Life

Born 1 September 1668, he was the son and heir of Anthony Hammond (1641–1680) of Somersham Place, Huntingdonshire

Huntingdonshire

Huntingdonshire is a local government district of Cambridgeshire, covering the area around Huntingdon. Traditionally it is a county in its own right...

, who was the third son of Anthony Hammond (1608–1661) of St. Alban's Court, Kent, elder brother of William Hammond

William Hammond

The William Hammond was a barque used to transport convicts to Western Australia.Built in Sunderland in 1853 for Thomas and Co, the William Hammond was long, wide and deep, and weighed 683 tons. In 30 September 1854, it sailed from Plymouth to Hobart with 261 emigrating passengers on board...

. His mother was a Miss Amy Browne (died 1693) of Gloucestershire

Gloucestershire

Gloucestershire is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn, and the entire Forest of Dean....

. He was educated at St Paul's School, and matriculated at St John's College, Cambridge

St John's College, Cambridge

St John's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college's alumni include nine Nobel Prize winners, six Prime Ministers, three archbishops, at least two princes, and three Saints....

 in 1685. In October 1695 he was chosen M.P. for Huntingdonshire

Huntingdonshire (UK Parliament constituency)

Huntingdonshire was a Parliamentary constituency covering the county of Huntingdonshire in England. It was represented in the House of Commons of England until 1707, then in the House of Commons of Great Britain from 1707 to 1800, and then in the House of Commons the Parliament of the United...

. A dispute about the election between him and Lord William Pawlet caused a duel (27 January 1698), when Hammond was wounded in the thigh. In parliament he spoke principally on financial questions.

In July 1698 he was returned for the University of Cambridge

Cambridge University (UK Parliament constituency)

Cambridge University was a university constituency electing two members to the British House of Commons, from 1603 to 1950.-Boundaries, Electorate and Election Systems:...

, and was made M.A. as a member of St. John's College. Shortly afterwards he published anonymously ‘Considerations upon the choice of a Speaker of the House of Commons in the approaching Session,’ in which he tacitly recommended Robert Harley

Robert Harley

Robert Harley may refer to:*Robert Harley , English statesman, Member of Parliament for Radnor and Herefordshire*Robert Harley , British Member of Parliament for Radnor...

 for the office of Speaker against Sir Edward Seymour

Sir Edward Seymour, 4th Baronet

Sir Edward Seymour, of Berry Pomeroy, 4th Baronet, MP was a British nobleman, and a Royalist and Tory politician.-Life:...

 and Sir Thomas Littleton

Sir Thomas Littleton, 3rd Baronet

Sir Thomas Littleton, 3rd Baronet , often Thomas de Littleton, was a British statesman. He was the son of Sir Thomas Littleton, 2nd Baronet and his wife and cousin Anne Littleton....

. Littleton was elected 6 December 1698. This tract has been often reprinted. Hammond again represented the university in January 1700–1, but at the election in November 1701, though Edward Villiers, 1st Earl of Jersey

Edward Villiers, 1st Earl of Jersey

Edward Villiers, 1st Earl of Jersey son of Sir Edward Villiers of Richmond and Frances Howard, the youngest daughter of Theophilus Howard, 2nd Earl of Suffolk and Elizabeth Hume, was created Baron Villiers and Viscount Villiers in 1691 and Earl of Jersey in 1697.His grandfather, Sir Edward...

, lord chamberlain, wrote to the university in his favour, he was defeated by Isaac Newton

Isaac Newton

Sir Isaac Newton PRS was an English physicist, mathematician, astronomer, natural philosopher, alchemist, and theologian, who has been "considered by many to be the greatest and most influential scientist who ever lived."...

. He found consolation in penning some ‘Considerations upon Corrupt Elections of Members to serve in Parliament,’ 1701. On 17 June of this year he had been appointed a commissioner for stating the public accounts. Under Godolphin

Sidney Godolphin, 1st Earl of Godolphin

Sir Sidney Godolphin, 1st Earl of Godolphin, KG, PC was a leading English politician of the late 17th and early 18th centuries...

's administration he was made a commissioner of the navy in May 1702, and again entered parliament as member for Huntingdon in the following July. In May 1708 he sat for New Shoreham

New Shoreham (UK Parliament constituency)

New Shoreham, sometimes simply called Shoreham, was a parliamentary borough centred on the town of Shoreham-by-Sea in what is now West Sussex...

, Sussex

Sussex

Sussex , from the Old English Sūþsēaxe , is an historic county in South East England corresponding roughly in area to the ancient Kingdom of Sussex. It is bounded on the north by Surrey, east by Kent, south by the English Channel, and west by Hampshire, and is divided for local government into West...

, but on the ensuing 7 December the house decided by a majority of eighteen that as commissioner of the navy and employed in the out ports he was incapable of being elected or voting as a member of the house, and a new writ was ordered the next day.

