Susan Hamilton, Duchess of Hamilton

Her Grace The Duchess of Hamilton
Portrait by Willis Maddox
Born	Susan(na) Euphemia Beckford 14 May 1786 Château La Tour, Vevay, Switzerland
Died	27 May 1859(1859-05-27) (aged 73)
Spouse(s)	Alexander Hamilton, 10th Duke of Hamilton ​ ​ (m. 1810; died 1852)​
Issue	William Hamilton, 11th Duke of Hamilton Lady Susan Hamilton
Father	William Thomas Beckford
Mother	Lady Margaret Gordon

Susan Hamilton, Duchess of Hamilton (14 May 1786 – 27 May 1859), formerly Susan(na) Euphemia Beckford, was the wife of Alexander Hamilton, 10th Duke of Hamilton, and the mother of the 11th Duke.

Susan was born at Château La Tour, Vevay, in Switzerland.^[1] She was the daughter of William Thomas Beckford^[2] and his wife, the former Lady Margaret Gordon. Beckford was an art collector who made his home at Brodick Castle on the Isle of Arran. He was the son of a Lord Mayor of London, William Beckford (whose wife, Maria Hamilton, was a descendant of James Hamilton, Duke of Châtellerault, as was her future grandson-in-law). Lady Margaret was the daughter of Charles Gordon, 4th Earl of Aboyne.

Susan Beckford married the future duke, then a former MP and styled Marquess of Douglas and Clydesdale,^[1] on 26 April 1810 in London.

They had two children:

• William Hamilton, 11th Duke of Hamilton, who married Princess Marie Amelie of Baden and had children;^[3]
• Lady Susan Hamilton, who married twice: she had children by her first husband, Henry Pelham-Clinton, 5th Duke of Newcastle,^[4] but none by her second, Jean Alexis Op de Beeck.

Her daughter, also named Susan, caused the duke and duchess some concern by eloping with Horatio Walpole, by whom she had an illegitimate child, born in 1849.^[5] She lived abroad with Walpole for a time but returned to Britain for a time in 1853.

The dowager duchess was a patron of the arts whose acquaintances included Alfred, Lord Tennyson.^[6] She inherited many of her father's works of art.^[7]

References

1. G.E. Cokayne; with Vicary Gibbs, H.A. Doubleday, Geoffrey H. White, Duncan Warrand and Lord Howard de Walden, editors, The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, Extant, Extinct or Dormant, new ed., 13 volumes in 14 (1910-1959; reprint in 6 volumes, Gloucester, U.K.: Alan Sutton Publishing, 2000), volume VI, page 273.
2. Brian Ferguson (28 April 2013). "NTS plans £8m overhaul of Brodick castle". The Scotsman. Retrieved 16 October 2018.
3. Lodge, Edmund (1872). The Peerage and Baronetage of the British Empire. Hurst and Blackett. pp. 274–5.
4. "Biography of Henry Pelham-Clinton, 5th Duke of Newcastle under Lyne (1811-1864)". University of Nottingham. Retrieved 12 September 2018.
5. Mosley, Charles, editor. Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage, 107th edition, 3 volumes. Wilmington, Delaware, U.S.A.: Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books) Ltd, 2003.
6. The Art-Treasures Examiner. A Pictorial, Critical, and Historical Record of the Art Treasures Exhibition, at Manchester in 1857. Illustrated by Upwards of 150 Engravings on Wood by W. J. Linton, H. Linton, F. J. Smyth, Etc. 1857. pp. 168–.
7. Peter Humfrey; Royal Scottish Academy (2004). The Age of Titian: Venetian Renaissance Art from Scottish Collections. National Galleries of Scotland. ISBN 9781903278536.