Formerly hanging in Hamilton Palace, South Lanarkshire, now at Lennoxlove, East Lothian

The 8th Duke was the second son of the 6th Duke and Elizabeth Gunning. He took his seat in the House of Lords in 1782 (13 years after his elder brother died) as Duke of Brandon, the first Duke of Hamilton to have been so summoned.

He is the subject of the dance 'Hamilton House' whose steps symbolise his infidelities and those of his Duchess, Elizabeth Anne Burrell of Beckenham whom he married in 1778 and by whom he was divorced in 1794. He died without issue in 1799.

In 1777 he raised the 82nd Regiment of Foot to fight in the American War of Independence; the colours hang in the Great Hall at Lennoxlove. He is shown here wearing the star of the Knights of the Thistle, to which Order he was appointed in 1786.