William Richard Hamilton, FRS, (9 September 1777 – 11 July 1859) was a British antiquarian, traveller and diplomat.

[1] His father was the fifth son of the Scottish antiquarian William Hamilton[2] who had married the heiress Charlotte Styles, and so acquired the Essex manor of Holyfield (Hallifield), in the north-east of the parish of Waltham Holy Cross which remained in the family into the 19th century.

[7] From 1809 to 1822 Hamilton served as Permanent Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs, and from 1822 to 1825 he was Minister and Envoy Plenipotentiary at the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, based at Naples.

[6] In 1830 he succeeded Sir Thomas Lawrence as Secretary of the Society of Dilettanti, a post which he held until his death in 1859.

A man also of violent temper & insolent tongue, whose only & sole aim at the Museum seems to have been to glorify Mr. P. and abuse every thing but the Elgin Marbles.