HADDINGTON, EARL OF, a Scottish title bestowed in 1627 upon Thomas Hamilton, earl of Melrose (1563-1637). Thomas, who was a member of the great family of Hamilton, being a son of Thomas Hamilton of Priestfield, was a lawyer who became a lord of session as Lord Drumcairn in 1592. He was on very friendly terms with James VI., his legal talents being useful to the king, and he was one of the eight men who, called the Octavians, were appointed to manage the finances of Scotland in 1596. Having also become king’s advocate in 1596, Hamilton was entrusted with a large share in the government of his country when James went to London in 1603; in 1612 he was appointed secretary of state for Scotland, and in 1613 he was created Lord Binning and Byres. In 1616 he became lord president of the court of session, and three years later was created earl of Melrose, a title which he exchanged in 1627 for that of earl of Haddington. After the death of James I. the earl resigned his offices of president of the court of session and secretary of state, but he served Charles I. as lord privy seal. He died on the 29th of May 1637. Haddington, who was both scholarly and wealthy, left a large and valuable collection of papers, which is now in the Advocates’ library at Edinburgh. James referred familiarly to his friend as Tam o’ the Cowgate, his Edinburgh residence being in this street.
The earl’s eldest son Thomas, the 2nd earl (1600-1640), was a covenanter and a soldier, being killed by an explosion at Dunglass castle on the 30th of August 1640. His sons, Thomas (d. 1645) and John (d. 1669), became respectively the 3rd and 4th earls of Haddington, and John’s grandson Thomas (1679-1735) succeeded his father Charles (c. 1650-1685), as 6th earl in 1685, although he was not the eldest but the second son. This curious circumstance arose from the fact that when Charles married Margaret (d. 1700), the heiress of the earldom of Rothes, it was agreed that the two earldoms should be left separate; thus the eldest son John became earl of Rothes while Thomas became earl of Haddington. Thomas was a supporter of George I. during the rising of 1715, and was a representative peer for Scotland from 1716 to 1734. He died on the 28th of November 1735.
The 6th earl was a writer, but in this direction his elder son, Charles, Lord Binning (1697-1732), is perhaps more celebrated. After fighting by his father’s side at Sheriffmuir in 1715 and serving as member of parliament for St Germans, Binning died at Naples on the 27th of December 1732. His eldest son, Thomas (c. 1720-1794), became the 7th earl in 1735, and the latter’s grandson Thomas (1780-1858) became the 9th earl in 1828. The 9th earl had been a member of parliament from 1802 to 1827, when he was made a peer of the United Kingdom as Baron Melros of Tyninghame, a title which became extinct upon his death. In 1834 he became lord-lieutenant of Ireland under Sir Robert Peel, leaving office in the following year, and in Peel’s second administration (1841-1846) he served as first lord of the admiralty and then as lord privy seal. When he died without sons on the 1st of December 1858 the earldom passed to his kinsman, George Baillie (1802-1870), a descendant of the 6th earl. This nobleman took the name of Baillie-Hamilton, and his son George (b. 1827) became 11th earl of Haddington in 1870.
See State Papers of Thomas, Earl of Melrose, published by the Abbotsford Club in 1837, and Sir W. Fraser, Memorials of the Earls of Haddington (1889).
HADDINGTON, a royal, municipal and police burgh, and county town of Haddingtonshire, Scotland. Pop. (1901), 3993. It is situated on the Tyne, 18 m. E. of Edinburgh by the North British railway, being the terminus of a branch line from Longniddry Junction. Five bridges cross the river, on the right bank of which lies the old and somewhat decayed suburb of Nungate, interesting as having contained the Giffordgate, where John Knox was born, and where also are the ruins of the pre-Reformation chapel of St Martin. The principal building in the town is St Mary’s church, a cruciform Decorated edifice in red sandstone, probably dating from the 13th century. It is 210 ft. long, and is surmounted by a square tower 90 ft. high. The nave, restored in 1892, is used as the parish church, but the choir and transepts are roofless, though otherwise kept in repair. In a vault is a fine monument in alabaster, consisting of the recumbent figures of John, Lord Maitland of Thirlestane (1545-1595), chancellor of Scotland, and his wife. The laudatory sonnet composed by James VI. is inscribed on the tomb. In the same vault John, duke of Lauderdale (1616-1682), is buried. In the choir is the tombstone which Carlyle erected over the grave of his wife, Jane Baillie Welsh (1801-1866), a native of the town. Other public edifices include the county buildings in the Tudor style, in front of which stands the monument to George, 8th marquess of Tweeddale (1787-1876), who was such an expert and enthusiastic coachman that he once drove the mail from London to Haddington without taking rest; the corn exchange, next to that of Edinburgh the largest in Scotland; the town house, with a spire 150 ft. high, in front of which is a monument to John Home, the author of Douglas; the district asylum to the north of the burgh; the western district hospital; the Tenterfield home for children; the free library and the Knox Memorial Institute. This last-named building was erected in 1879 to replace the old and famous grammar school, where John Knox, William Dunbar, John Major and possibly George Buchanan and Sir David Lindsay were educated. John Brown (1722-1787), a once celebrated dissenting divine, author of the Self-Interpreting Bible, ministered in the burgh for 36 years and is buried there; his son John the theologian (1754-1832), and his grandson Samuel (1817-1856), the chemist, noted for his inquiries into the atomic theory, were natives. Samuel Smiles (1812-1904), author of Character, Self-Help and other works, was also born there, and Edward Irving was for years mathematical master in the grammar school. In Hardgate Street is “Bothwell Castle,” the town house of the earl of Bothwell, where Mary Queen of Scots rested on her way to Dunbar. The ancient market cross has been restored. The leading industries are the making of agricultural implements, manufactures of woollens and sacking, brewing, tanning and coach-building, besides corn mills and engineering works.
