HAMILCAR BARCA, a Carthaginian general and one of the greatest, the father of Hannibal, commanded in Sicily, and held his ground there against the Romans for six years; concluded a peace with them and ended the First Punic War; invaded Spain with a view to invade Italy by the Alps, and after gaining a footing there fell in battle; had his son with him, a boy of nine, and made him swear upon the altar before he died eternal enmity to Rome; d. 229 B.C.

HAMILTON (25), a town of Lanarkshire, on the Clyde, 10 m.  SE. of Glasgow; mining is the chief industry.  Also a city (49) of Canada, on Burlington Bay, at the west end of Lake Ontario, 40 m.  SW. of Toronto; is an important railway centre, and has manufactories of iron, cotton, and woollen goods, &c.

HAMILTON, ALEXANDER, American soldier and statesman, born in West Indies; entered the American army, fought in the War of Independence, became commander-in-chief, represented New York State in Congress, contributed by his essays to the favourable reception of the federal constitution, and under it did good service on behalf of his country; was mortally wounded in a duel (1757-1804).

HAMILTON, ELIZABETH, novelist and essayist, born, of Scottish parentage, in Belfast; is remembered for her early advocacy of the higher education of women and for her faithful pictures of lowly Scottish life; “Letters of a Hindoo Rajah” and “Modern Philosophers” were clever skits on the prevailing scepticism and republicanism of the time; “The Cottagers of Glenburnie” is her best novel (1758-1816).

HAMILTON, EMMA, LADY, nee Amy Lyon or “Hart,” born at Ness, Cheshire, a labourer’s daughter; appeared as the Lady in the charlatan Graham’s “Temple of Health,” London; became the mother of two illegitimate children, and subsequently was the “geliebte” of the Hon. Charles Greville and of his uncle Sir Wm. Hamilton, whose wife she became in 1791; her notorious and lawless intimacy with Lord Nelson began in 1793, and in 1801 their daughter Horatia was born; although left a widow with a goodly fortune, she fell into debt and died in poverty (1763-1815).

HAMILTON, PATRICK, a Scottish martyr, born at the close of the 15th century, probably in Glasgow; returning from his continental studies at Paris and Louvain he came to St. Andrews University, where his Lutheran sympathies involved him in trouble; he escaped to the Continent, visited Wittenberg, the home of Luther, and then settled in Marburg, but returned to Scotland at the close of the same year (1527) and married; the following year he was burned at the stake in St. Andrews for heresy; his eager and winning nature and love of knowledge, together with his early martyrdom, have served to invest him with a special interest.

HAMILTON, WILLIAM, a minor Scottish poet, born near Uphall, Linlithgowshire; was a contributor to Ramsay’s Tea-Table Miscellany; became involved in the second Jacobite rising and fled to France; subsequently he was permitted to return and take possession of his father’s estate of Bangour, near Uphall; his collected poems include the beautiful and pathetic ballad, “The Braes of Yarrow” (1704-1754).