HAMILTON, ALEXANDER [SSNE 3923]
Text source
Colonel Alexander Hamelton was one of three colonels of soldiers in Moscow in 1647, and the Swedish resident observed that all three of them were Scots, the others being Alexander Crawford [SSNE 126] and Mungo Carmichael [SSNE 3820]. Crawford was paid 50 rubbles per month, Hamilton 30 and Carmichael 15. Even Carmichael was considered well paid. However, the two senior were not given cash but expected to get their living from their estates. Carmichael resided in Moscow and the inference was that he actually received cash. He also noted that there were a great number of Swedish and German lesser officers but that there were no foreign regiments as such. Instead they commanded newly recruited or rounded up veterans made available to them in time of war. On 22 January 1650, Hamilton and Carmichael were ordered to go to Novgorod (Lake Onega) to excercise the "folk" at the border who said they would rather be trained up than pay a contribution. The Scots colonels took with them 6000 muskets and ammunition, 6000 Swords, 30 banners and 30 small field pieces. They were accompanied by 16 captains and some lesser officers. At Onega they were to build military camps as well as excercise the peasants. The Scottish officers were ordered to go to Moscow in July 1650 from their country estates. They had assembled by August and awaited orders. As it was they were sent with their regiments to quell the rebellion at Pskov, again with Colonel Carmichael and c.4000 men.
Sources: Swedish Riksarkiv, Diplomatica, Muscovitica 39. Dispatches from the Swedish Resident, Karl Anders Pommerenning to Queen Christina. Dispatches 15 September 1647, 26 January 1649, 23 March 1649, 26 July 1650, 20 August 1650; G. P. Herd, 'General Patrick Gordon of Auchluchries - A Scot in Seventeenth Century Russian Service', Ph.D. thesis, Aberdeen, 1994; D. Fedosov, The Caledonian Connection (Aberdeen, 1996), p.53; Steve Murdoch, Network North: Scottish Kin, Commercial and Covert Associations in Northern Europe, 1603-1746 (Brill, Leiden, 2006), p.93.
Service record
- RUSSIA, PSKOV
- Arrived 1647-01-01, as COLONEL
- Departed 1650-12-31, as COLONEL
- Capacity OFFICER, purpose MILITARY