It was created in 1627 for the noted Scottish lawyer and judge Thomas Hamilton, 1st Earl of Melrose.

The title of the earldom derived from the fact that he was in possession of much of the lands of the former Melrose Abbey.

In 1627 he relinquished the earldom of Melrose and was instead created Earl of Haddington, with the precedence of 1619 and with limitation to his heirs male bearing the surname of Hamilton.

This derived from the fact that he considered it a greater honour to take his title from a county rather than from an abbey.

He sat in the House of Lords as a Scottish representative peer from 1716 to 1735 and served as Lord-Lieutenant of Haddingtonshire from 1716 to 1735.

His eldest son Charles Hamilton, Lord Binning, married Rachel (died 1773), daughter of George Baillie, of Mellerstain House and Jerviswood.

He was a Tory politician and served as Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland from 1834 to 1835 and as First Lord of the Admiralty (with a seat in the cabinet) from 1841 to 1846.

In 1827, one year before he succeeded his father in the earldom, he was created Baron Melros, of Tyninghame in the County of Haddington, in the Peerage of the United Kingdom.

Lord Haddington resigned the office of Hereditary Keeper of Holyrood Park in 1843 for a compensation fee of £40,000.

The Venerable Charles Baillie-Hamilton (1764–1820), son of George Hamilton, younger brother of the seventh Earl, was Archdeacon of Cleveland.

The heir apparent is the present holder's son, Sullivan Simon Baillie-Hamilton, Lord Binning (born 2022).