(1723 - 97), 2nd s. of Charles, Ld. Binning [S]; St Mary's Hall Oxf. 1737; suc. gd.-fa. 1738 to Mellerstain and Jerviswood, changing name to Baillie; m. 1759 Eliza Andrews.
1732 Naples (by 14 Nov. - 27 Dec. - )
- 1740 Rome [Geneva 1740 - 1]
It appears that, as a child, George Hamilton with his older brother Thomas (aged about ten) and his sister Helen, went out to Naples in November 1732 to attend their dying father's bedside; see Lady Grisell Baillie.
The brothers again visited Italy in 1740, as George Baillie and the 7th Earl of Haddington, accompanied by a tutor, the 'aimiable and slightly eccentric' Rev. John Williamson. Their grandmother, Lady Grisell Baillie, had characteristically prepared a careful itinerary based on her own travels in 1731 - 3.1 In Rome they met William Windham and his tutor Stillingfleet, which implies they were there in 1739 or early 1740; joined by Richard Aldworth, Robert Price and Benjamin Tate, they went on to form 'The Bloods', a very lively group, later known as 'The Common Room Set', in Geneva in 1740 - 1.2 Not surprisingly, by August 1741 the brothers had overspent their parental allowance.3 Horace Walpole later described Lord Haddington to Horace Mann as 'your old acquaintance', implying a visit to Florence.4 Haddington bought Ramsay's portrait of Samuel Torriano (painted in 1738; Mellerstain), possibly while he was abroad.
1. See Baillie, Household Bk., xliii, 390 - 401. R.W. Ketton-Cremer, Felbrigg, 115. 2. R.W. Ketton-Cremer, Early Life and Diaries of William Windham, 28. Moore 1985, 47. 3. Coutts ledgers, 21:366. 4. Wal.Corr. 19:19.