Anthony Hammond (politician)

Anthony Hammond (1668–1738), of Somersham Place, Somersham, Huntingdonshire and Lidlington, Bedfordshire, was an English official and Tory politician who sat in the English and British House of Commons between 1695 and 1708. He was also known as a poet and pamphleteer.W.A. Speck, 'Hammond, Anthony (1668-1739)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (OUP 2004).

Early life Hammond was born on 1 September 1668, the eldest son of Anthony Hammond, D.L., of Somersham Place, Somersham, Huntingdonshire,'Parishes: Somersham', in W. Page, G. Proby and S. Inskip Ladds (eds), A History of the County of Huntingdon Volume 2 (V.C.H., London 1932), pp. 223–30 (British History Online, accessed 30 May 2023). who was the third son of Anthony Hammond (1608–1661) of St Alban's Court, Nonington, Kent.For these Hammonds, see E. Hasted, 'Parishes: Nonington', in The History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent Volume 9 (Canterbury 1800), pp. 251–62 (British History Online, accessed 30 May 2023). His mother was Amy Browne (died 1693), daughter of Henry Browne of Hasfield House,The Browne family held an estate centred on the Great House, Hasfield, see 'Parishes: Hasfield', in C.R. Elrington (ed.), A History of the County of Gloucester, Volume 8 (V.C.H., London 1968), pp. 284–85 (British History Online, accessed 30 May 2023). Gloucestershire. He was educated at home under Mr Kay from 1675 to 1676, at Willingham, Cambridgeshire under Samuel Saywell from 1676 to 1683 and at St Paul's School from 1684 to 1685. He succeeded his father, who died in 1680D.W. Hayton, 'Hammond, Anthony (1668-1738), of Somersham Place, Hunts.; Lidlington, Beds.; Piccadilly and Albemarle Street, Westminster', in D. Hayton, E. Cruickshanks and S. Handley (eds), The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1690-1715 (from Boydell and Brewer 2002), History of Parliament Online. and has a monument in Somersham church.

He was admitted at Gray's Inn in 1684 and at St John's College, Cambridge in 1685. It was told that he smuggled the actress and playwright Susanna Centlivre into his college, where she was disguised as a male cousin, "Jack". There (by this report) she remained hidden for some months studying grammar.'Mrs Susanna Centlivre', in J. Mottley, A List of all the Dramatic Authors, with some account of their lives, &c., appended to T. Whincop, Scanderbeg: Or, Love and Liberty: A Tragedy (W. Reeve, London 1747), at pp. 185–86.J.W. Bowyer, The Celebrated Mrs Centlivre (Duke University Press, Durham N.C. 1952), pp. 7–11 (Internet Archive). He made many and varied friendships with political and literary figures. He entered the company of radical Whig theorists, including Walter Moyle. Through Moyle he probably came into the circle of Tory and Whig ideologues and virtuosi who gathered at the Grecian Coffee House in the Strand, in London.A. Chalmers (ed.), 'Hammond (Anthony, esq.)', in The General Biographical Dictionary, New, Revised and Enlarged Edition, vol. XVII (J. Nichols & Son, etc., London 1814), pp. 110–11.

When he came of age in 1689, Hammond was appointed to the Huntingdonshire lieutenancy and was made a colonel in the county militia. He was probably included on the commission of the peace. He was elected a Conservator to the Board of the Bedford Level Corporation, becoming a Bailiff of that company (in the place of Roger Jenyns, Surveyor General of the Fens, deceased) in 1693: he surrendered his bailiwick to James Fortrey in 1704, but resumed his place as a Conservator until 1712, when his duties of service in Spain prevented his further active participation upon the committee.S. Wells, The History of the Drainage of the Great Level of the Fens, called Bedford Level 2 volumes (Author, London 1830), I, pp. 464–76.

In 1690, he travelled abroad in the Low Countries. From February to September 1694, he was captain of foot in Thomas Farrington's regiment.W.J. Hardy (ed.), Calendar of State Papers, Domestic Series, of the Reign of William and Mary, 1694-1695 (HMSO 1906), p. 303. Cited in History of Parliament. He married Jane Clarges, daughter of Sir Walter Clarges, 1st Baronet, at Tunbridge Wells, Kent, on 14 August 1694.'Hammond the Poet's Mother', Notes and Queries, 2nd Series, XI (22 June 1861), pp. 493–94 (Wikisource). That was a family prominent in politics, which included leading members of the Tory party. Hammond was a regular guest at the Surrey home of Sir Walter Clarges, who was similarly acquainted with the Grecian Tavern set.A.A. Hanham, 'Clarges, Sir Walter, 1st Bt. (1653-1706), of Piccadilly, Westminster and Ashley, Surr.', in D. Hayton, E. Cruickshanks and S. Handley (eds), The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1690-1715 (from Boydell and Brewer, 2002), History of Parliament Online.

Parliamentary career At the 1695 English general election, Hammond was returned as Tory Member of Parliament for Huntingdonshire in a hard-fought contest. He voted in March 1696 against fixing the price of guineas at 22 shillings, and refused to subscribe the Association which lost him his position on the commission of peace. He was active in opposing the attainder of Sir John Fenwick.

