As Lord Belhaven and Stenton had no male heirs, he surrendered the lordship to the Crown in 1675 and received a new patent with remainder to his kinsman John Hamilton of Pressmannan, the husband of his granddaughter Margaret, and in failure of that line to his heirs whatsoever. On his death in 1679 the baronetcy became extinct while he was succeeded in the lordship according to the new patent by John Hamilton of Pressmannan, the second Lord. He was the great-great-great-grandson of John Hamilton, brother of Claud Hamilton, grandfather of the first Lord. On his death the title passed to his son, the third Lord. He sat in the House of Lords as a Scottish Representative Peer from 1715 to 1721. The latter year he was appointed Governor of Barbados but drowned on the journey out. By Anne, daughter of Andrew Bruce, Merchant of Edinburgh he had four sons (1st. John, 2nd. Andrew, 3rd. James, 4th, Robert and a daughter Margaret). His eldest son John Hamilton succeeded to his father's title, becoming 4th Baron Belhaven and Stenton, and died unmarried on 28 August 1764. His next brother Andrew having died unmarried in 1736, the title was inherited by the 3rd son James Hamilton, who became 5th Baron of Belhaven and Stenton. On James's death in 1777, the line of the second Lord failed since Robert Hamilton, the youngest of the 3rd Baron's sons, had died in 1743.