Taking the name of a town in England, a Norman named Walter Fitz-Gilbert of Hambledon, moved to Renfrewshire.   He is first mentioned in a 1294 charter given to Paisley monastery giving the privilege of fishing for herring in the Clyde, to which he is a witness. Later, during the Wars of Independence, Fitz-Gilbert was governor of Bothwell Castle on behalf of the English, but he came across to Bruce’s side and was rewarded with a portion of confiscated Comyn lands.
At the time when the wars of independence began, Sir Walter, son of Gilbert of Hameldone, possessed properties in Renfrewshire. But King Robert Bruce rewarded him for his support with forfeited Comyn property that was in due course renamed Hamilton. Sir Walter's son, Sir David, was captured by the English in the battle of Neville's Cross in 1346, in company with his namesake David II, son of Bruce. Like the King, Hamilton was not released until a heavy ransom had been paid.
But an even closer association with the royal house began in about 1474, when James, 1st Lord Hamilton, married Princess Mary, daughter of James II, King of Scots. For more than a century thereafter, a Hamilton stood next in succession to the crown, while during much of this period the King was a minor. The son of the 1st Lord Hamilton and Princess Mary was created Earl of Arran, the Gaelic-speaking island in the Forth of Clyde on which, from 1503, the family made their Highland home at Brodick Castle.

It was the second Earl of Arran who acted as Regent for the baby Mary, Queen of Scots, as next heir to the crown. In this office, he plundered royal revenues, switched his allegiance between France and England according to the bribes he received, and was largely responsible for the provocations which led to Henry VIII's atrocities in Scotland. Among Arran's prizes was the French dukedom of Chatel-herault. His claim to the throne was challenged by the Stewart Earl of Lennox, who played the same game, and was Henry VIII's quisling claimant at the time of the Rough Wooing.
Arran possessed two remarkable brothers, bastard sons of the first Earl. One of these, John Hamilton(1511-1571), became Archbishop of St. Andrews. In this office he attempted to reform the Church from within, and issued a catechism in English. He baptized Queen Mary's son, the future King James VI, in 1566, and remained loyal to the Queen after her downfall. But when her brother the Regent Moray was assassinated by a Hamilton, the party of Lennox hanged the archbishop in his pontifical robes from a common gibbet.
The fate of the 1st Earl of Arran's other remarkable bastard was little different. Sir James Hamilton of Finnart was wild and impetuous, but he possessed a personality that enabled him to retain the friendship of the fickle King James V, begun in youth, through almost his entire reign. It was partly because they shared a passion for the renaissance architecture which both men had admired in France, and which Finnart had the skill to plant in Scotland. It was he who carried out the incomparable renaissance work on the palaces of Linlithgow and Falkland, for which James V presented him with letters of legitimation amongst other rewards. But Finnart was also a leader of the deadly brawl in Edinburgh in 1520, known as `cleansing the causeway'. In 1526 he murdered the Earl of Lennox after the latter had surrendered his sword to him -- a crime that the Earl's son revenged on Finnart's brother, the archbishop. In 1528 he played a prominent part in bringing his cousin, Patrick Hamilton, to the stake for his Lutheran heresies.
Patrick Hamilton, who was among the first to suffer and die in Scotland for Christ, was artfully seduced unto a confession of his faith, condemned as a heretic by the Archbishop of St. Andrew's and condemned to die.  The same day he was sentenced, he was hurried to the stake, and while the fire was being prepared, he divested himself of his outer garments and handing them to his servant said:
"These will not profit me in the fire, yet they will be thee some good."
                     As he commended himself to God, one of his persecutors called to Patrick,
                     "Convert, Heretic, pray to our Lady, and say 'Salve Regina.' "  Patrick
                     replied:
                        "Wicked man! Thou knowest I am not an heretic, and that it is the truth of
                     God for which I now suffer.  So much thou didst confess to me private: and
                     Where upon I appeal to thee to answer before the Judgment Seat of Christ."
As the fire burned, the noble martyr only twenty-four years of age exclaimed:
"How long, O Lord, shall darkness overwhelm this realm?  How long wilt
                     Thou suffer this tyranny of men?"
He then ended by praying with Stephen --
"Lord Jesus, receive my spirit."
pp. 184-185, Last Words of Saints and Sinners, by Herbert Lockyer
With young men like this that were ready to lay down their lives for the Gospel, it is little wonder that Scotland eventually became soundly Protestant and invented the song "Kick the Pope"!
Revelation 2:10 Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer: behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried; and ye shall have tribulation ten days: be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.
Patrick's father was a bastard of the 1st Lord Hamilton, so that he did not possess the blood of the Princess Mary. On the other hand, Patrick's mother was a grand-daughter of James II, while he himself was legitimate. Perhaps Finnart was moved by jealousy. He met his deserts in 1540 when Patrick's brother revealed to James V a plot to murder the King in which Finnart was alleged to be involved. He was instantly arrested and executed, and all his estates confiscated.
