(later known as John Hamilton)

Born 10 Mar 1810

Died 30 Mar 1880

(Andrew Crosse's eldest son)

John Crosse, Andrew and Mary Anne Crosse's eldest child, was born at 1810. He studied at Exeter College, Oxford, and graduated in 1833. In 1844 he was at Broomfield when Ada, Countess of Lovelace, visited his father. John introduced her to betting on horses - a field in which she thought her mathematical knowledge would be of use. 

Ada became addicted to gambling. In 1842, in order to clear some of her debts, she gave John diamonds to pawn. Her health was failing and as she neared death, she confessed to her husband that she had had an affair with John Crosse. She died in November 1852, aged 36. 

In 1855, John Crosse inherited the Broomfield estates. In 1859 he received a legacy on the death of his mother's brother, Colonel John Hamilton of the Coldstream Guards. There was a condition attached. He was to change his surname to Hamilton. 

John Hamilton, as he now became, spent much of his time at Broomfield, and became a J.P. He died in 1880, aged 70. His widow, Susanna, lived on at Fyne Court until it was destroyed by fire in 1894. She died in 1916, aged 97. They are commemorated by a memorial in Broomfield church.

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