IF solid proof was ever needed of the influence that the Scottish diaspora has had on the world, you could simply point to the presence of place names around the globe which have their origins in Scotland.

Whether it be names of individuals perhaps commemorated for their achievements, or towns and cities and regions called after Scottish homelands, you will find antecedents from Scotland across five continents.

Take, for example, Hamilton in South Lanarkshire and the Hamilton family who have been linked to the town since the 14th century. The name Hamilton is very much Scottish in origin, adopted, as I showed last week, by the Fitz Gilbert family of Hameldone in Northumbria when they came to Cadzow in Lanarkshire, with the town’s name changed to Hamilton by royal charter in 1445.

Whether named after members of the family or the town itself, the name Hamilton has been given to more than 100 places, as detailed in the book Hamiltons Across The World by author Tim Brooker, who was inspired to write it after he moved to Hamilton on the North Island of New Zealand.

Hamilton in Ontario, Canada, was named after its founder, George Hamilton, the son of a Scot who was educated in Edinburgh, while Hamilton, the capital of Bermuda, is named after Henry Hamilton, the Irish-born direct descendant of Claud Hamilton, the 1st Lord Paisley.

Of course, the most famous Hamilton of the diaspora was Alexander Hamilton (below), a founding father of the USA who was the son of a Scot and grandson of the Laird of Grange in Ayrshire. Sometime soon I will do a column on how place names show the extent of Scottish influence worldwide.

Last week I told the story of Hamilton’s ancient history and today I am going to bring the town’s story up to the year 1900 – as with all the other ancient towns in this series, I will return to Hamilton in a future round-up of what happened to them in the 20th century. To be included on my list towns all have to be “ancient”, which I interpret as being founded before the Reformation, and they must have played some part in our nation’s history.

I left the story of Hamilton with the building of what became known as Cadzow Castle by Sir James Hamilton of Finnart. There is confusion as to the residence of the Hamilton family at that time. They had their manor house, known as The Orchard, and also appear to have had their Cadzow Castle from around 1540 onwards.

They also owned nearby Craignethan Castle, probably also designed by Hamilton of Finnart, and when the English invaded Scotland as part of the Rough Wooing campaigns, the Hamilton family’s castles were among their principal targets, an indication of their importance in Scotland.

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The family had come to major political prominence when James, the 2nd Lord Hamilton, became the 1st Earl of Arran in 1503. After Flodden and the death of James IV, Arran was a member of the regency council for James V, but faced the opposition of the pro-English party led by Archibald Douglas, 6th Earl of Angus.

The Duke of Albany’s control of the country ended when Arran joined with the Queen Dowager, Margaret Tudor, to oust him in 1524.

Arran’s son James Hamilton, the 2nd Earl of Arran, came to have even more of a say in Scottish affairs and he would hugely boost the fortunes of Hamilton town.

A product of his father’s second marriage, he was still a minor when he succeeded his father to the earldom and was put into the care of Hamilton of Finnart, who arranged his marriage to Margaret Douglas, the daughter of the powerful 3rd Earl of Morton and granddaughter of James IV. The 2nd Earl was appointed governor and protector of Scotland when King James V died in December 1542, bringing his six-day-old daughter, Mary, Queen of Scots, to the throne.

A politician and soldier, and known for switching allegiances, Arran was at first pro-English and for the Protestant cause but in late 1543 he met Cardinal David Beaton, the primate of Scotland, and converted to Catholicism and the pro-French grouping under the Queen’s Mother and co-regent Mary of Guise.

He was nevertheless reluctant to approve the marriage of the young Queen Mary to Francis, Dauphin of France, but in July 1548 he again changed his mind and in doing so he changed the face of the town of Hamilton forever.

The Dauphin’s father, King Henry II, was so pleased with Arran’s volte-face that in February 1549 he rewarded him by making the earl the Duc (Duke) of Chatelherault – there are variant spellings but I will stick to the name as used by the Hamilton family. The French title came with valuable land while as Lord Governor, or regent, the new duke helped himself to the resources of the Scottish Treasury.

Thus he was able to spend large sums on greatly increasing the Hamilton properties in the town, and he also arranged for Hamilton to become a royal burgh in 1549. That gave Hamilton a huge boost in trade, plus the right to two fairs per year, and laid the foundations of its importance as a market town and administrative centre, a function it retains to this day.

The Duc of Chatelherault was determined to show his status as both regent and, over a number of years, heir presumptive to the Scottish throne. While still regent, he began the building of what eventually became Hamilton Palace, based around The Orchard. Records show the imported glass from France and furnishings from Milan and spared no expense.