The royal connection continued to augment the family's fortune without other noticeable merit. The third Earl became the first Marquess of Hamilton; the third Marquess became the first Duke; and it was this Duke who contributed so much, byu his stupidity, arrogance and deceit to the downfall of Charles I.
The part of the Duke of Hamilton in securing the Union of Scotland with England in 1707 is particularly disreputable, for he professed to oppose it, and repeatedly undermined the opposition by treachery, to his own immense profit. Once again, it was a bastard line, descending from the first Lord Hamilton that restored the credit of his name. John Hamilton, 2nd Lord Belhaven and Stenton (1656-1708), made speeches against Union which are Scotland's supreme examples of parliamentary oratory. He was imprisoned in Edinburgh with other opponents of Union, and taken prisoner in London in 1708 on a charge of favoring a French invasion. He died there a few days after being granted bail.

 In reward for the 3rd Marquess' support, Charles I made Hamilton the premier peer in Scotland elevating him to a Duke. He led and army into England to rescue Charles I but was defeated at Preston in 1648. He was beheaded in 1649.
 The title fell to the Duke's daughter Anne who married William Douglas, Earl of Selkirk. Her son the 4th Duke, died in a duel in London in 1712. The 5th and 6th Dukes extended the  palace and built the splendid hunting lodge named Chatelhault.
 The 10th Duke, Alexander, completed the enlargements of Hamilton palace and lived in a regal style. Hamilton palace was demolished because of mining subsidence and the family seat is now at Lennoxlove, near Haddington.
 As a lowland family, albeit a strong one, Hamilton does not warrant the official status of Highland clan; however, according to Collins' "Scottish Clan & Family Encyclopedia," Hamilton is a member of the Standing Council of Scottish Chiefs. It takes its name from
the English town of Hambledon. See Status of Clans.
 Principals among Clan Hamilton are entitled Duke, not Chief. These Dukes of Hamilton
descend from Walter Fitz-Gilbert de Hameldone, who served as governor of Bothwell Castle for the English during the Scottish War of Independence. Walter later joined Robert the Bruce, and received from him the Barony of Cadzow.
 When William, second Duke of Hamilton, died of wounds received at the Battle of Worcester in 1651, he was succeeded by his neice, Anne, Duchess of Hamilton. She married Lord William Douglas, and the Hamilton titles passed to Clan Douglas.
 Scottish emigrants came to Nova Scotia from all parts of Scotland, from the northern shores of the Highlands to the English border, from the Inner and Outer Islands, from Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen and Inverness, and from all points in between.
 Scots came to Halifax after its founding in June 1749; they came as Ulster Scots among the Planters from New England to accept land vacated by the Acadians; they came as Highland soldiers to Windsor, now fighting for the British in the American Revolution; they came as Highlanders after the Battle of Culloden and the Highland Clearances when they, like the Acadians, were driven from their lands; they came as Loyalists, after the American Revolution; they came as Lowlanders also seeking a better life for themselves; they came for many other personal reasons.
 They settled in all parts of Nova Scotia, from the northern most tip of eastern Cape Breton Island to the westerly most tip at Yarmouth, and the western border at New Brunswick.
 These are the Scots who built a future of themselves and their children in New Scotland (Nova Scotia) that Sir William Alexander founded, and built the Nova Scotia we know today. Many of their descendants are found in all parts of the Globe; many are still in Nova Scotia.
 Nova Scotia is Highland at heart, with greater concentrations of Highland descendants living in Shelburne, Pictou, Colchester, Victoria and Inverness Counties, and substantial concentrations in Cumberland, Guysborough, Hants, Yarmouth and Antigonish Counties.
 Scots tracing their ancestry back to all parts of Scotland constitute a major proportion of the population of each of Nova Scotia's eighteen counties.
 William Alexander, son of Sir William Alexander, brought Scottish settlers to Port Royal in Annapolis County in 1629. When the colony was returned to French rule in 1632, they were forced to abandon the "Charles Fort" they built there, and return to Scotland.
 The first permanent Highland Scottish settlers arrived in Pictou in 1773, on the ship Hector. Pictou is rightly acclaimed as the Birthplace of New Scotland, and the heart of Pictou County remains Highland Scottish to present time.
 On the authenticity of border families as true clans, Robert Bain, in his book "The Clans and Tartans of Scotland," wrote the following:
       "An Act passed by the Scottish Parliament in 1587 `for the quieting and keeping in
       obedience of the .... inhabitants of the Borders, Highlands and Isles,' containing a roll
       of `the clans that have Captains, Chiefs and Chieftains .... as well on the Borders as the
       Highlands,' proves that so long ago as the sixteenth century Border families were
       described as clans."