Hamilton, Alexander

  • DICTIONARY OF CANADIAN BIOGRAPHY ARTICLE: Bruce G. Wilson, “HAMILTON, ALEXANDER,” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 7, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003– https://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/hamilton_alexander_7E.html
  • DCB profile notes:
    • Businessman, militia officer, jp, office holder, and judge; b. 3 July 1790 in Queenston (Ont.), son of Robert Hamilton and Catherine Robertson, née Askin; m. 25 Jan. 1816 Hannah Owen Jarvis, daughter of William Jarvis, in Niagara (Niagara-on-the-Lake), Upper Canada, and they had eight daughters and three sons; d. 19 Feb. 1839 in Queenston.
    • Alexander Hamilton attended school at Queenston and Niagara and was taken to Scotland in 1795 for further education. On his return, he worked for a short period in his father’s business, but he had only a desultory exposure to it before Robert Hamilton’s death in 1809. His father left the stock and facilities of his major enterprises of retailing, forwarding, and portaging around Niagara Falls to him and his brother George. As a result of changing economic circumstances in Upper Canada, these enterprises were already showing signs of decline at the time of Hamilton’s death. Because of the brothers’ inexperience and a complex will which virtually froze the assets of their father’s estate until a stepbrother, John, had reached the age of majority in 1823, George and Alexander quickly ran down the once highly successful business. In 1811 they further complicated their situation by renting, along with their uncle Charles Askin, saw- and grist-mills in Canboro Township from Benjamin Canby. The following year Alexander and Charles purchased the operation, agreeing to pay £22,000 for it. With the outbreak of war, Hamilton abandoned all attempts to revive his father’s enterprises.
    • After the War of 1812, Hamilton’s interests had turned increasingly from business to patronage, and he systematically applied for major posts in the Niagara District as they became vacant. In 1817 he received his first commission as a justice of the peace. His search for office was undoubtedly aided by the fact that, although he sympathized with the agitation stirred up by Robert Gourlay, in its early stages, he was not vociferously pro-Gourlay, in contrast to several of his brothers. The prestige of his family name and continuing contacts were also important to Hamilton in gaining office.
    • In December 1837 Hamilton embarked with a body of volunteers to help in the defence of Toronto and was part of the force which met William Lyon Mackenzie’s rebels. As sheriff of the Niagara District, Hamilton was charged by the provincial government with gathering information on seditious persons in that region. Hamilton took part in guarding the Niagara frontier and conducted an investigation of the Short Hills. When the executioner failed to appear to carry out the sentence of death on James Morreau, one of the leaders of the raid, Hamilton performed it himself on 30 July 1838, having arranged, as an “act of kindness,” that Morreau drop 18 feet before the rope snapped his neck. He was later complimented by the government for the “cool and firm manner” in which the execution was performed.
  • Grandson of Proven Loyalist listed in Loyalist Directory –https://uelac.ca/loyalist-directory/detail/?wpda_search_column_id=238
  • Find a GRAVE: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/74396291/alexander-hamilton