After a quarrel that arose during a debate in the committee of privileges over the Cambridgeshire election, he fought a duel with Lord William Powlett on 27 January 1697/98, and was wounded in the thigh.N. Luttrell, A Brief Historical Relation of State Affairs from September 1678 to April 1714, 6 volumes (Oxford University Press, 1857), IV, p. 337. In parliament he spoke principally on financial questions. At the 1698 English general election, Hammond was returned as MP for the University of Cambridge, and was made M.A. as a member of St John's College. Shortly afterward, 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 for the office of Speaker against Sir Edward Seymour and Sir Thomas Littleton.H. Horwitz, Parliament, Policy and Politics in the Reign of William III (Manchester University Press, 1977), p. 248. Littleton was elected Speaker on 6 December 1698. This tract has been often reprinted.

Hammond was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society 30 November 1698 and admitted 30 October 1700,'Appendix IV: List of the Fellows of the Royal Society', in T. Thomson, History of the Royal Society (Robert Baldwin, London 1812), Appendices pp. xxi-lxix, at p. xxx. but had withdrawn by 1718. He was returned again as MP for Cambridge University at the first general election of 1701. In September, however, when dining in a Haymarket tavern with Tory friends Charles Davenant and John Tredenham,E. Cruickshanks/S. Handley, 'Tredenham, John (1668-1710), of Tregonan, St. Ewe, Cornw.', in D. Hayton, E. Cruickshanks and S. Handley (eds), The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1690-1715 (from Boydell and Brewer 2002), History of Parliament online. he was compromised when they were unexpectedly joined by the French chargé d'affaires Chevalier Jean-Baptiste de Poussin, upon which the Whigs built great political capital against him.A Full and true relation of a horrid and detestable conspiracy against the lives, estates, and reputations of three worthy members of this present Parliament, which God long preserve (London, c. 1701-1702). Full text at eebo.'CLXXXVI. Mr Vernon to the Earl of Rochester, 20 September 1701', in S.W. Singer (ed.), The Correspondence of Henry Hyde, Earl of Clarendon and of his Brother Laurence Hyde Earl of Rochester: with their Diarys from 1687 to 1690, 2 vols (Henry Colburn, London 1828), II, pp. 397–98, and note. At the November general election of 1701, he was defeated by Isaac Newton, although Edward Villiers, 1st Earl of Jersey, Lord Chamberlain, had written to the university in his favour.C.H. Cooper, Annals of Cambridge, 4 volumes (Metcalfe and Palmer, Cambridge 1852), IV, p. 47. He found consolation in penning some Considerations upon Corrupt Elections of Members to serve in Parliament in 1701.I. Watt, ' Considerations upon Corrupt Elections of Members to Serve in Parliament, 1701: by Anthony Hammond, not Defoe', Philological Quarterly; Iowa City Vol. 31 (1 January 1952), p. 45 ff.

On 17 June 1701, he had been appointed a commissioner for stating the public accounts. Under Godolphin's administration he was made a Commissioner of the Navy in May 1702,A. Boyer, The History of the Reign of Queen Anne, digested into annals, 11 vols (A. Roper, London 1703), I: Year the First, p. 73. and again entered parliament as member for Huntingdon at the 1702 English general election. At the 1708 British general election, he was returned for New Shoreham, Sussex, 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 of voting as a member of the house, and therefore a new writ was ordered the next day.N. Luttrell, A Brief Historical Relation of State Affairs from September 1678 to April 1714, 6 volumes (Oxford University Press, 1857), VI, p. 381.

From paymaster to debtor In 1711, Hammond left England to take up his appointment as deputy-paymaster or treasurer of the British forces in Spain.'CXXXVII, 26. 18 September 1711. Lord Dartmouth to the Lord High Treasurer', in J. Redington (ed.), Calendar of Treasury Papers, Vol. IV: 1708-1714 (Longmans and Son, London 1874), pp. 312–13 (British History Online). Cited in DNB. 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.'CLIV, 22. 11 November 1712. Report of J. Brydges', in J. Redington (ed.), Calendar of Treasury Papers, Vol. IV: 1708-1714 (Longmans and Son, London 1874), p. 439 (British History Online). Cited in DNB.

Following his arrest for debt in 1714 his affairs became hopelessly involved. According to Thomas Hearne, Hammond attempted to assassinate the Old Pretender in 1715.P. Bliss (ed.), Reliquiæ Hearneianae: The Remains of Thomas Hearne, M.A., of Edmund Hall, 2nd, enlarged edition, 3 vols (John Russell Smith, London 1869), II, p. 290 (HathiTrust). He was frequently in debtors' prison during his later life, where he occupied himself with literary pursuits. Retiring to the Fleet Prison, he was able to preserve the remains of his estate for his eldest son. Hearne wrote of him, "...at present a prisoner for debt in the King's Bench, and prostitutor of his pen for bread..." Thomas Cooke, translator of Hesiod, who made Hammond's acquaintance in 1722, wrote of him:"He was a well-bred man, had but a small portion of solid understanding, and was a great flatterer. He was a pleasant story-teller, and seldom sad. He courted men of letters and genius, and was fond of being taken notice of by them in their writings. He would ask them to mention him in their works: he asked it of me."Cited in 'Anecdotes of Mr. Thomas Cooke', The Gentleman's Magazine LXI.ii (1791, Part 2), p. 1090 (HathiTrust).

Later works In 1720, Hammond 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: in the 'Preface' he claimed as his own some pieces which had been ascribed to others, including the Ode on Solitude attributed to the Earl of Roscommon.A. H[ammond], comp., A New Miscellany of Original Poems, Translations, and Imitations, by the Most Eminent Hands, &c. (T. Jauncy, London 1720), pageviews at Google.