while the principals, both of whom received mortal wounds, were engaged. The affair created the greatest excitement. At an examination before the privy council Colonel Hamilton swore that when, having disarmed General Maccartney, he ran to assist the duke, who had fallen, he saw the general make a push at his grace. On the strength of this evidence, and of the fact that though the duke was the aggrieved party the challenge came from Lord Mohun, the tory party took the matter up and asserted that the duel was a whig plot. The Examiner in a most virulent paper (20 Nov. 1712) supported this view, and Swift drew up a paragraph as malicious as possible to the same effect for the Post Boy (Journal to Stella, coll. works, iii. 66, ed. 1824). Large rewards were offered for the apprehension of General Maccartney, who escaped to the continent. He surrendered himself in 1716, was tried and found guilty of manslaughter. Colonel Hamilton at this trial deviated from his former evidence, and would only swear that he saw Maccartney's sword raised above the duke's shoulder. He was discredited. On George I's accession he had lost his commission and died (rumour said by God's vengeance) 17 Oct. 1716 (Boyer, xii. 472). Thackeray introduced the duel into 'Esmond.'
The character of Hamilton was variously read by his contemporaries. Lockhart speaks highly of his courage and understanding, ascribing his lukewarmness to his too great concern for his estate in England (Memoirs, p. 29). Macky describes him as brave in person, with a rough air of boldness; of good sense, very forward and hot for what he undertakes; ambitious and haughty; a violent enemy; supposed to have thoughts towards the crown of England; he is of middle stature, well made, of a black coarse complexion, a brisk look; on which opinion Swift's annotation is a worthy good-natured person, very generous but of a middle understanding (Characters of the Reign of Queen Anne, coll. works, xvii. 252). Burnet (History of his own Time, vi. 130, ed. 1833), who had been his governor, says: I will add no character of him: I am sorry I cannot say so much good of him as I could wish, and I had too much kindness for him to say any evil without necessity
Hamilton was twice married: first to Lady Anne Spencer, eldest daughter of Robert, earl of Sunderland, by whom he had two daughters, who both died young; and secondly, on 17 July 1698, to Elizabeth, only child and heiress of Digby, lord Gerard, who brought large estates in Staffordshire and Lancashire into the Douglas family. With this lady, who outlived her husband thirty-two years, Swift was very intimate, though his first impression of her was that she talked too much and was a plaguy detractor. Further acquaintance proved to him that she had too a diabolical temper (Journal to Stella, ii. 482, iii. 97). She never grieved, he wrote, for her husband, but raged and stormed and railed. Swift had, however, some kindness for her. She has, he declared, abundance of wit and spirit; handsome and airy and seldom spared anybody that gave her the least provocation; by which she had many enemies and few friends. By her Hamilton had seven children, four daughters and three sons, of whom James (1702-1743), the eldest, succeeded to his honours, married thrice and left issue; Lord William was elected M.P. for Lanark in 1734, but died the same year; and Lord Anne (so named after the queen, his godmother), once held a commission in the 2nd foot guards. In the interval between his marriages Hamilton, then Earl of Arran, had a son by Lady Barbara Fitzroy, third daughter of Charles II and the Duchess of Cleveland. This son was Charles Hamilton (1695-1754) who is noticed separately.
[Douglas and Wood's Peerage of Scotland, i. 710-21; Boyer's Annals of Queen Anne, vii. 45, ix. 244, 279, x. 215, 295, xi. 289, 296-304; Lockhart's Memoirs of Scotland, passim; Hamilton's Transactions during the Reign of Queen Anne, passim; Luttrell's Diary, iv. 404, v. 185, 187, vi. 300, 558, ed. 1857; Memoirs of the Life and Family of the most illustrious James, Duke of Hamilton, p. 96 ¼ 1717. After the death of the Duke of Hamilton a large number of pamphlets professing to give the true story of the duel in which he lost his life were published also an excellent ballad on the subject preserved in the Roxburghe collection.]
DOUGLAS, JAMES, M.D. (1675–1742), physician, was born in Scotland in 1675, graduated M.D. at Rheims, and settled in London about 1700. He soon attained reputation as an anatomist, and was elected F.R.S. 4 Dec. 1706. He practised midwifery, and was admitted an honorary fellow of the College of Physicians 26 June 1721. He first lived in Bow Lane, Cheapside, but ultimately settled in Red Lion Square. He was throughout life a laborious student of everything relating to his profession, but was most distinguished as an anatomist. He was continually engaged in dissection, and was occasionally permitted to make a post-mortem examination at St. Bartholomew's Hospital, though never a member of the staff (Phil. Trans. 1716, No. 345). His first publication was ‘Myographiæ Comparatæ Specimen, or a Comparative Description of all the Muscles in a Man and in a Quadruped; added is an account of the Muscles
