Hamilton Academy was a school in Hamilton, South Lanarkshire, Scotland. The school was described as "one of the finest schools in Scotland" in the Cambridge University Press County Biography of 1910, and was featured in a 1950 Scottish Secondary Teachers' Association magazine article series on Famous Scottish Schools. Having joined the state sector, the school closed in 1972, as a result of the coming of comprehensive schools in Lanarkshire. It was replaced by the new Hamilton Grammar School, which took over its site and most of its pupils and staff. History and building 1588–1714 No longer existing as an independent institution, Hamilton Academy had a history going back to 1588 when it was endowed by The 1st Marquess of Hamilton (c. 1535-1604), an extremely powerful Scottish nobleman. The school, then known as the Old Grammar School of Hamilton (not to be confused with the present Hamilton Grammar School), stood near the churchyard adjoining Hamilton Palace until, in 1714, Anne, 3rd Duchess of Hamilton, great-granddaughter of the Founder, re-located the school to a new building on the newly named Grammar School Square also in the lower part of the town, and presented this to the Town Council of Hamilton. The Statistical Account of Lanarkshire of 1835 notes of this school building that it "is a venerable pile, near the centre of the town, containing a long wainscotted hall, emblazoned with the names of former scholars, cut out in the wood, as at Harrow." In 1847 this old school building on Grammar School Square was sold for £253 and survived until its demolition in 1932. A plaque commemorating the site of the Old Grammar School of Hamilton (which was renamed Hamilton Academy in 1848) was commissioned by pupils of Hamilton Academy and unveiled by the academy's rector, David Anderson MC, on 21 March 1932 at a public ceremony in the presence of academy pupils and teaching staff; the provost and members of the town council, and members of Hamilton Civic Society. 1848–1900 The town council were sole managers of the school until, in 1848, the school (having been renamed The 'Hamilton Academy') re-located again, to larger premises on the town's Hope Street, with Rector's residence and accommodation for boarders, built by the heritors of the Parish of Hamilton, the town council and subscribers, the school then coming under the management of a Directorate chosen of these three parties. The Report on Schools