Robert Hamilton, LLD Edinburgh, 1775, was appointed Professor of Natural Philosophy at Marischal College in Jun 1779, succeeding Patrick Copland, who had at that time been transferred to the Chair of Mathematics. Copland and Hamilton exchanged duties after a year, but the arrangement was not formalised until Jul 1817, when Hamilton was formally appointed Professor of Mathematics, and Copland reinstated to his original role as Professor of Natural Philosophy. Hamilton held the Chair of Mathematics until his death on 14 Jul 1829. He is best known for his Inquiry Concerning the Rise and Progress, the Reduction and Present State, and The Management of the National Debt of Great Britain and Ireland (1813, 2nd edn 1818). Other notable works include Peace and War (1790), Heads of a Course of Marketing (1800) and Progress in Society (1830).
Born in Edinburgh on 11 Jun 1743, Hamilton was the eighth son of Gavin Hamilton, bookseller, and grandson of Principal William Hamilton of Edinburgh University. He began his working life as a bank clerk in Edinburgh, followed by partnership in the management of a paper mill, and appointment in 1769, to the rector-ship of Perth Academy. His first marriage to Ann Mitchell, bore three children, of whom his second daughter, Helen, married Andrew Thomson of Banchory, benefactor of the University of Aberdeen, and his third, Marion, married Rev. Robert Swan. His second marriage, to Jean Morrison, took place on 8 Oct 1782.
See DNB; Fasti Academiae Mariscallanae Aberdonensis: Selections from the Records of the Marischal College and University, 1593 - 1860: Volume 2: Officers, Graduates and Alumni, ed. by Peter John Anderson, 3 vols (Aberdeen: Spalding Club, 1898); and Studies in the History and Development of the University of Aberdeen: A Quartercentenary Tribute Paid by Certain of Her Professors and Her Devoted Sons ed. by Peter John Anderson, Aberdeen University Studies: no 19 (Aberdeen: Aberdeen University Press, 1906).
From the guide to the Papers of Robert Hamilton (1743 - 1829), Professor of Mathematics, Marischal College, Aberdeen, 1793 - 1831, (University of Aberdeen)
