1763 - 1783 (20 years)
-
| Name |
Hamilton Douglas (of Pitcur) Halyburton |
| Prefix |
Hon. |
| Birth |
10 Oct 1763 |
| Gender |
Male |
| Death |
31 Dec 1783 |
| Person ID |
I149567 |
My Genealogy |
| Last Modified |
5 Nov 2018 |
-
| Notes |
- Lt. Hamilton died of exposure while commanding the barge of HMS "Assistance", which was caught in a snowstorm while going to look for deserters and wrecked on Sandy Hook, New Jersey.
The Assistance was 'flying the flag of Sir Charles Douglas', commender in chief of the Nova Scotia station, when a boat load of seamen deserted the ship. This was not an unsual occurence, and so Lt Hamilton, together with '12 gentlemen and one common sailor' were sent in pursuit. They all perished when the barge got stuck on a sandbar.
He had changed his name to Halyburton when he inherited the Pitcur estates.
James Halyburton's death has not been firmly established. Family histories place it around 1742-3, but his son, Colonel James Halyburton, was served as heir on 17 July 1755. When the colonel, who was himself by all accounts a rather unstable individual, died childless in 1765, Pitcur passed to his great-nephew, Hamilton Halyburton Douglas, son of the 16th Earl of Morton.
|
(Age 42 years)