Career
After serving as Member of Parliament for Midhurst from 1761, he left his seat to become Britain's ambassador to the court of Naples from 1764 to 1800. During this time he studied local volcanic activity and earthquakes, and wrote a book on the ancient Roman city of Pompeii. He collected Greek vases and other antiquities, selling part of his collection to the British Museum in 1772. A small part of his second collection went down with HMS Colossus while being transported to Britain in 1798. The surviving part of the second collection was catalogued for sale at auction at Christie's when at the eleventh hour Thomas Hope stepped in and purchased the remains of Hamilton's second collection of mostly South Italian vases. He was a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries and a member of the Society of Dilettanti. His other books include Antiquités étrusques, grecques et romaines (1766–67) and Observations on Mount Vesuvius (1772).
He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1766 and published his paper "Campi Phlegraei: Observations on the Volcanoes of the Two Sicilies" in the same year. He made more than 65 ascents of Mount Vesuvius and made a number of drawings before its eruption in 1767. The Royal Society awarded him the Copley Medal in 1770 for his paper, "An Account of a Journey to Mount Etna".
During their tour of Italy in 1770, the young Mozart and his father were introduced to Hamilton and Catherine.
Goethe visited Hamilton and his collection of antiquities on 3 June 1787. Goethe described the collection in his Italian Journey as disordered and crammed in the understairs of Hamilton's house. Among Hamilton's antiquities Goethe found a pair of chandeliers most likely smuggled from Pompei. He shared this finding with Jacob Philipp Hackert, who advised Goethe not to further investigate their provenance.
Hamilton became a Knight of the Order of the Bath in 1772 and was sworn of the Privy Council in 1791. He died in London in 1803 and was buried alongside his first wife at Slebech.
Read more about this topic: William Hamilton (diplomat)
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