Topographical, statistical, and historical gazetteer of Scotland > Volume 1

HAMILTON.
741
serve the amenity and seclusion of the Ducal domain.
The new part oi' the town, which is intersected hy
the great Glasgow and London road, is built with
considerable regard to taste and ornament, and occu-
pied by inhabitants of a very respectable kind. For-
merly this road took an inconvenient sweep through
the old or lower part of the town ; but, by the recent
improvement, this bend has been removed. Hamil-
ton is a burgh-of-regality governed by a provost,
three bailies, and a town-council. The territory of
the regality is very extensive, and the magistrates
exercise the same jurisdiction, both in civil and
criminal cases, as the magistrates of royal burghs.
The sheriff-court for the middle ward of the county,
and the quarter-sessions for the peace are held here.
The greater part of the burgh-territory is in posses-
sion of the Duke of Hamilton, but it still derives a
considerable revenue from its feu-duties and other
property. By the census of 1831, there were 1,036
houses in the burgh and parish, and according to the I
estimate of the Parliamentary commissioners, made
at a more recent period, there were 300 of these
rated at £10 and upwards. Hamilton presents the
anomaly of having been at one time a royal burgh,
and of having afterwards denuded itself of its status
and privileges. The earliest charter of the burgh
in the possession of the town-council is dated 23d
October, 1475, and was granted by James Lord Ham-
ilton. It recognises the burgh as a then existing
burgh-of-regality, and grants to the community and
bailies certain lands, and the common muir, a con-
siderable portion of which is still retained by the
burgh. The next charter was granted by Queen
Mary, on 15th January, 1548, and by it Hamilton
was erected into a royal burgh with certain privi-
leges; but it would appear that two baibes, named
James Hamilton and James Naismith, agreed to re-
sign that privilege in 1670, by accepting of a charter
from Anne, Dutchess of Hamilton, by which she con-
stituted the town the chief burgh of the regality and
dukedom of Hamilton. Long subsequent to this,
in 1726, the then magistrates and inhabitants made
an effort to throw off the superiority of the Hamilton
family, and resume their long disused rights as a
royal burgh ; but the charter of Dutchess Anne was
found to be the governing one, by the Court of Ses-
sion, in an action of Declarator of the privileges of
Hamilton, as a royal burgh, to the free choice of its
magistrates. The court sustained the defence of the
Duke of Hamilton, that the privileges of the burgh
had been lost by prescription. It was not, there-
fore, till the passing of the Reform bill, in 1832, that
the inhabitants were invested with the privilege of
sharing in the election of a member of parliament:
the burgh being associated for this purpose with
Lanark, Falkirk, Linlithgow, and Airdrie. The
revenues of the burgh are derived from lands, houses,
flesh-market dues, customs, interest on shares in
bridge, feu-duties, &c, and, according to the report
of the Parliamentary commissioners, amounted, in
1832, to £654 per annum. In 1839-40, it amounted
to £715 5s. 2£d. At the same period the debt due
by the burgh "amounted to £2,000, the larger por-
tion of which had been mortified with the magis-
trates more than 100 years ago.
Although the Ducal palace has rendered Hamilton
somewhat fastidious and aristocratic in its pretensions,
yet it is a place not without manufactures. Since the
introduction of the cotton trade into Scotland, it has
been one of the principal seats of imitation cambric
weaving, and employs about 1 ,200 looms within the
town, and a few in the country. But although, about
50 years ago, this trade was a most flourishing one, it
has of late been considerably on the decline. The old
lace manufacture was introduced or encouraged by the
Dutchess of Hamilton, afterwards Dutchess of Argyle,
but it also had almost entirely dwindled away, until
resuscitated by acompany abouttwelve years ago, and
it has since gone on increasing. Upwards of 2, 500 fe-
males are engaged in this manufacture in Hamilton
and the adjacent parishes, and a number of black silk
veils are also produced here, in addition to check
shirts for the foreign colonial market.* Formerly
the fairs at Hamilton were of considerable import-
ance for the sale of lint and wool, and, about 1750,
large quantities of yarn were sent from this town to
the north of Ireland, but the Irish have long since
learned to make yarn for themselves, and this mar-
ket, of course, is entirely closed up. From this cause
the fairs, of which there were five in the year, have
dwindled into insignificance. In addition to those
named, there is a manufactory of hempen goods, for
making bags and such other purposes, a manufactory
of agricultural implements, a foundery, and a few
breweries. Hamilton contains within itself all the
elegancies and convenienci.es of civilized life, and,
from the existence of the cavalry barracks — which
are situated at the Glasgow entrance to the town,
and generally occupied by a troop from the regiment
lying in Glasgow — it has often an appearance of con-
siderable gaiety and bustle. In 1831 gas was intro-
duced, by subscription shares, at an expense of £2,400,
and when burned by meter it is sold at the rate of 10s.
per 1,000 cubic feet. In 1816, a spacious trades'-
hall was erected in Church-street ; and in June,
1833, the foundation-stone of the new prison and
public offices was laid, which have since been com-
pleted and occupied. These consist of apartments
for the sheriff-clerk, town-clerk, a court-room, a
hall for county-meetings, and the prison and gover-
nor's house. The prison contains 43 cells, and is
surrounded by a high wall, enclosing also a large open
court, or airing yard, half an acre in extent. These
buildings stand in the west end of the town near the
cavalry barracks. There is a debt of about £1,200
upon them. The old prison was erected in the reign
of Charles I., but has now been dismantled with the
exception of the steeple and clock. It was situated
in the lower or olden portion of the town immediately
adjoining the park wall of Hamilton palace.
The ecclesiastical state of the town has been briefly
noticed in the foregoing account of the parish. The
* A few years ago, a company in Nottingham established an
Rgent in Hamilton, to procure a number of women to orna-
ment bobbin-net with the tambouring needle. Previous to
that time their whole attention had been directed to the same
kind of work upou muslin ; and there was so much difficulty
in removing the prejudices which they entertained against the
lace-work, that even a third more wages could not induce the
greater part of them to embrace that which was to be so es-
sential to their present and future interests. Mr. John Gowau,
a man of considerable enterprise, commenced manufacturing
caps of various shapes and patterns, collars, tippets, pelerines,
veils, and dresses, &c. The variety and elegance of the pat-
terns, the chasteness and delicacy of design, the superiority and
beautiful arrangement of the work, took with the public j and,
in a short time, not only every town and village in Scotland
was supplied with goods of the above description, but they
were eagerly bought up, and sent into the English mar-
ket. The goods made in Hamilton not only excelled those of
the English in neatness of make and lowness of price, but
rivalled even those of the French when compared in the Ame-
rican market. As the embroidering of bobbin-net continued
still to increase, that of inuslm seemed gradually to decline ;
the transparency and durability of the ground, and the lively
figures with which it was ornamented, attracted the notice of
ladies of the first rank in the country to its use ; their example
was soon followed by the other classes of the community, and,
as an article of dress, iu a short time it became almost univer-
sal. 'J he commercial affairs of the country were now begin-
ning to wear a gloomy aspect, when the attention of several
individuals was keenly directed to the manufacturing those
articles ; and some of them entering into it with ardour, it hap-
pened that Hamilton, amidst the dreadful and unparalleled dis-
tress of the country, suffered little comparatively speaking.
This novel trade gave employment to a great proportion of us
females; while their industry and good sense preserved many
a family from undergoing those privations which were geutr
ally experienced elsewhere.