Commands held Greenwich Hospital Service/branch Royal Navy | Name Lord Hamilton Rank Captain | |
 | ||
Allegiance Kingdom of Great Britain Died April 5, 1754, London, United Kingdom | ||
Lord Archibald Hamilton (bapt. 17 February 1673 – 5 April 1754) was a Royal Navy officer and British politician.
Hamilton was the youngest son of William Douglas-Hamilton, Duke of Hamilton and Anne Hamilton, 3rd Duchess of Hamilton.
He became a Captain in the Royal Navy on 11 September 1693 and by the end of 1694 was appointed to a new 48 gun vessel, the Litchfield at Portsmouth. In 1695 he was active in the English Channel pursuing French privateers, including the Tyger out of St Malo, an encounter commemorated in a painting by Willem van de Velde the Younger.
In 1708, he was elected as MP for Lanarkshire. Hamilton held the seat until 1710, then served as Governor of Jamaica from 1711-1716.
He played a controversial role in setting up some of the founders of the infamous Bahamanian pirate gang, including Henry Jennings, for which he was arrested and brought back to England by the Royal Navy. He was ultimately released and, later, was re-elected for Lanarkshire, then for Queenborough in 1735 and Dartmouth in 1742. Hamilton was also a Lord of the Admiralty from 1729–38 and Governor of Greenwich Hospital from 1746 until his death. His full title was Lord Archibald Hamilton of Riccarton and Pardovan. For much of his life, he lived at Park Place at Remenham in Berkshire.
Family
Hamilton's first wife was Anne Cary (a daughter of the 2nd Baron Lucas and mother of the 6th Viscount Falkland). She died in 1709 and Hamilton then married Anne, Lady Hamilton (widow of Sir Francis Hamilton, 3rd Baronet). His second wife died in 1719 and later that year, he married Lady Jane Hamilton (a daughter of the 6th Earl of Abercorn). Hamilton and his third wife later had six children: