William Richard Hamilton

William Richard Hamilton, FRS, (9 September 1777 – 11 July 1859) was a British antiquarian, traveller and diplomat.

Early life Hamilton was born in St Martin-in-the-Fields, London in 1777. He was the son of Rev. Anthony Hamilton, Archdeacon of Colchester and the former Anne Terrick, daughter of Richard Terrick, Bishop of London. His brother was Anthony Hamilton, the Archdeacon of Taunton and the father of Bishop Walter Kerr Hamilton.

His father was the fifth son of the Scottish antiquarian William Hamilton who had married the heiress Charlotte Styles, and so acquired the Essex manor of Holyfield (Hallifield), in the north-east of the parish of Waltham Holy Cross which remained in the family into the 19th century.

He studied at Harrow School and St John's College, Cambridge.

Career In 1799 he was appointed chief private secretary to Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin. He was in Egypt as the British took it over from the French, secured the Rosetta Stone and superintended its transport to England. "He also superintended the shipment of the Parthenon sculptures for Lord Elgin and the recovery of those subsequently lost at sea."

From 1809 to 1822 Hamilton served as Permanent Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs, and from 1822 to 1825 he was Minister and Envoy Plenipotentiary at the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, based at Naples.

William John Hamilton (1805–1867), a geologist who married Martin Trotter, daughter of John Trotter, in 1832. After her death in 1833, he married Hon. Margaret Frances Florence Dillon, a daughter of Henry Dillon, 13th Viscount Dillon. who married Louisa Anne Erskine Anstruther, a daughter of Sir Alexander Anstruther.

Hamilton died in London on 11 July 1859.