Lt Col Lord Spencer Douglas-Hamilton, son of James the 5th Duke of Hamilton and Anne Spencer of Rendlesham

[Don]

Looking for any information about Lord Spencer Hamilton.

According to information sources such as Burkes Peerage, Spencer Hamilton is said to have died unmarried.

Genealogy sites such as WikiTree don't like to except Burkes Peerage, thepeerage.com, and similar resources as providing dependable source material for evidence.

I have read some information about him being a sports lover person, horse racing I believe, dying in France and a story about him being asked to supply men to help contain a riot, he was a Lt Col in the Tower's Guards.

According to my family's history he did marry, to a Charlotte Spencer, and had two children.

One offspring was a son, named after him, also called Spencer Hamilton, who died young, and the other was named Anne Elizabeth Hamilton.

Anne married a Philip Wynter, whose granddaughter, Fanny Maria Wynter was born in Australia and is my great grandmother.

I would very much like to be able to confirm his place in the family tree and would also like to place his alleged wife, Charlotte Spencer, in her family tree.

Charlotte could relate to the Spencer Family of Rendlesham family or Sir John Spencer family, but I haven't found any evidence to support her position.

Both WikiTree and the Familysearch.org tree have them both in, so next to find BDM records to provide evidence.

Lord Spencer Hamilton (1742–1791) • Person • Family Tree • FamilySe...

Spencer Hamilton (1742-1791) | WikiTree FREE Family Tree

[William Douglas]

This tree shows similar information:
https://gw.geneanet.org/belfast8?lang=en&p=charlotte&n=spencer

I suspect some circular referencing is at work here.

The Spencer Family of Rendlesham link looks tenuous.  The line died out with Edward who died in 1728 leaving two daughters, one of whom, Anne, married the 8th Duke of Hamilton, who Lt Col Lord Spencer's father.

I now find that Sir William Barker, 5th Baronet married as his second wife Anne Spencer, widow of Edward Spencer, of Rendlesham, Suffolk, at St Marylebone Church, London, on 9 February 1731. A few months later, he died on 23 July 1731 at his house in East Street, near Red Lion Square. He was succeeded in the baronetcy by his son Sir John Barker, 6th Baronet, his only child by his first wife. He also left £500 in his will to provide for the upbringing and apprenticeship of Charles King, offspring of Mary King, who may have been his illegitimate son.

But that has not helped in the search for Charlotte.

[Don]

I've found 'source' records to support the birth of the two children, Spencer Hamilton who died young, and his sister Elizabeth, my ancestor.

The records refer to their actual father's name, but the mother is referred to as just Charlotte.

Can't find any other records such as a marriage record, yet.

It seems that permission had to be obtained from the sovereign for the royal subjects to get married.

If you were a member of the King's bedchamber staff, as Lord Sencer Hamilton was, would you need to obtain permission to marry?

Maybe he didn't get married which is why all the various books on peerage, like Burkes and Cokayne say he didn't marry?

[William Douglas]

...permission had to be obtained from the sovereign ...

My father was baptised in a royal chapel (Why? Unknown!), for which permission from the King was obtained.  So, maybe, they weren't 'royal subjects' but using a royal venue?

But if your premise is correct, perhaps royal approval was not granted?

W

[Don]

Been reading so much about this recently (and quickly) and vaguely remember that a King James (I think it was) getting upset with one of his close subjects when they went and got married without getting the King's approval to do so. 

[Don]

Correction, should be the '5th Duke of Hamilton' not the 8th.

[Don]

Yes. Who Charlotte Spencer is is a real dilemma for me.https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Spencer-10890
Some have Charlotte as a third daughter of Edward Spencer. That would make Lord Spencer Hamilton married to his Aunt and Charlotte having a miraculous inception 16 years after the death of the father.
Maybe she was a cousin to more famous Spencers or just a Spencer or even Spencer is not her maiden name.
However, to marry a Lord Spencer Hamilton she must have had some social position of substance.

Need to find some marriage records to nail it down.

[Don]

I notice that a lot of family trees refer to these 'Hamilton' as Douglas-Hamilton.

William Douglas the 1st Earl of Selkirk, married the Anne Hamilton, the 3rd Duchess of Hamilton. 

