![]() ![]() Looking to the future as head of the family, she ensured their descendants would take the title from her. Her marriage in 1656 to William Douglas, Earl of Selkirk, was a successful partnership: they raised money for the fines, selling Hamilton possessions, until they could reclaim the palace and Charles II granted Anne’s request to make William 3rd Duke of Hamilton. Living in a barn near Hamilton Palace, she refused to be defeated. The Hamilton lands were forfeited and fines payable.Īnne was also responsible for Susanna and their cousins, their grandmother having died in 1647. James and William had incurred huge debts as a result of the wars and Scotland was now part of the Commonwealth, which frequently punished supporters of the Stuarts. When William was fatally wounded fighting for Charles II in 1651, Anne became Duchess of Hamilton, aged 19.Īlthough in theory Scotland’s greatest heiress, she was almost ruined. His heir William became duke and made Anne his heir above his own daughters. Defeated at Preston leading an army for the king, James was executed in 1649, shortly after Charles. As well as receiving academic tuition, Anne learnt estate management, including dealing with tenants, keeping accounts and supervising the chamberlains.Ĭharles I created a dukedom for James in 1643, making him 1st Duke of Hamilton. The formidable Dowager Marchioness had efficiently managed the family’s extensive estates after her husband moved to London as Lord Steward of the Royal Household. When the Civil War began in 1642, James sent Anne to stay with his widowed mother at Hamilton Palace. Feeling it imperative that the family’s interests be represented by a man, he instead appointed his brother William, Earl of Lanark as heir, knowing he would look after Anne and Susanna and ensure they married well. Raised as a Presbyterian, he had some sympathy with the Scottish Covenanters and tried to act as a mediator between them and the king, but staunch Royalists became suspicious and made James’ position difficult. He was chief adviser in Scottish matters to Charles I. Anne’s mother died when she was six and the death of several children left James with only Anne and her younger sister, Susanna.Īnne was James’ heir but it was a tricky time politically. ![]() Anne’s father, James, was 3rd Marquis of Hamilton, the title created for an ancestor’s services to Mary, Queen of Scots. Anne was a rare example of a woman created duchess in her own right, which was not envisaged at her birth in 1632. Known locally as ‘Good Duchess Anne’ for her charitable work, she unexpectedly became head of a family whose dukes are Scotland’s most senior aristocrats. ![]() It was an example of her record keeping and preservation, which today provides valuable information about life in a noble household. One bore the inscription ‘Funded by Anna Duches May Anno Dom 1696’.Īnne, 3rd Duchess of Hamilton, who died on October 17th, 1716, would surely have been pleased that this record of her work had been found, if saddened by the circumstances. In July 1923 newspapers reported that, under a pillar along the palace’s south front, two flat stones had been unearthed. It took over a decade to demolish and only the family’s mausoleum remains. Hamilton Palace in South Lanarkshire, built for the powerful Hamilton family in 1591, had been sold after mining subsidence was discovered. In 1921 the demolition began of the largest non-royal residence in Europe. ![]()
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