Sir John Hamilton, 1st Baronet, of Marlborough House

Captain Sir John Hamilton, 1st Baronet (21 February 1726 – 24 January 1784) was a Royal Navy officer of the eighteenth century. He joined as a captain's servant in HMS Rippon in 1740. Hamilton fought in the War of Jenkins' Ear at the Battle of Cartagena de Indias in 1741 and then transferred to HMS Alderney where he participated in the unsuccessful Invasion of Cuba. He was promoted to midshipman in HMS Success in 1742, and was promoted to lieutenant while serving on HMS Tartar in 1747. Having served in a variety of ships as a lieutenant, Hamilton was promoted to commander in 1762. After initially commanding HMS Cormorant he served in HMS Zephyr and HMS Merlin on the Newfoundland Station before being promoted to post captain in 1766.

Given command of HMS Lizard to serve in the American Revolutionary War, Hamilton sailed to North America in 1775 and in December fought on land at the Siege of Quebec. For his service there he was made a baronet in 1776, and received command of the brand new ship of the line HMS Hector. He fought in her at the Battle of Ushant in 1778 before in 1780 sailing to the West Indies, where in October Hector was dismasted in the Great Hurricane of 1780. He left Hector in 1782 and was given command of HMS Grafton to sail as a reinforcement to the East Indies Station. In January 1783 the squadron of ships he was sailing with were all dismasted in the Bay of Biscay and forced to turn home. He then returned to command Hector as a guardship at Portsmouth. With his health deteriorating from yellow fever, he resigned his command on 22 January 1784 and died two days later.