Historical and genealogical memoirs of the House of Hamilton

tions, p. 54.
164 HISTORICAL AND GENEALOGICAL MEMOIRS
james; " To this hitherto unaccounted-for incident is to be attributed the con-
FOURTH DUKE . „ . . „ ,. . , . .....
of Hamilton, duct ot his Grace on this occasion, not to the inconsistent and invidious
= : motives propagated by the partial Lockhart and the vain Colonel Hooke,
— the last of whom he disdained to admit to any share of his confidence.
The Duke, alluding to that letter of Middleton's, wrote to his son at St
Germains, 7th March 1707> — ' I am very sensible of your unhappiness at
V my illness, and your joy at my recovery. You have been very near losing
a friend and a father, but, thank God, I am growing stronger every day,
and I hope to live a few years longer yet for your sake. Tell Lord Middle-
ton not to be uneasy about his letter. I have been too sick to answer it,
but I burnt it, with other papers, for fear of accident, so that his secret
would have gone to the grave with me. He has been duped as I expected.
He might have known the men with whom he was dealing.' "
His Grace pointedly disapproved of the mission of Colonel Hooke to
Scotland, to excite the friends of the Pretender to declare for him. He
Hamilton'! Transac. wrote to the Pretender, 7th May 1707, warmly recommending to him to
cherish the friendly disposition of his sister Queen Anne, and by all means
to abstain from any attempt which might give her umbrage or increase her
perplexity. The Pretender, however, resolved to make a descent on Scot-
land ; whereupon the Duke of Hamilton retired to his seat in Staffordshire,
to avert suspicion. When the French fleet appeared off* the coast in 1708,
his Grace was taken into custody and carried to London, but was admit-
ted to bail, his sureties being the Duke of Newcastle, the Earl of Wharton,
and the Lord Halifax. At the keenly-contested general election, 17th
June 1708, his Grace was returned one of the sixteen representatives of
the Scottish peerage, and re-chosen next general election, I7JO. On the over-
throw of the whig ministry, the Duke was, 1st October 1710, appointed lord-
lieutenant and custos-rotulorum of the county palatine of Lancaster,
Ranger of the Queen's forests therein, Admiral of the sea-coasts of that
county, and admitted Privy Councillor. His Grace was created a Peer of
Great Britain, by the title of Baron of Dutton, in Cheshire, and Duke of
Brandon, in the county of Suffolk, by patent, dated 11th September 1711.
At the meeting of Parliament in December, notice being taken in the House
of Lords, that, in the list of the nobility delivered by Garter King at Arms,
there is inserted, James, Duke of Hamilton and Brandon, among the
Dukes ; and the House being informed that a patent is passed the great seal,
for creating the said Duke of Hamilton Duke of Brandon, it was ordered
that the said patent should be laid before the House on Thursday 20th