Subsequent to marrying Anne Hamilton, 3rd Duchess of Hamilton, he was created Duke of Hamilton in the Peerage of Scotland, which also allowed him to use his wife's subsidiary titles during his lifetime and to take the name Hamilton for their descendants.

I believe that the 4th Duke of Hamilton, was known as James Hamilton, as also his son the 5th Duke of Hamilton, known as James Hamilton.

A son of James Hamilton, the 5th Duke of Hamilton, is known as Lord Spencer Hamilton.

However, it seems that latter generations of this family of 'Hamiltons' chose to be known as Douglas-Hamilton. 

From the DNA aspect, these Hamilton family members would have inherited Douglas Y-DNA and only have Autosomal DNA and mtDNA from Anne Hamilton, the 3rd Duchess of Hamilton. 

[William Douglas]

Here is what AI tells me:

Lt‑Col. Lord Spencer Douglas‑Hamilton (1742–1791)

Third son of James Hamilton, 5th Duke of Hamilton

Lord Spencer Douglas‑Hamilton (often recorded simply as Lord Spencer Hamilton) was born in June 1742, the third son of James Hamilton, 5th Duke of Hamilton, and his third wife Anne Spencer.

He belonged to the senior ducal line of the Douglas‑Hamiltons, making him a younger brother of Archibald Hamilton, later 9th Duke of Hamilton, and of Lady Anne Hamilton, Countess of Donegall.

Military Career

Spencer entered the British Army at a young age:

• 1759 – Commissioned Ensign, 3rd Foot Guards

• 1760 – Commission renewed

• 1762 – Promoted Lieutenant, 2nd Foot Guards

• 1776 – Promoted Captain

• 1782 – Promoted Colonel

• 1789 – Resigned his commission due to ill health

• 1790 – Fully retired from service

He ultimately held the rank of Lieutenant‑Colonel in the Guards, as confirmed by peerage records.

Like his father and grandfather, he served as Gentleman of the Bedchamber, in his case to the Prince of Wales (later George IV), from 1783 onwards.

A portrait of him by Francis Wheatley (c.1778) survives in the Royal Collection.

Marriage and Children

He married Charlotte Spencer around 1765, strengthening the Spencer–Hamilton connection already present through his mother.

They had:

• Anne Elizabeth Hamilton (1769–1843) – later married Philip Wynter

• Spencer Hamilton (1767) – died in infancy

Some genealogical databases list additional or alternative spouse names, but the authoritative sources (WikiTree, thePeerage) consistently record Charlotte Spencer as his wife.

Death

Lord Spencer Douglas‑Hamilton died in France on 20 March 1791, aged 48. Some sources give Seine‑et‑Marne as the place of death, while others suggest Calais.

Peerage records confirm the date 20 March 1791.

Significance in the Douglas‑Hamilton Line

Although not a title‑holder himself, Spencer belonged to the core ducal family at a time when the Hamilton estates and political influence were at their height. His military career, court appointment, and marriage into the Spencer family placed him firmly within the aristocratic networks that shaped late‑18th‑century Scottish and British elite society.

He is also an important figure for Douglas‑Hamilton researchers because:

• He represents the younger‑son military tradition of the family.

• His descendants continued into English landed families (e.g., Wynter).

• His portrait by Wheatley is one of the more accessible visual records of the mid‑Georgian Hamiltons.

I can find no evidence of who Charlotte Spencer's parents might have been. 

Every authoritative genealogical source that records her —

• ThePeerage.com

• Cracroft’s Peerage

• Royal Collection Trust (via her husband’s portrait)

• Hamilton family genealogies

• Douglas‑Hamilton secondary literature

— lists her only as “Charlotte Spencer”, wife of Lord Spencer Douglas‑Hamilton, with no parents named.

[Don]

Maybe I should not worry about AI after all !!!

This is a good summary of what I have already learned about Lord Spencer Hamilton and Charlotte Spencer, so far myself.

Although it didn’t find a very interesting antidote that I had came across about Lord Spencer Hamilton out somewhere with some friends.

However, I just don’t know how to the advance the limited total amount of knowledge available on Charlotte Spencer when missing the vitals stats on Charlotte.

[William Douglas]

I cannot recall the wording, but AI also suggested that Charlotte might have been low-born, perhaps a servant, and from an unremarkable family. But with no evidence to support that.