John Hamilton, 2nd Lord Belhaven and Stenton

John Hamilton, 2nd Lord Belhaven and Stenton (5 July 1656 – 21 June 1708) was a Scottish peer, landowner and politician.

Quotes

• I think I see our ancient mother Caledonia, like Caesar, sitting in the midst of our senate, ruefully looking round about her, covering herself with her royal garment, attending the fatal blow, and breathing out her last with an ‘Et tu quoque mi fili.’
  • Speech in the Scottish Parliament against the Act of Union (2 November 1706), quoted in ‘Appendix to Vol. VI. No. I’, The Parliamentary History of England from the Earliest Period to the Year 1803, Vol. VI. A.D. 1702–1714 (1806), column 143

• Lord Belhaven...did protest in his own name and in name of all these who shall adhere to him that this act is no valid security to the church of Scotland as it is now established by law in case of an incorporating union, and that the church of Scotland can have no real and solid security by any manner of union by which the Claim of Right is unhinged, our parliament incorporated and our distinct sovereignty and independency intirely abolished.
  • Protestation in the Scottish Parliament against the Protestant Religion and Presbyterian Church Act (12 November 1706)