When the foundation stone of the new Eglinton Castle in Kilwinning was laid in 1797, ‘Soldier Hugh’, the 12th Earl of Eglinton, was proud to have the ceremony performed by Alexander Hamilton of Grange, grandfather of the American Hero Alexander Hamilton who was to become one of the most influential Scots in American history.
Hamilton’s family lived on the Estate of Grange which bordered on the Kilwinning lands at Stevenson, though he himself was born in the British colony of Nevis, located in the West Indies, his father being Scottish and his mother Huguenot. After serving bravely in the field as Captain of the New York Provincial Company of Artillery and as ADC to Washington, he went on to be one of the main authors of the Federalist essays - instrumental in the forming of the Constitution - he became the first US Secretary of the Treasury. Hamilton developed an impressive and effective financial plan that created immediate faith in the government of the new nation. He drafted Washington’s Farewell Address, which after editing was delivered on September 19,1796. Hamilton named his house in New York (now a National Monument) “The Grange” after his family home