Painter and Embroiderer daughter of a bobbin manufacturer, James Hamilton of Glasgow, who settled the family in Helensburgh, Dunbartonshire Her elder brother was the Glasgow School artist James Whitelaw Hamilton, she married the painter Alexander Nisbet Paterson in 1897 and their daughter was the artist Viola Paterson. Showed widely at RSA and Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts as well as RA and Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool.