Historical and genealogical memoirs of the House of Hamilton

EARLS OF LEICESTER. 27
That the Scottish Hamiltons are descended from this family of Hamil- introductory
NOTICES OF
tons in Leicestershire, I have no doubt ; and in this I am confirmed by the family.
the concurring opinion of two of the ablest and most profound antiquaries"
and genealogists of the present day. The absolute identity of arms and
name prove this j* and it is a remarkable circumstance that this Leices-
tershire family appears to have left England about the same period that the
great ancestor of the Hamilton family first appeared in Scotland.t
The story told by Hector Bcethius, t Lesly, Buchanan, and other Scottish
historians, of his having been obliged to flee to Scotland for slaying one of
" 2. Giieuelles, 3 lyons passant gardant, or, a labell of France.
" 3. Gueuelles, 3 lyons passant gardant, a labell of three points, argent.
( " 4. Gueuelles, a cinquefoile ermine.
\ " 5. Gueuelles, three cinquefoiles ermine. Hamilton.
" 6. Quarterly, or and gueuelles. Saye. &c. &c. &c.
Nicholls mentions that Wyrely describes these coats in the same manner, but, as
they are now long destroyed, he only copies them. It is remarkable that to some of
the coats names are put, whilst to others there are no names, though it was perfectly
known to what families they belonged ; and they have accordingly been supplied in
Nicholls,. Thus, the arms of the De Bellomonts, Earls of Leicester, by whom the
church was endowed, have no name, while the three cinquefoils ermine has the name
of Hamilton.
* It is a maxim in heraldry that armorial bearings, and the identity of arms, are,
next to charters and records, the surest evidences of the sameness of blood and kin-
dred. Roger, last Lord of Maule, in the Isle de Paris in France, was killed at the
battle of Nicopolis in Hungary, in 1398, fighting against the Turks. His coat of
arms, which was hung up in the church of Notre Dame at Paris, was exactly the
same as that borne by the Earls of Panmure in Scotland. A number of other in-
stances might be adduced to prove this, were it necessary.
f There are no notices of this Leicestershire family to be found, either in the public
or private records after, about the termination of the reign of Henry the Third, in
1272. After that time many documents occur in Nicholls's History to prove that
other proprietors held that estate.
% Bellenden, in his translation of Hector Bcethius, gives the following account of
the origin of the family: —
" About this tyme ane Inglisman of nobil blude, namit Hantoun, to eschew ye
hatrent of king Edward, fled to king Robert in Scotland. Yis knight, efter the battle
of Bannockburne, was in ye king of Inglandis house at London, and had ane singu-
lare favour to King Robert, oftymes avaising his gret manheid and virtew ; quhill at
last John Spensar, richt familiar and tender servitour to king Edward (howbeit he