In 1711 he left England to take up his appointment as deputy-paymaster or treasurer of the British forces in Spain. The Duke of Argyll, commander-in-chief, complained of him for irregularity. Paymaster Hon. James Brydges, however, upheld Hammond in a report to Lord-treasurer Dartmouth, dated 11 November 1712, justifying the payments made by him to Portuguese troops.

His affairs became hopelessly involved, and he judged it best to retire to the Fleet Prison

Fleet Prison

Fleet Prison was a notorious London prison by the side of the Fleet River in London. The prison was built in 1197 and was in use until 1844. It was demolished in 1846.- History :...

, and saved the remains of his estate for his eldest son. He occupied himself with literary pursuits. Hammond died in the Fleet in 1738, but his estate was not administered until 8 April 1749. He married, 14 August 1694, at Tunbridge Wells, Kent, Jane, daughter of Sir Walter Clarges, 1st Baronet

Sir Walter Clarges, 1st Baronet

Sir Walter Clarges, 1st Baronet was an English Tory politician who served four separate terms in Parliament. An early ally of William of Orange, he inherited large holdings of land but no great ability from his father, Sir Thomas Clarges, and largely used his Parliamentary seat to advance his own...

, and by this lady, who died in 1749, he had two sons: Thomas, who died childless about 1758; James Hammond (1710–1742), and a daughter, Amy, who married first, in 1719, William Dowdeswell of Pull Court, Worcestershire; and secondly, on 7 May 1730, Noel Broxholme

Noel Broxholme

-Early life:Broxholme was, according to Dr. Stukeley, a native of Stamford, Lincolnshire, of humble origin. Born in or about 1689, he was admitted on the foundation at Westminster School in 1700, and in 1704 was elected to Trinity College, Cambridge. He proceeded, however, to Christ Church, Oxford,...

, M.D.

Thomas Hammond sold Somersham Place to the Duke of Manchester . Thomas Cooke

Thomas Cooke (author)

Thomas Cooke , often called "Hesiod" Cooke, was a very active English translator and author who ran afoul of Alexander Pope and was mentioned as one of the "dunces" in Pope's Dunciad. His father was an inn keeper, and Cooke arrived in London in 1722 and began working as a writer for the Whig causes...

, who formed Hammond's acquaintanceship in 1722, called him a flatterer of literary men. He was elected Fellow of the Royal Society 30 November 1698 but had withdrawn by 1718. According to Thomas Hearne

Thomas Hearne

Thomas Hearne or Hearn , English antiquary, was born at Littlefield Green in the parish of White Waltham, Berkshire.-Life:...

, Hammond attempted to assassinate the Old Pretender in 1715.

Works

In 1720 he edited ‘A New Miscellany of Original Poems, Translations, and Imitations, by the Most Eminent Hands, viz. Mr. Prior, Mr. Pope, Mr. Hughes, Mr. Harcourt, Lady M[ary] W[ortley] M[ontagu], Mrs. Manley, &c., now first published from their respective manuscripts. With some Familiar Letters, by the late Earl of Rochester, never before printed’ (preface signed ‘A. H.’), London, 1720. He claimed some pieces of his own which had been ascribed to others, as the ‘Ode on Solitude’ to Roscommon. In 1721 he permitted the publication of his ‘Solitudinis Munus: or, Hints for Thinking’ (anon.), London, 1721. He also wrote a reasoned retrospect of the South Sea Bubble year, entitled ‘A Modest Apology, occasion'd by the late unhappy turn of affairs with relation to Publick Credit. By a Gentleman,’ 8vo, London, 1721. He says that he had made a list of 107 bubbles with a nominal stock of £93,600,000, involving a loss of £14,040,000.

Hammond prefixed to Walter Moyle

Walter Moyle

Walter Moyle was an English politician and political writer, an advocate of classical republicanism.-Life:He was born at Bake in St Germans, Cornwall, on 3 November 1672, the third, but eldest surviving son of Sir Walter Moyle, who died in September 1701, by his wife Thomasine, daughter of Sir...

's ‘Works’ a memoir (signed ‘A. H.’). They had been intimate friends from 1690. Hammond contributed a ‘character’ of Edward Russell, 1st Earl of Orford

Edward Russell, 1st Earl of Orford

Admiral of the Fleet Edward Russell, 1st Earl of Orford, PC was the First Lord of the Admiralty under King William III.-Naval career:...

 to ‘The Present State of the Republick of Letters’ for October 1730, from which Robert Samber drew his information for a verse eulogy on Orford in 1731, and wrote also another financial pamphlet entitled ‘The National Debt as it stood at Michaelmas 1730, stated and explained’ (anon.), London, 1731.

His ‘Collections and Extracts relating to the Affairs of the Nation, with an Autobiographical Diary,’ extending from 1660 to 1730, is preserved in the Bodleian Library

Bodleian Library

The Bodleian Library , the main research library of the University of Oxford, is one of the oldest libraries in Europe, and in Britain is second in size only to the British Library...

.