HAMILTON, Robert Prebendary of Kincardine ¹

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  General Notes:

"The ceiling (of the Chamber of Muses at Crathes castle) extends into the roof, the slope of which is panelled in oak. In some of the bosses are coloured armorial coats, including the Royal Arms of Scotland; the arms of the Marquis of Hamilton; of the Chancellor Seton, Earl of Dunfermline (a nephew of Canon Hamilton); of Burnett impaled with Gordon of Lesmoir (the wife of the laird of Leys who completed the castle, Alexander Burnett [XII.]) ; and the holly leaf and hunting horn of the Burnett coat are used as occasional decorative features."

"The circumstance that the laird of Leys had an uncle a prebendary of St. Machar's Cathedral naturally brought him into friendly relations with the other members of the Chapter of Aberdeen. One of these Robert Hamilton, held the wealthy prebend of Kincardine, and belonged to the influential Some and Sanquhar branch of the house of Hamilton....... Prebendary Hamilton had a daughter, and, that lady being richly endowed, it seems to have been thought no scandal that she became wife of the baron of Leys."

from The Family of Burnett of Leys ¹

  Research Notes:

PREBENDARY

In pre-Protestant Reformation times, a prebendary was a canon of a cathedral or collegiate church who was provided with a prebend as reward for carrying out administrative duties, the prebend itself being a benefice drawn from the income of estates held by the insitution.

When such positions were filled by members of the upper class solely as favours or for specific influence they wer open to accusations of venality and corruption, particularly when considerable wealth and power accrued from them.

From the early 1500s on, the clamour to right these and other perceived ecclesiastical abuses in Scotland, and in many other parts of Europe, grew. By the middle of the sixteenth century the Reforming zeal had achieved considerable poilitical power in Scotland and was unstoppable. ^{2 3 4}

Robert married.