Hamilton Parish (map) was not the original name. It was Harrington Tribe, after Lucy Harrington, Countess of Bedford (1581-1627). Part of the Parish including Harrington Sound (map) and a local Government run school still have her name.
Then came another Elizabethan patron, James Hamilton, 2nd Marquis of Hamilton (1589 to 1625). He was one of the many Scots peers who accompanied King James VI of Scotland and first of England to London when he ascended the throne on the death of Queen Elizabeth 1 in 1603. Loyal Hamilton was once proposed as a husband for the King's daughter. In 1620, he became a member of the Council for the Plantations of New England and later was rewarded as a Knight of the Garter. He died of a malignant fever in 1625 and his death is said to have hastened that of his Royal friend.
Early settlers called the Parish or Tribe, Bailey's Bay. In 1623, adventurer Captain John Smith, famous in American, Bermudian and British history, encountered many spooky caves in this Parish. It is unrelated to the City of Hamilton eight miles away. It is Bermuda's second most eastern Parish, on the North and South Shores. It has deep water limestone caves, with subterranean passages. They have stalactites and stalagmites of Gothic grandeur. They began during the Pleistocene Ice Age. Sites include the Crystal Caves and the Grotto Bay Hotel's Cathedral and Prospero's Caves. Altogether, there are 10 accessible caves in Bermuda that have sea water pools with a maximum depth of 80 feet given tidal variations.
Restaurants in Hamilton Parish.