The burgh is the retail centre for a large district, and its grain markets, once the largest in Scotland, are still of considerable importance. Haddington was created a royal burgh by David I. It also received charters from Robert Bruce, Robert II. and James VI. In 1139 it was given as a dowry to Ada, daughter of William de Warenne, earl of Surrey, on her marriage to Prince Henry, the only son of David I. It was occasionally the residence of royalty, and Alexander II. was born there in 1198. Lying in the direct road of the English invaders, the town was often ravaged. It was burned by King John in 1216 and by Henry III. in 1244. Fortified in 1548 by Lord Grey of Wilton, the English commander, it was besieged next year by the Scots and French, who forced the garrison to withdraw. So much slaughter had gone on during that period of storm and stress that it was long impossible to excavate in any direction without coming on human remains. The town has suffered much periodically from floods. One of the most memorable of these occurred on the 4th of October 1775, when the Tyne rose 8 ft. 9 in. above its bed and inundated a great part of the burgh. An inscription in the centre of the town records the event and marks the point to which the water rose.
There are many interesting places within a few miles of Haddington. Five miles E. is Whittingehame House, and 5 m. N.E. is the thriving village of East Linton (pop. 919). About 2½ m. N. lies Athelstaneford (locally, Elshinford), so named from the victory of Hungus, king of the Picts, in the 8th century over the Northumbrian Athelstane. On a hill near Drem, 3½ m. N. by W., are traces of a Romano-British settlement, and the remains of the priest’s house of the Knights Templars, to whom the barony once belonged. On the coast is the pretty village of Aberlady on a fine bay, and in the neighbourhood are some of the finest golf links in Scotland, such as Luffness, Gullane, Archerfield and Muirfield. On Gosford Bay is Gosford House, an 18th-century mansion, the seat of the earl of Wemyss. At Gladsmuir, 3½ m. W. of Haddington, alleged by some to have been the birthplace of George Heriot. Principal Robertson was minister and wrote most of his History of Scotland. Of the old seat of the Douglases at Longniddry few traces remain, and in the chapel, now in ruins, at the eastern end of the village, John Knox is said to have preached occasionally. At Gifford, 4 m. to the S., John Witherspoon (1722-1794), president of the College of New Jersey (Princeton), and Charles Nisbet (1736-1804), president of Dickinson College, Carlisle, Pennsylvania, were born. A little to the south of Gifford are Yester House, a seat of the marquess of Tweeddale, finely situated in a park of old trees, and the ruins of Yester Castle. The cavern locally known as Hobgoblin Hall is described in Marmion, and is associated with all kinds of manifestations of the black art. Lennoxlove, 1½ m. to the S., a seat of Lord Blantyre, was originally called Lethington, and for a few centuries was associated with the Maitlands. Amisfield, adjoining Haddington on the N.E., is another seat of the earl of Wemyss.
HADDINGTONSHIRE, or East Lothian, a south-eastern county of Scotland, bounded N. by the Firth of Forth, N.E. by the North Sea, E., S.E. and S. by Berwickshire, and S.W. and W. by Edinburghshire. It covers an area of 171,011 acres, or 267 sq. m. Its sea-coast measures 41 m. The Bass Rock and Fidra Isle belong to the shire, and there are numerous rocks and reefs off the shore, especially between Dunbar and Gullane Bay. Broadly speaking, the northern half of the shire slopes gently to the coast, and the southern half is hilly. Several of the peaks of the Lammermuirs exceed 1500 ft., and the more level tract is broken by Traprain Law (724) in the parish of Prestonkirk, North Berwick Law (612), and Garleton Hill (590) to the north of the county town. The only important river is the Tyne, which rises to the south-east of Borthwick in Mid-Lothian, and, taking a generally north-easterly direction, reaches the sea just beyond the park of Tynninghame House, after a course of 28 m., for the first 7 m. of which it belongs to its parent shire. It is noted for a very fine variety of trout, and salmon are sometimes taken below the linn at East Linton. The Whiteadder rises in the parish of Whittingehame, but, flowing towards the south-east, leaves the shire and at last joins the Tweed near Berwick. There are no natural lakes, but in the parish of Stenton is found Pressmennan Loch, an artificial sheet of water of somewhat serpentine shape, about 2 m. in length, with a width of some 400 yds., which was constructed in 1819 by damming up the ravine in which it lies. The banks are wooded and picturesque, and the water abounds with trout.