Hamilton, Patrick (c. 1504–1528)

Scottish preacher. He was called the protomartyr of the Scottish Reformation and was burned at the stake on 29 February 1528.

He was educated in Paris and at Aberdeen University. His Lutheran sympathies then forced him to flee to Germany. He returned to Scotland in 1527 and began to preach at Kincavel. He was invited by James Beaton, Archbishop of St Andrews, to attend a conference at Aberdeen. But in 1528, he was brought to trial on a charge of heresy, found guilty, and executed. His ‘Loci communes’, or ‘Patrick's Places’, setting forth the doctrine of justification by faith, is included in Foxe's Acts and Monuments.