCA-
TION: probably literate. RELIGIOUS AFFILIATION:
Anglican, Shrewsbury Parish, Kent County. PUB-
LIC CAREER. LEGISLATIVE SERVICE: Convention,
Kent County, 1st, 1774 (appointed, but did not
attend). LOCAL OFFICE: sheriff, Kent County,
elected 1779. WEALTH DURING LIFETIME. SIGNIFI-
CANT CHANGES IN LAND BETWEEN FIRST ELEC-
TION AND DEATH: purchased 1 lot in Chester-
town, Kent County, 1779. WEALTH AT DEATH.
DIED: ca. April 1780 in Kent County. PERSONAL
PROPERTY. TEV, £3,358.5.0 current money (in-
cluding 1 slave); FB, £174.11.1. LAND: 1 lot in
Chestertown, Kent County.

HAMBLETON (HAMILTON), WILLIAM (ca.
1636-1677). BORN: ca. 1636. IMMIGRATED: in 1657
as a free adult. RESIDED: in Kent County; St. Mi-
chael's River, Talbot County, by 1663. MARRIED
Sarah, who subsequently married Richard Collins.
CHILDREN. SONS: John; Edward; Samuel; Phile-
mon; and William. DAUGHTERS: Mary; Frances.

PRIVATE CAREER. EDUCATION: literate. SOCIAL

STATUS AND ACTIVITIES: no title on arrival in the
colony. OCCUPATIONAL PROFILE: planter. PUBLIC

CAREER. LEGISLATIVE SERVICE Lower House,

Talbot County, 1666, 1669, 1671-1674/75 (Ac-
counts 3). LOCAL OFFICES: sheriff, Talbot County,
1663; justice, Talbot County, 1663/64, first evi-
dence of service 1668/69-1675/76. WEALTH DUR-
ING LIFETIME. LAND AT FIRST ELECTION: ca.

1,000 acres. WEALTH AT DEATH. DIED: will pro-
bated on October 10, 1677. PERSONAL PROPERTY:
TEV, 64,271 pounds of tobacco (including 6 ser-
vants and 6 books); FB, 57,719 pounds of to-
bacco. LAND: 1,724 acres.

HAMILTON, ALEXANDER (1712-1756).
BORN: on September 26, 1712, in Edinburgh, Scot-
land; sixth son. IMMIGRATED, to Annapolis, Anne
Arundel County, in 1739. RESIDED, in Annapolis.

FAMILY BACKGROUND. FATHER: Rev. William

Hamilton, professor of divinity and principal of
the University of Edinburgh. BROTHERS: included
John, a physician, who married in 1722 Mary
Scott, of Calvert County; Gavin. MARRIED on
May 29, 1747, Margaret, daughter of Daniel
Dulany (1685-1753); stepdaughter of Henrietta
Maria Lloyd Chew Dulany (?-1766); granddaugh-
ter of Walter Smith (?-1711); niece of Lucy Smith
(1688-1770), who married Thomas Brooke (1683-

1744), Eleanor Smith (1690-1761), who married
Thomas Addison (1679-1727), and Ann Smith
(1694-1759), who married second, Thomas True-
man Greenfield (1682-1733). Margaret Dulany
Hamilton subsequently married in 1757 William
Murdoch (?-1769). Her brothers were Daniel
Dulany, Jr. (1722-1797); Walter Dulany (?-1773);
and Dennis (1730-1779). Her stepbrother was
Samuel Chew (by 1734-1786). Her sisters were
Rachel; Rebecca; and Mary. Her stepsisters were
Henrietta Maria Chew (1731-1762), who married
Edward Dorsey (1718-1760); Margaret Chew (?-
1773), who married John Beale Bordley (1726/27-
1804); and Ann Mary Chew (1736-1774), who
married William Paca (1740- 1799). Her first cous-
ins were Richard Brooke (1716-1783); Eleanor
Brooke, who married Samuel Beall (ca. 1713-ca.
1778); John Addison (1713-1764); Ann Addison
(1711/12-1753), who married William Murdoch
(?-1769); and Marianne Greenfield, who married
John Stoddert (?-1767). Her nephews were Benja-
min Tasker Dulany (1752-1816); James Heath (?-
1766). CHILDREN. Probably none who survived
infancy, although Hamilton mentioned in his will
written in October 1747 that his wife was preg-
nant. PRIVATE CAREER. EDUCATION: received a
medical degree from the University of Edinburgh,
1737. RELIGIOUS AFFILIATION: Anglican, St. An-
ne's Parish, Anne Arundel County; converted
from Presbyterianism. SOCIAL STATUS AND AC-
TIVITIES: known by his contemporaries as a man of
"wit, humor and drollery in which acquirement he
had no equal," and as a person with a "friendly
benevolent disposition" and "strict honor and in-
tegrity." He wrote the Itinerarium , a journal de-
scribing his travels through the northern colonies
during the summer of 1744, in which he com-
mented on the opportunities for genteel conversa-
tion and "public gay diversions." In 1745 Hamil-
ton founded the Tuesday Club, which was devoted
to literary farce, satire, and elegant humor. A col-
league noted that Hamilton was so much the "life
and soul of the Tuesday Club as it expired with
him." Hamilton also frequently contributed amus-
ing anecdotes to the Maryland Gazette . OCCUPA-
TIONAL PROFILE: physician, with "a respectable
practice among the wealthier colonials" ; also
trained young men for medical careers. Wrote A
Defence of Dr. Thomson's Discourse (1752) sup-
porting the practice of inoculation. PUBLIC CA-

REER. LEGISLATIVE SERVICE: Lower House, An-

napolis, 1753-1754 (elected to the 3rd session to
fill vacancy). LOCAL OFFICES: common council-
man, Annapolis, 1743-1756; St. Anne's Parish
Vestry, Anne Arundel County, in office 1749-

390



 

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A Biographical Dictionary of the Maryland Legislature 1635-1789 by Edward C. Papenfuse, et. al.
Volume 426, Page 390   View pdf image (33K)
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