Lady Malcolm Douglas Hamilton

On January 14th of this year Lady Malcolm Douglas Hamilton died at the incredible age of 103.

Along with her husband, Lord Hamilton she helped set up the American Scottish Foundation which has over the years been a cornerstone in building relationships between Scotland and America.

Born in Cohasset, Massachusetts, to Major Nathaniel B Wales and his wife Enid Scarritt, Natalie Scarritt Wales was a quite remarkable woman; A New York socialite, more often that not seen in the pages of Vogue or society magazines. When war broke out she learned of the hardships of people in Britain during the blitz and called Winston Churchill to ask how she could help. His typically dry response was that the sailors on the Atlantic convoys could do with some warm balaclavas! In response to this she set up the ‘Bundles for Britain’ campaign. collecting warm woollens not only for the sailors but for victims of the Luftwaffe bombings of London and Coventry. The response to her campaign was huge and she was deluged by offers of support including armies of American ladies knitting for the British! As a result of this she was awarded an honorary CBE.

In 1951 she met Lord Douglas-Hamilton, son of the 13th Duke of Hamilton and a former Second World War Mosquito fighter pilot. He was already married to Pamela Bowes Lyon, a cousin of Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother but was divorced not long after meeting Natalie, she was clearly a very persuasive woman!

Initially the pair lived in London and Scotland and it was during this time they set up the ‘Highland Fund’ a philanthropic enterprise designed to offer loans to crofters, fisherman and other small highland based businesses. It is a testament to the Highland Fund that many small highland enterprises still going today were set up with loans from The Highland Fund.

In 1956 they moved to New York and set up The American Scottish Foundation. The aim of the foundation was to strengthen the historic ties between Scotland and the United States in all areas — educational, cultural, social, genealogical, philanthropic, scientific and economic. Over the years the foundation grew strong. Sadly Lord Malcolm was killed in a plane crash in 1964 but Lady Malcolm carried on the work of the foundation  and was able to initiate Tartan Week and the New York Tartan Day parade.

Lady Malcolm was particularly enthusiastic about creating Scotland House, a special dream of Lord Malcolm’s, to be a central gathering place for American Scots, visiting Scots, students, people seeking their Scottish roots–a place for all. The first Scotland House was opened in the mid-70s at 124 East 39th Street by New York City Mayor Abraham Beame, and was an instant success. Lectures, movies, seminars, ceilidhs, dances and teas were held in a comfortable atmosphere with a large Scottish-American library, and Scottish products such as sweaters, tweeds, jewelry and china were for sale. A later Scotland House was on Fifth Avenue in the 80s and of course the present Scotland House at 575 Madison Avenue.

She is survived by her daughter Mimi, six grandchildren and 11 great grandchildren. Her other daughter, Natalie “Bubbles” Wales, who was wife of Lieutenant-Colonel George P Burnett of the Scots Guards, died in 1988.

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A local craftsman built the ‘Heather House’ in 1984-85. It sits on the probable site of the Hanging Tree, where tradition tells us the castle stocks were set.

One story goes that a man with a deformed foot and using a crutch was to be hanged for stealing sheep. When the time came, time came, the man pleaded to be allowed to take three strides before entering the spirit world – one for the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost. On being granted the request he took three long strides, threw away the crutch and kept going …

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“Yestre’en the Queen had fower Maries

The nicht she’ll hae but three

There was Mary Seton and Mary Beaton,

And Mary Car-Michael and me.”

It is believed that the ballad is fictional, and the four Marys come from the four ladies-in-waiting chosen by James V’s Queen, Mary of Guise, to be companions to Mary, Queen of Scots who succeeded her father at the age of just 6 days old. However, none of these woman were called Mary Hamilton; they were in fact Mary Beaton, Mary Fleming, Mary Livingston, and Mary Seton.

Mary Hamilton awaiting execution

Yet, there was a real Mary Hamilton, whose story and downfall is rather similar to that of the Mary Hamilton in the ballad.

Mary Hamilton was a Scottish lady-in-waiting to the Russian Empress Catherine I. She was a member of a Scottish Hamilton family who emigrated to Russia sometime in the sixteenth century, during the reign of Ivan the Terrible. It is believed that she was the daughter of a William Hamilton. Mary became a lady-in-waiting to Catherine I in 1713, and she attracted a lot of attention around the royal Russian court due to her beauty and love life, and it wasn’t long before she became the mistress of Peter the Great. But the Tsar wasn’t her only lover, she was also having an affair with Ivan Mikhailovich Orlov, an aide-de-camp to Tsar Peter. However, Orlov had another mistress, and when Mary found out, she tried to win him back by giving Orlov gifts which she had stolen from Catherine.

Over the years Mary became pregnant on at least three occasions, and had two abortions – one in 1715, apparently by consuming constipation medicine. However, she did have a secret birth two years later in 1717, but afterwards killed the baby by drowning it. That same year her lover Orlov was questioned over some missing documents, and during the interrogation he confessed to having had an affair with Mary, and claimed that she had an abortion.

A rumor was spread that the Empress, Catherine, had a slightly unorthodox skin care method: it was alleged that she would eat wax to make her skin pale. And Mary Hamilton was accused of starting this rumor by Avdotya Chernysheva; Ivan Orlov’s other lover. This, unsurprisingly, annoyed Catherine, and she demanded that Mary’s room was to be searched. Unfortunately for Mary, her room was where she kept several of the items she stole from the Empress, and when they were discovered Mary and Orlov were both arrested and imprisoned in the Fortress of Saint Petersburg. Whilst in prison Mary not only confessed to the theft, but she also admitted that she murdered her new born child, however, even under torture, she refused to testify against Orlov, despite the fact he had been quick to point fingers at her.

In the November of 1718, Mary Hamilton was sentenced to death for abortion, infanticide, and theft and slander of Empress Catherine. Catherine asked Peter to overrule the death sentence, but he refused. The Tsar did, however, promise Mary that the executioner would not touch her at all, meaning that she would be beheaded with a sword instead of an axe. Mary was executed on the 14th of March, 1719, dressed all in white.

Unfortunately for Mary Hamilton, her execution was not the last indignity that she would suffer. After the decapitation the Emperor went over and picked up Mary’s head and gave the gathered crowd a lecture about its anatomy before kissing it and then throwing it down. The Russian Academy of Science were given her head and they preserved it for at least the next 50 years.

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