HAMILTON, John 5th of Woodhall ¹

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  General Notes:

"John (see Notes below) Hamilton of Woodhall, who, on the 29th December 1595, was witness " to the contract of marriage betwixt Maistress Jeane Hammiltoune, dochter natural to Lord Johne Hammiltoune and Sir Vmfra Colquhoun of Lvss. On the 9th February 1595, he sold 'to Gawand Hamiltoun, zounger, Neilsland, ane hogheid of herring and four aivers, for which ye said Gawand was to pay to his son John ye sowme of 33/. 6s. 8d. Scots.' He had a remission, under the great seal, 'Johanni Hamilton, juniori de Woodhall, pro ejus proditoria assistentia in consortio cum rebellibus ad burgum de Striveling,' of date 2d February 1579."

from Historical and Genealogical Memoirs of the House of Hamilton

Notes:

1

The above book and The Heraldry of the Hamiltons present a picture of the middle Hamilton lairds of Woodhall - after James who married Margaret Muirhead and before James who married Giles Knox - as being two John Hamiltons, each a son, and father of the next generation.

2

The Heraldry of the Hamiltons says that the James Hamilton who married Margaret Muirhead also married Christian Livingston and Isobel Hamilton. It then also states that the son of James Hamilton and Margaret Muirhead, John Hamilton, is said to have married Christian Livingston, "but she was probably his mother, and not his wife." (page 95) The Heraldry follows the House of Hamilton which says, on page 398, that "Christian, a daughter of the house of Kilsyth" was the wife of that John Hamilton.

3

In the Scottish records there is a Testament and Inventory:

Levingstoun
Cristiane
1 / 2 / 1582
sometime spouse to James Hamilton of Wodhall, sheriffdom of Lanark.
Testament Testamentar and Inventory
Edinburgh Commissary Court
CC8/8/10

This is probably why The Heraldry attributed Christian to James, the father of John Hamilton, as a second wife after the death of Margaret Muirhead. Another Testament and Inventory, for Isobel Hamilton, of the same date, names her husband as James Hamilton of Woodhall.

4

The matter begins to resolve if we accept as stirnet.com has it that James Hamilton and Margaret Muirhead had a second son, James, who was the man who married Christian Livingston and then Isobel Hamilton, his older brother John, this John, having died without succession. ^{1 2 3 4}