David Hamilton (diarist)

Sir David Hamilton FRS, MD
Born	1663 (1663) Scotland
Died	28 August 1721(1721-00-00) (aged 57–58)
Education	University of Leiden, University of Reims MD
Occupation	physician
Known for	physician to Queen Anne

Sir David Hamilton, FRS, MD (1663 – 28 August 1721) was a Scottish physician to Queen Anne, during which appointment he kept a diary.

Life

Born in Scotland, he entered the University of Leiden as a medical student on 30 October 1683. He graduated MD of the University of Reims in 1686. He was admitted a licentiate of the London College of Physicians in 1688, and fellow in 1703.

Elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1708, Hamilton became a leading practitioner in midwifery, and was successively physician to Queen Anne, who knighted him, and to Caroline, Princess of Wales. He is said to have acquired a fortune of £80,000, which he lost in the South Sea Bubble. He died on 28 August 1721.

Works

Hamilton wrote:

• An inaugural Dissertation for M.D. "De Passione Hysterica", Paris, 1686.
• The Private Christian's Witness for Christianity, in opposition to the National and Erroneous Apprehensions of the Arminian, Socinian, and Deist of the Age, London, 1697.
• The Inward Testimony of the Spirit of Christ to his outward Revelation, London, 1701. This and the previous work were anonymously published.
• Tractatus Duplex: prior de Praxeos Regulis, alter de Febre Miliari, London, 1710; Ulm, 1711; English translation, London, 1737.

Further reading

• Philip Roberts (ed.), The Diary of Sir David Hamilton, 1709–1714 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1975).

Attribution

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Stephen, Leslie; Lee, Sidney, eds. (1890). "Hamilton, David (1663-1721)". Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 24. London: Smith, Elder & Co.