John Hamilton, 2nd Lord Bargany, (c. 1640 – 15 May 1693) was a Scottish peer whose family fortunes were deeply implicated in the struggles over Presbyterianism and the Church of England during the Interregnum and the Monmouth Rebellion.
Hamilton married Lady Margaret Cunningham, the daughter of the Lord Chancellor of Scotland the year he took his title.
Hamilton was aggressively anti-Puritan, and in 1666 he led a company in battle against the Presbyters at Rullion Green.
He made the match no doubt to try to get money, as he married Lady Alice, the widow of a man who had amassed a significant illicit fortune.
However, he was not a supporter of the Presbyterian Covenanters, and he led forces in the Battle of Bothwell Bridge against the Puritan rebels.
However, he and his sons were in the habit of accepting bribes from their prisoners, in money, bonds, and labor, and letting them escape.
They accused him of corresponding with John Welsh, sponsoring the uprising at Bothwell Bridge, and of paying to have the Duke of Lauderdale assassinated.
[1] In 1682, Hamilton accumulated evidence that Crawfiurd was again accepting bribes to release prisoners and moved to have him arrested.