Towns > Hamilton > 1878-79 - Naismith's Hamilton directory for 1878-79, including Bothwell, Blantyre, Uddingston, Motherwell, and Larkhall to which is added, A history of Hamilton and neighbourhood

20 THE NOBLE FAMILY OF HAMILTOIST.
infant of five days old between James, third Lord
Hamilton, second Earl of Arran, and the throne. He
was at once chosen regent of the Kingdom and tutor
to the young Queen, and declared to be " second per-
son in the realm " — a position which carried with it
something of royal style. He signed or subscribed
his name as "James G.," or simply "James," and
wrote himself, " James, by the G-race of God, Earl of
Arran and Lord Hamilton, Governor and Prince of
Scotland." He held his high ofiices till 1554, when
he resigned them in favour of the Queen-mother,
Mary of Guise, receiving in return from King Henry
II. of France a grant of the Duchy of Chatelherault.
His nearness to the throne, his great following, and
large possessions, left him still a person of such mark
that his eldest son, the Earl of Arran, as he was
called, was proposed at one time as the husband of
Queen Mary of Scotland, and at another time as the
husband of Queen Elizabeth of England. The career
which opened with such high aspirations came to a
sad and untimely end ; the Earl was afflicted with
madness in 1562, and never recovered his reason,
although he lived till 1609. His father, the first
Duke of Chatelherault, dying in 1575, his second
son, Lord John Hamilton, the lay abbot or commen-
dator of Arbroath, became virtual head of the house,
and as such was, in 1599, created Marquis of Hamil-
ton. He died in 1604, being succeeded by his son
James, the second Marc{uis, who, in 1619, was created
Earl of Cambridge in England, and died in 1625.
He was succeeded by his eldest son James, the third
Marquis, who led an army of 6,000 men to the sup-
port of King Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden in
1631-32 ; and a few years later acted a conspicuous
part in the great contest between Charles I. and the
Scottish Covenanters. In 1638 he was appointed his