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The Duc agreed to give up the regency to Mary of Guise in 1554, and stood by her at first as the Reformation engulfed Scotland.

He was even one of her commanders in the field at the conformation at Cupar Muir before he had another change of mind and joined the Protestant Lords of the Congregation in 1559. That decision cost him his French title but the earl carried on regardless and continued to call himself Chatelherault.

The Hamilton family’s flip-flopping cost the town of Hamilton dear. After Queen Mary married Lord Henry Darnley in 1565, the earl joined the opposition to the royal couple and Mary personally led an army to besiege Hamilton.

Records show she had commissioned a special battery of artillery for Hamilton and had taken the town by December that year.

The earl took himself off to France where he tried in vain to regain his title and lands. Yet after Mary’s enforced abdication in 1568, she was given shelter at Hamilton before losing the Battle of Langside and fleeing to England.

The forces of Regent Moray attacked the town and hugely damaged it. Chatelherault came home and started the rebuilding process but in command of forces still loyal to Mary, he failed in an attempt to besiege Glasgow and Hamilton paid the consequences.

Records show that Moray’s army, with two huge cannons, entered Hamilton in May 1570, and though the records are confused, they proceeded to “cast down” the castle, palace and whole town of Hamilton. The Scottish Parliament refused to have anyone prosecuted for the burning of Hamilton.

The earl again started to rebuild his property and died there in 1575, his name living on in the shape of Chatelherault Country Park.

His son and heir James was declared insane and his other son John became the de facto head of the family.

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Perhaps all the years of the family’s power struggles had taken effect, for the 3rd Earl’s mental illness resembles what he would describe as similar to bipolar disorder, or perhaps paranoia and schizophrenia.

John and his other brother Claud were then accused of taking part in the murders of the regents Moray and Lennox and in 1579 the army loyal to King James VI destroyed the castles in Hamilton and razed the town again while the Hamilton family suffered humiliation.

The Hamilton family bounced back and, after a period in exile in France and Scotland, John Hamilton came back and raised an army. He met with James VI and the king duly restored the Hamilton lands and made John the Marquess of Hamilton.

He rebuilt Hamilton Palace and is known to have hosted the French ambassador there in 1602. His son the 2nd Marquess was a favourite of King James VI after he became King James I of England and he went south to the royal court.

The 2nd Marquess’s son James is distinguished in the family line as the first person to be Duke of Hamilton, a title given to him by Charles I in recognition of his support for the royal cause. That support cost the Duke his head, as he was executed by decapitation after being captured at the Battle of Preston.

The Hamilton family continued to prosper overall, and Anne, 3rd Duchess of Hamilton and her husband William Douglas, the Duke of Hamilton by royal decree and from whom the Douglas-Hamilton family draw their line, began a huge development of Hamilton Palace and its surrounding parkland in 1684.

It took nearly 20 years to build the opulent palace, which in turn was added to by subsequent generations, most notably Alexander, the 10th Duke who at the beginning of the 19th century began to rake in huge fortunes from the coalfields which had been found under Hamilton.

Nicknamed “El Magnifico”, the 10th Duke planned a very impressive tomb for himself. It still stands as the Hamilton Mausoleum and is worth a visit if only to test its remarkable echo.

The story of Hamilton Palace ended very sadly. At one time it hosted one of Scotland’s largest private libraries and an art collection rivalled only by those of the royal family. Throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, the palace was added to with designs by the likes of William Adam and David Hamilton so that it could easily claim to be one of the largest and finest private houses in Europe.

The family even developed horse racing in the area, the first race being held in the Palace grounds in 1782 – the current Hamilton Park racecourse is a different venue altogether.

The palace hosted numerous royal visits and was at the centre of Scottish society for decades but the coalfields which had paid for so much also led to its ruin, as the palace fell victim to subsidence caused by the coal extraction and eventually had to be demolished.

In the 1920s, the Douglas-Hamilton family, as they now were, having previously sold off the contents to pay massive debts.

Coal was the making of Hamilton as an industrial centre in the 19th century. As South Lanarkshire Council states on its website: “In 1791 Hamilton Parish had just over 5000 residents but within 100 years that figure had increased by 700% to more than 35,000 due to the cotton and coal industry booms and the opening of the Caledonian Central Railway Station.”

The town also produced famous residents in the 18th and 19th centuries, including William Cullen, the chemist and doctor whose most famous pupil taught locally was Joseph Black, known as the father of modern chemistry.

Hamilton’s people know their history and get reminders every time they visit locations with the name Cadzow.