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Anne Hamilton

1766 - 1846, London

BiographyHamilton, Anne (British draftsman, 1766-1846)

LC name authority n90713840
LC heading: Hamilton, Anne, Lady, 1766-1846

Biography:

Hamilton, Lady Anne (1766–1846), courtier, eldest daughter of Archibald Hamilton, ninth duke of Hamilton and sixth of Brandon (1740–1819), and Lady Harriet Stewart (d. 1788), daughter of the sixth earl of Galloway, was born on 16 March 1766. In 1810 she inherited £10,000 from the fourth duke of Queensberry, which she made over in its entirety to her brother, Lord Archibald Hamilton, despite being far from affluent herself. She became a lady-in-waiting to Caroline, princess of Wales, in 1814, but did not accompany her when she left England in the same year, and hence was not implicated in the scandals arising from Caroline's continental sojourn. When Caroline returned to England to claim her place as queen in 1820, Lady Anne met her in Montbard, Flanders, and they returned to London together. The queen then took up residence with her for a short time in Portman Street. Lady Anne continued to be seen in public with the queen until Caroline's death in 1821, accompanying her on her failed attempt to be present at the coronation. She accompanied Caroline's body to Brunswick and attended its interment.

Lady Anne then returned to private life, during which period a woman, referred to in Lady Anne's letters as ‘S. W.’ (and who has been identified by some as Olivia Wilmot Serres), gained her confidence and access to her papers. A book, entitled A secret history of the court of England from the accession of George III to the death of George IV, was published under her name in 1832, without, she claimed, either her knowledge or her sanction. Lady Anne's life was so complicated by this publication that she retired to France for some time. She returned to England, and died, unmarried, on 10 October 1846 at her home in White Lion Street, Islington, London; she was buried in Kensal Green cemetery. Her appearance was described by Creevey: ‘She is full six feet high, and bears a striking resemblance to one of Lord Derby's great red deer’ (Smith, 71). A friend and associate, Robert Fellowes, wrote that she was ‘one of those to whom misfortune cannot teach caution and whom experience cannot make wise. She was perpetually victimized by her extraordinary credulity on the one side, and her ardent, but inconsiderate benevolence on the other’ (GM, 1846).

K. D. Reynolds
Sources GM, 2nd ser., 26 (1846), 552, 661 · Ward, Men of the reign · E. A. Smith, A queen on trial: the affair of Queen Caroline (1993)
Archives Bodl. Oxf., corresp., mainly with William Beckford
Likenesses stipple, 1820, BM, NPG · attrib. T. Gainsborough, oils, Detroit Institute of Arts · G. Hayter, group portrait, oils (The trial of Queen Caroline, 1820), NPG · J. Lonsdale, oils, V&A · oils, NG Ire.
© Oxford University Press 2004–15
All rights reserved: see legal notice Oxford University Press

K. D. Reynolds, ‘Hamilton, Lady Anne (1766–1846)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 [http://proxy.bostonathenaeum.org:2055/view/article/12047, accessed 22 Oct 2015]

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Last Updated8/7/24

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