(1706 - 60) of Edington, 2nd s. of William Hay of Drummelzier; enlisted in the Austrian service, killed at Torgan.
- 1725 - 41 - Rome ( - 1725 - Jun. 1740), Genoa, Florence (Nov. 1740), Rome, Tuscany (Jun. 1741)
Captain William Hay was in the employ of the Jacobite court in Rome by February 1725, and on 18 November 1727 he was made groom of the bedchamber (Ruvigny). 'Mr Hay, a brother of Drumelliors' met Allan Ramsay and Alexander Cunyngham in Rome on 20 November 1736; on 14 January 1737 he ('Hay of Drumellier') showed them round the city walls.1 He was presumably the William Hay who attended the Jacobite Lodge in Rome between March 1736 and August 1737,2 and possibly the Captain William Hay whose portrait was painted in Rome by Domenico Dupra, see Sir James Steuart. He was doubtless one of the two Hays recorded at Jacobite gatherings in Rome in December 1737 - February 1738 by George Sinclair of Ulbster.3
On 25 June 1740 he was sent from Rome to Scotland by the Pretender; Stosch then described him as the brother of Hay of Drumelder, a young man, 'de forte complexion et de bonne presence' who had 'served the Pretender in Rome as a gentleman'.4 He returned to Italy in November, having made over his Scottish estate to his brother Alexander.5 In April 1741 'Mr Hay of Drumellier Brothers', being involved in two confrontations with English gentlemen, was advised by the Pretender to go to France; William was in Tuscany in June.6 Hay owned four portraits by Blanchet of the exiled Stuarts (Christie's, 25 Mar. 1966).
1. Scots Charta Chest, 111, 116. 2. Hughan, 16, 19, 37, 47, 48, 50, 52) 3. Sinclair jnl.MSS (22 Dec. 1737 - 8 Feb. 1738). 4. SP 98/43, f.56 (Walton, 2 Jul. 1740). 2. 5. SP 98/44, f.242 (Mann, 13 Nov. 1740). 6. Murray Memorials, 363, 365 (J. Edgar, 24 Apr., 7 Jun. 1741).