page_title: Elizabeth Hamilton, 1st Baroness Hamilton of Hameldon
section_title: Marriage into nobility
hierarchical_section_title: Elizabeth Hamilton, 1st Baroness Hamilton of Hameldon / Marriage into nobility
caption_attribution_description: Portrait of John Campbell, 5th Duke of Argyll (1723-1806) - partial view of painting
context_page_description: Elizabeth Hamilton Campbell, Duchess of Argyll & 1st Baroness Hamilton of Hameldon was a celebrated Irish belle, lady-in-waiting and society hostess.
context_section_description: In January 1752, Elizabeth met the Duke of Hamilton. According to Walpole, on 14 February (St. Valentine's Day) at a party at Bedford House, the duke declared his desire to marry Elizabeth that night and he called for a local parson to perform the ceremony. However, without a licence, calling of banns, and a ring, the parson refused. They were eventually married that night in Mayfair Chapel (which did not require a licence) in a clandestine marriage, with a ring from a bed-curtain, whereupon Elizabeth became the Duchess of Hamilton.
  Horace Walpole said of the couple:
  "Duke Hamilton is the abstract of Scotch pride: he and the Duchess at their own house walk in to dinner before their company, sit together at the upper end of their own table, eat off the same plate, and drink to nobody beneath the rank of Earl-would not one wonder how they could get any body either above or below that rank to dine with them at all?"
  When the duke died in 1758, she became engaged to the Duke of Bridgwater, but the engagement was cancelled that year for reasons unknown. On 3 February the following year she married John Campbell, Marquess of Lorne.
  From 1761 to 1784, she was a Lady of the Bedchamber to Queen Charlotte. Her husband later succeeded to his father's title of Duke of Argyll in 1770, and Elizabeth became known as the Duchess of Argyll. On 20 May 1776, King George III, a long time admirer of hers, created her Baroness Hamilton of Hameldon in her own right.
caption: John Campbell Duke of Argyll
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