Hamilton led a very sad and relatively short life – he died at the age of thirty-nine. In his early years he was registered as a journeyman baker which would have been a good occupation at that time. Poor Law records show that he joined the 5th Fusiliers in 1858 and signed up for ten years.
He married Mary Ann McDonald on 18 May 1869 on his return from the army and they had three children – Mary Ann (born 1870), Susan (born 1871) and Hamilton (born 1873). Poor House records show that they had two daughters before Hamilton joined the army but there is no record of them being married at that time. The daughters were Isabella (born 1855), Margaret (born 1856). The birth certificates of both girls show Hamilton and Mary Ann as the parents. The complete family is shown here.
Hamilton and Mary Ann did not seem to have long periods together from the time their first child, Isabella, was born. Their life seemed quite turbulent and the fact that they have many entries in the Poor House records suggests that they had a tough life. In one record Mary Ann was described as “a hawker and a drunken woman” which gives some indication of how they were seen in the community. There are also court records which describe at least three occasions when Mary Ann was convicted of petty theft and spent a number of weeks in prison for the various crimes.
Hamilton of course, was not blameless in the breakdown of their relationship since he disappeared to the army for 10 years and after his marriage in 1869, he deserted Mary Ann when Susan was only months old.
The lives of some of Hamilton’s children were undoubtedly seriously affected by the lifestyle that the parents lived – the three youngest children were in and out of the Poor House on a number of occasions. Mary Ann junior was born prematurely and only lived for a few hours while Hamilton junior spent most of his life living with other families and eventually died of TB when he was only fourteen – his father did not appear to have much involvement with him. Susan also suffered from Poor House visits but got some support from her aunt, Mrs Nugent. Susan married in 1897 but only survived one year before dying of TB at the age of twenty seven. The older children, Isabella and Margaret, survived their early upbringing, getting married and living reasonably long lives.
Hamilton died at age thirty nine, alone in lodgings at Edgar’s Lodging House in Glasgow on 8 September 1875 suffering with TB – he was designated as a pauper and allocated a coffin and a shroud by the Poor House. It was the owner of the lodging house who registered his death.
The next son to look at is Evans.