Margaret Hamilton, Lady Belhaven and Stenton

Margaret Hamilton, Lady Belhaven and Stenton
Hamilton and her husband, by Anthony Van Dyck
BornBef. 1625
Diedc. 1695
Noble familyJames Hamilton, 1st Duke of Hamilton (half-brother)
Spouse(s)John Hamilton, 1st Lord Belhaven and Stenton
FatherJames Hamilton, 2nd Marquess of Hamilton

Margaret Hamilton, Lady Belhaven and Stenton (bef. 1625 – c. 1695) was a Scottish noblewoman known for her part in faking her husband's death and her knowledge of herbal remedies and medical practice.

Family

Margaret was born before 1625 and was the illegitimate daughter of James Hamilton, 2nd Marquess of Hamilton.[1][2] It has been suggested that her mother was Anne Stewart, the widowed daughter of Walter Stewart, 1st Lord Blantyre.[3]

She married her distant relative John Hamilton, who was created 1st Lord Belhaven and Stenton by Charles I of England in 1647.[4] They had three daughters – Anne, Margaret, and Elizabeth – and a son, who died in childhood in 1661.[1]

Faking John's death

During the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, in 1648, the Hamiltons feared that John might be arrested because he had financially supported Lady Margaret's half-brother, James Hamilton, 1st Duke of Hamilton, who had led a Royalist army into England and been executed by the Parliamentarians. Margaret and John arranged for John to fake his death, pretending that he had drowned in the Solway Firth. Lady Margaret went into public mourning, and John's death was recorded by the Lyon King of Arms in 1652. He returned after six years in hiding, was admitted as a member of the Privy Council in 1663 and actually died in 1679.[1][5]

Medical practitioner

Lady Margaret's correspondence demonstrates that she was a sought-after nurse and practitioner of herbal remedies. She collected recipes and made up her own plasters, and advised her great-niece, Margaret Hamilton, Countess of Panmure, in maintaining a healthy pregnancy.[1][6]

Death and legacy

Lady Margaret died in or after 1694, predeceased by two of her children.[1] The line continued through her daughter Anne, who married Sir Robert Hamilton, 1st Baronet of Silvertonhill.[7] Their daughter Margaret married Sir Samuel Baillie.[2] Their daughter Elizabeth married Alexander Seton, 1st Viscount Kingston, as his third wife.[2]

Lady Margaret was sketched and painted several times by the studio of Anthony Van Dyck.[1][8]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f "Hamilton, Margaret, Lady Belhaven and Stenton (b. in or before 1625, d. in or after 1694), royalist heroine and medical practitioner". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. 2004. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/93811. Retrieved 30 November 2023. (Subscription, Wikipedia Library access or UK public library membership required.)
  2. ^ a b c Anderson, William (1863). "Belhaven". The Scottish Nation: Or the Surnames, Families, Literature, Honours and Biographical History of The People of Scotland. Retrieved 30 July 2025 – via Electric Scotland.
  3. ^ Mosley, Charles, ed. (1999). Burke's Peerage and Baronetage. Vol. 1 (106 ed.). p. 1283.
  4. ^ Genealogical and Heraldic Dictionary of the Peerage and Baronetage of the British Empire. Burke's Peerage Limited. 1830. p. 59.
  5. ^ Marshall, Rosalind K. (1983). Virgins and viragos: a History of Women in Scotland from 1080 to 1980. Academy Chicago. p. 108. ISBN 9780897330756.
  6. ^ Marshall, R. K. (1982). "'Take of dragon's blood two drachms': the treatment of pregnancy and miscarriage in seventeenth-century Scotland". Nursing Mirror: 32–6.
  7. ^ Burke, Bernard (1854). "A" Visitation of the Seats and Arms of the Noblemen and Gentlemen of Great Britain and Ireland: Second Series. Hurst and Blackett. p. 38.
  8. ^ Webster, Cameron (30 April 2024). "Lord and Lady Belhaven and the mystery of their double portrait". Art UK. Retrieved 29 July 2025.
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