Bro. Sir Alexr Hamilton

Sir Alexander Hamilton, known to friend and foe alike as 'Dear Sandy', was a Scot who served in both the Danish and Swedish armies. In 1628 he received permission from the Scottish Privy Council to raise and transport 500 men in Ulster to join the regiment of the Earl of Nithsdale in Denmark. Logistical problems meant they did not get there until at least July 1628, but they were recruited in January.

After leaving Denmark, Sir Alexander was a Colonel of a recruited infantry regiment in Sweden and was granted by the Privy Council of Scotland, permission to recruit masterless men in Scotland in June 1629. The same year he established cannon foundries in the Arboga in the Orebro region of Sweden. In July 1630, Hamilton's regiment was merged with John Meldrum's. Apparently during this merger a young captain, presumably John Hamilton, from Hamilton's regiment was made colonel of the new merged unit, promoting over his lieutenant colonel William Baillie.

In a letter from Brandenburg in November 1631, Hamilton isdesignated General ofMarquis Hamilton's artillery.In March 1632 Chancellor Axel Oxenstierna wrote to him providing him with a recruitment warrant and informing him that as King Gustav II Adolf had divided the Marquis Hamilton's army into two sections, Sandy was in charge of one of them, comprising 12 companies of Scottish soldiers. The other section, the 'English' regiment was under command of the Scot Sir William Bellenden. These two regiments were ordered to join up with Duke William of Saxe-Wismar in June 1632.

Dear Sandy served as governor of Hanau from 1631-34, and was succeeded by James Ramsay. After Gustav II Adolf's death, he entered the service of Duke William of SaxeWeimar on a more permanent and started an artillery foundry in Suhla in the Thuringian Forest. He returned to Britain at the end of 1635. There is a record of him signing a receip in Sweden in April 1638, indicating he may have returned to Sweden to conclude some business there.

Hamilton was with the Covenanting army in 1638 as General of Artillery. He had a foundry at Poterow and made cannon for the Covenanters. He is sometimes said to have refined the Leather Cannon invented by General Robert Scott in Sweden. This may be true, but other's content his main invention 'Dear Sandy Stoups' were a frame gun comprising four bronze light cannon mounted together. These cannon were said to be sometimes carried swivel fashion between two horses and proved very effective at the battle of Newburn in August 1640. However, they were more effectively used in large batteries, with various records suggesting the Army of the Covenant had over 40 of them.

A few months prior to the Battle of Newburn, Dear Sandy Hamilton had been initiated into Mary Chapel Lodge as a Freemason signing a Delta as his Mason's Mark. The Lodge minute records "The 20 day off May 1640. The quhilk day, James Hamiltone bing deken off the Craft and Johne Meyenes warden, and the rest off M'rs off meson off edenbr. conuened, doeth admit in amoght them the right honerabell ALEXANDER HAMILTONE, generall of the artilerie of thes kindom, to be fellow and Mr off the forsed Craft: and therto wie heaue set to our handes or markes. A. Hamilton, James Hamilton, John Mylln."

One year later, 20 May 1641, Hamilton was one of the Freemasons in Newcastle who took part in the induction of Sir Robert Moray along with other Scottish officers of the Army of the Covenant. It is often erroneously cited that Hamilton was initiated at the same time as Moray. David Stevenson (Origins of Freemasonry), despite often quoting MurrayLyon, makes the mistake and it is quite clear he has misread or not seen the documents reproduced in that work. Similarly, Pick and Knight naughtily merge the two documents into one quote. However, the transcript of Hamilton's reception above, and of Moray's initiation below make it clear that there are two separate documents and that Hamilton was one of the officiating officers at Moray's ceremony a year after his own initiation.

Moray's was the first recorded initiation of a Speculative Mason on English soil and was done under the auspices of Mary’s Chapel Lodge (Edinburgh) No.1. Other officers present included John Mylln and James Hamilton. Sandy Hamilton was eventually made General of His Majesties Artillery and Master of his Ordinance and Ammunition.

In 1648, Bro. Sandy 'gifted to the colledge [of Aberdeen], for help of the librarie therof, three rair and fair volumes upon Ezechiell and visions therof, sett forth by Baptisia Villalpandus'. Bro. Hamilton died the following year.