Robertson's thesis says Hamilton was about sixty, born in Prestonpans, and worked as a coal miner there before he and his wife Alison Edington moved to the Eastern Borders and worked in English coal pits. He was sent to war in Sweden in 1626 and first met the Devil around Michaelmas 1624.
In his examinations the Devil appeared as a black man riding a black horse, as the spirit of a foal, as a man in brown or grey, and as animals including a crow, a cat and a dog. At Markle he described a meeting with John Hogg and Margaret Nicholson where the Devil appeared as a grim black man. He said that Nicholson asked for power to harm the miller at Linton Bridge, who fell ill within a year and lost six horses.
Hamilton was an easy target as a wanderer, and his accusations fed the whole serial hunt. He is not to be confused with the beggar Alexander Hamilton said to haunt Penkaet Castle, who belongs to a separate tradition.
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