Person:William Hamilton (153)

William Hamilton (1760-1793) married Elizabeth, daughter of William Stirling of Drumpelier (Heraldry of the Hamiltons). Elizabeth Stirling married William Hamilton in oct1783 (Edinburgh Magazine, oct1798). William Hamilton was Professor of Anatomy and Botany in University of Glasgow (Old Glasgow Exhibition). William d. 13mar1790 at Glasgow (Dic National Biog.).

Gulielmus Hamilton (No. 2959, matriculated 1770) filius natu unicus Thomae Anatomiae Professoris in Academia Glasguensi. Born at Glasgow 31jul1758. Professor of Anatomy Univ. of Glasgow. D. 13mar1790. Son of 915; son in law of 174; brother in law of 2559, 2560; father of 6156, 6502 (Matriculation Albums of Glasgow University).

Dictionary of national Biography:

Hamilton, William (1758-1790), surgeon and man-midwife, born at Glasgow on 31 July 1758, was the son of Thomas Hamilton (1728-1782), professor of anatomy and botany, and Isabel Anderson, daughter of a former professor of church history. From the grammar school he went to Glasgow University in 1770 and graduated BA in 1775 and MA in 1776. He studied medicine for two years at Edinburgh under Joseph Black and William Cullen, and afterwards in London, under William Hunter, who took him into his house and put him in charge of his dissecting room. Hunter wrote to Thomas Hamilton that: Your son has been doing everything you could wish, and from his own behaviour has profited more for the time than any young man I ever knew. From being a favourite with everybody, he has commanded every opportunity for improvement that this great town afforded during his stay here; for everybody has been eager to oblige and encourage him. I can depend so much upon him, in every way, that if any opportunity should offer for serving him, whatever may be in my power I shall consider as doing as a real pleasure to myself. (Geyer-Kordesch and Macdonald, 224) In 1780 he returned to Glasgow, and conducted his invalid father's anatomical class. Next year he was appointed, on the recommendation of William Hunter, to his father's chair. On the death of the latter, in 1782, he succeeded to a large surgical practice, to which he added obstetrics. He was in constant request as a consultant, his anatomical knowledge and obstetric skill being highly valued by his colleagues and old pupils. Hamilton instructed his students that they: must see that the knowledge of the actions of the body in a state of health can be the only key to the actions in a state of Disease. Unless we know the natural [state] we can never know the deviation from it. Our anatomical knowledge besides assisting us in determining the seat of the disease is likewise of use in explaining the cure. In almost all diseases the powers of the body attempt to restore themselves to a state of health, in many the cure is entirely effected by them. These efforts must be understood by the Physicians, that they may aid them when too weak and that he may be on his guard not to counteract them when properly exerted. (ibid., 228) Hamilton married, in October 1783, Elizabeth (d. 1827), daughter of William Stirling (1717-1777), a Glasgow merchant. His wife was ‘an accomplished lady, connected with several opulent families in Glasgow and its neighbourhood. From these connections his practice, already extensive, was very considerably increased’ (ibid., 268); they had two sons, Sir William Hamilton (1788-1856) and Thomas Hamilton (1789-1842). In 1783 Hamilton was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.Hamilton is credited with smooth manners towards patients, with benevolence to the poor, and with circumspection in public affairs. He kept notes of his cases, intending to write a system of surgery. He died in Glasgow on 13 March 1790 after an illness brought on by overwork. He published nothing, but his biographer preserved four specimens of his accurate method (on treatment of inversio uteri, on dislocations of the shoulder, on hydrothorax, and on a form of hernia).Charles Creighton, rev. Michael Bevan