y
noble Scotch names are very common, because it was the custom of the
families to which they belonged to extend them to all their retainers;
but Alexander Hamilton obtained his name in no such way as that. His
descent from the Lord of Cadyow is made up with the nicest precision.
The family became of Grange in the sixteenth century. The names of the
ladies married by the heads of the Hamiltons of Cambuskeith and Grange
all belong to those of the ingenuous classes. The same Christian names
are continued in the line, that of Alexander appearing as early as the
latter part of the fifteenth century, and reappearing frequently for
three hundred years. Alexander Hamilton of Grange, fourteenth in descent
from Sir David de Hamilton, had three sons, the third bearing his
father's name; and that son's fifth child was James Hamilton, who
emigrated to the West Indies, settling in the Island of Nevis. Mr. James
Hamilton married a French lady, whose maiden name was Faucette, and
whose father was one of many persons of worth who were forced to leave
France because of the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, through the
bigotry of that little man who is commonly called the Grand Monarch, and
whose bigotry was made active by the promptings of Madame de Maintenon,
who was descended from a fierce Huguenot, as was the monarch himself.

Alexander Hamilton was born on the 11th of January, 1757. His mother
died in his early childhood, a more than usually severe loss, for she
was a superior woman. He was the only one of her children who survived
her. His father soon became poor, and the child was dependent upon the
relatives of his mother for support and education. They resided at Santa
Cruz, where he was brought up. Just before completing his thirteenth
year he entered the counting-house of Mr. Cruger, a merchant of Santa
Cruz. Young as he was, his employer left him in charge of his business
while he made a visit to New York, and had every reason to be satisfied
with the arrangement. He read all the books he could obtain, and read
them understandingly. Even at that early age he was remarkable for the
manliness of his mind. He wrote, too; and an account of the hurricane of
1772, which he contributed to a public journal, attracted so much
attention that he was sought out, and it was determined to send him to
New York to be regularly educated. He left Santa Cruz, and sailed for
Boston, which port he reached in October, 1772. Proceeding to New York,