[1] Gavin had purchased the Abbot's Tower or Castle of Mauchline and constructed a modern villa adjacent to it,[3] but later sold the property to the Earl of Loudoun and leased it back.

He was a 'New Licht' in his religious views and is described as high spirited, generous, kind, open and engaging, characteristics, all of which endeared him to Burns.

[9][2] Burns dedicated his Kilmarnock edition of Poems Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect to Hamilton who was a subscriber to forty copies as well as distributing many of the 96 proposal forms.

[1][10] In 1786 a letter in the Edinburgh Evening Courant stated "that "not one" of Ayrshire's "Peers, Nabobs, and wealthy commoners" had "stepped forth as a patron" to Burns".

[14] At this time when their father William Burnes was in litigation with David McLure over the conditions of the lease of Lochlea Farm and had only a few months to live.

[15] Hamilton may have given legal advice to his friend Burns that this arrangement would best protect the family's financial interests and the sub-let was kept from the brother's father.

[22] It was Hamilton in 1786 who delivered the letter from Dr Blacklock to Burns that praised the poets works and gave him further encouragement to stay in Scotland.

[26] When in 1786 Burns first arrived in Edinburgh he shared a room with his 'Mauchline' friend John Richmond, a solicitors clerk, who had once worked for Gavin Hamilton and would later become a lawyer in Mauchline himself.

[27] Burns wrote revealingly to Hamilton about Jean Armour during his stay in Edinburgh saying "To tell the truth among friends, I feel a miserable blank in my heart, with want of her, and I don't think I shall ever meet with so delicious an armful again .."[28] Burns in December 1786 wrote again from Edinburgh saying that "For my own affairs, I am in a fair way of becoming as eminent as Thomas à Kempis or John Bunyan; and you may expect henceforth to see my birthday inscribed among the wonderful events in the Poor Robin and Aberdeen Almanacks along with the Black Monday, and the Battle of Bothwell Bridge.

"[29] In February 1788 he writes to Agnes Maclehose that he is on his way to visit Gavin Hamilton and that "I hate myself as an unworthy sinner, because these interviews of old, dear friends make me for half a moment almost forget Clarinda".

": "Expect na, sir, in this narration, A fleechan, fleth'ran Dedication, To roose you up, an' ca' you guid, An' sprung o' great an' noble bluid; Because ye're surnam'd like His Grace, Perhaps related to the race: Then, when I'm tir'd - and sae are ye, Wi' mony a fulsome, sinfu' lie, Set up a face, how I stop short, For fear your modesty be hurt".

Recommending a boy, Mossgaville, May 3, 1786" : "I hold it, sir, my bounden duty To warn you how that MASTER TOOTIE, Alias, Laird M'Gawn, Was here to hire yon lad away 'Bout whom ye spak the tither day, An' wad hae don't aff han': But lest he learn the callan tricks, As faith I muckle doubt him, Like scrapin out auld Crummie's nicks, An' tellin lies about them; As lieve then I'd have then Your CLERKSHIP he should sair; If sae be ye may be Not fitted otherwhere".

Let other heroes boast their scars, The marks o' sturt and strife; And other poets sing of wars, The plagues o' human life; Shame fa' the fun; wi' sword and gun To slap mankind like lumber!

I never wrote a letter which gave me so much pain in my life, as I know the unhappy consequences: I shall incur the displeasure of a Gentleman for whom I have the highest respect, and to whom I am deeply obliged"[33] To assist with his debts Burns had given Gilbert £180 earned from his Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect (Edinburgh Edition).

[37] Burns was on his way to visit Gavin Hamilton when his dog ran over some clothes on the bleach green at Mauchline and Jean Armour scolded and threw something at the animal.

[39] It is said that to appease Jean's father, Robert Aiken, who had his practice in Ayr, cut the names of the couple from the marriage document although this would probably not have altered the situation in the eyes of the law.

Burns wrote to Gavin Hamilton regarding the incident saying: "I must consult you, first opportunity, on the propriety of sending my quondam friend, Mr Aiken, a copy.

do not despise me, Sir: I am indeed a fool, but a "knave" is an infinitely worse character than any body, I hope, will dare to give, the unfortunate Robt Burns".

[40] On 2 May 1788[41] Robert and Jean were finally irregularly, but legally married, probably in the parlour or office of Gavin Hamilton's house by Justice of the Peace, John Farquhar-Gray of Gilmilnscroft.

[44] As stated, Gavin was the collector of stent, a form of poor relief, and difficulties over its disbursement led to ill feeling with the Rev.

William 'Daddy' Auld and the Kirk Session resulting in a protracted period of religious persecution, such as a formal complaint that he had asked a servant to dig two and a half rows of new potatoes on a Sunday at the divine hour of the church service.

The servant was brought before the session and suffered public rebuke, however he showed his loyalty by giving his son a double 'first' name, Gavin Hamilton Bryan.

In the summer of 1787 Burns had visited Mauchline briefly and had found his friend Gavin Hamilton seriously ill however he wrote upon his recovery, hearing that Gavin had surprisingly been in 'Daddy' Auld's company he first advises, in the friendliest of terms, Hamilton to drink moderately and generally to take care of his health and then goes on to say: "..as I understand you are now in habits of intimacy with that Boanerges of Gospel powers, Father Auld, be earnest with him that he will wrestle in prayer for you, that you may see the vanity of vanities in trusting to, or even practising the carnal moral works of Charity, Humanity, Generosity, & Forgiveness; things that you practised so flagrantly that it was evident you delighted in them; neglecting or perhaps prophanely despising the wholesome doctrine of "Faith without Works", the only anchor of salvation.