Hi Aberheart, Mirrin and everyone,
Well, I guess the part about Catherine HAMILTON marrying her first cousin, John HAMILTON is correct ... as well as the Brucehaven bit! I'm not surprised at the mix up. We often think of trying to sort out our HAMILTONs of Lesmahagow etc. but get bogged down with the shear numbers of similarly named HAMILTONs all in the same area. (Much like my MCGREGORs in Balquhidder!) Happy to hear corrections.
At the time my father gave me these HAMILTON notes, I think he had been taking a stab at connecting our HAMILTONs in Argyll to the Woolford HAMILTONs. It's actually my mother who is the HAMILTON descendant. She knows a fair bit, but my father is the family tree aficionado. Also, Dad's own father worked closely with George HAMILTON (the never married son of George HAMILTON & Margaret BLACK) and was actually the person assigned to deal with George's will when he died. (I have this paper and it took 20 years to wind up, due to far flung nieces and nephews etc.) George HAMILTON (the younger) was an excellent farmer with an eye for good ground and was an expert at breeding good stock (sheep) too. My father, now 82 years old, an only child of a widowed shepherd, worked along with his father at several farms. Stock sales were a big deal in those days (1930s/40s) and men met their friends and relatives there often. My grandfather always made a point of saying "hello" to Matthew HAMILTON of Woolfords as his late employer, the younger George HAMILTON, referred to Matthew as his 'cousin'. At that time, Matthew was probably in his 70s and was then still regarded as "one of the best black face sheep breeders of his time". Dad didn't find the connection, but assumes the HAMILTONs of Woolfords (they may be there yet ... a descendant was there 10 years ago) descend from Thomas & Marion as well.
Why go to Argyllshire? Well, things were happening in the middle part of the 1800s. There was religious upheaval, highland clearances, potato famine in Ireland, but most of all land reform. As I understand it, all these present day highland farms (like Tiretigan, Crear etc. where HAMILTONs were) were villages of tiny crofting houses until maybe the 1840s when land owners decided they would make more money if they rented the property out as one big farm. The coastal land was rich and warmed by the sea breezes, and it was pretty much wide open unlike crowded lowland farming country. What really changed things was 'security of tenure' that came in. That meant that it was very difficult for a tenant farmer to be put off the land by the landlord, so they were now taking next to no risk in setting up farming in Argyll. The daughters married locally. Elizabeth married my 3x great grandfather, John MCMILLAN, and Margaret married Thomas JOHNSTON. I know quit a bit about the JOHNSTONs as both my parents knew and/or worked with many of them.
Part of my father's note hints that Thomas HAMILTON (who married Marion TUDHOPE) may be the son of James HAMILTON & Elizabeth MCGHIE. Any thoughts on that??
Mary
