(1704 - 86) of Painshill, Surr., 9th s. of 6th E. of Abercorn [S]; educ. Westminster and Ch.Ch. Oxf. 1720; m. 1, 2 Agnes Cockburn (d. 1772), 3 Frances - ; MP 1727 - 60 [I], 1741 - 7.
1725 - 7 Rome (Dec. 1725 - Jun. 1726), Padua (25 Mar. 1727), Vicenza (Mar.), Verona (Mar.), Rome
1732 - 5? Rome
According to Joseph Spence Charles Hamilton went twice to Italy, 'first at the Jubilee for '25 and afterwards in '32, when he dined with Lord Middlesex at Sir John Collins's. Has lived 22 months in Rome (palace in the Corso) and kept company much with the nobility of the country. Bought his noble Bacchus of one of them with a promise of secrecy'.1
He was possibly the Hamilton observed by Stosch in Rome in 1725 - 6: in December 1725 he had engaged in an energetic political argument with Edward Southwell and had broken a coach window, and in June 1726 he attended a dinner given by Dr Hay.2 Charles Hamilton was in Padua with Willem Bentinck on 25 March 1727,3 and they visited Vicenza and Verona together. Later in 1727 he was living in Rome on the Strada Paolina.4
The twenty-two months residence in Rome presumably refers to his second visit. An unsigned but securely identified journal (Baronscourt, co. Tyrone) contains his notes made in Rome from 5 February to 8 March and 7 April to 1 May 1732. His portrait by Antonio David was recorded at Melbury, a pendant to that of Henry Fox (see Henry, 1st Baron Holland) which was dated 1732.5 Accounts kept by Arthur Pond show that Hamilton had been importing marble busts and other works of art in the 1730s, presumably including some from Italy.6
1. Spence Anecdotes, 1:418 (no.1103). See CL, 11 Jan. 1990, 88. 2. SP 85/15 (29 Dec. 1725). SP 85/16, f.91 (8 Jun. 1726). 3. Brown 1836. 4. AVR sa, S.Lorenzo in Lucina. 5. Ilchester, Henry Fox, 1st Lord Holland, 1:34n, 60n. 6. L. Lippincott, Selling Art in Georgian London, 112.