Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 24.djvu/261

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Hammond
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Hammond

him on ‘finding that he did not mean marriage.’ Beattie was informed on good authority that Hammond was not in love when he wrote his elegies (Dissertations, Moral and Critical, 1783, p. 554). He undoubtedly lived for ten years after he had composed the effusions in which he set out his passion. His volume of poems was entitled ‘Love Elegies by Mr. H——nd. Written in the year 1732. With Preface by the E. of C——d., 1743,’ in which Chesterfield wrote that his friend ‘died in the beginning of a career which, if he had lived, I think he would have finished with reputation and distinction.’ The elegies are included in Johnson's, Anderson's, and Chalmers's collections of English poets, and were often republished, e.g. by Thomas Park in 1805 and George Dyer in 1818. They were mostly inscribed to Neæra or to Delia, but one was in praise of George Grenville, and another was pointedly addressed to Miss Dashwood, and to this Lord Hervey wrote an answer, also printed in Dodsley's collection, iv. 73–8. In 1740 Hammond wrote the prologue for Lillo's posthumous tragedy of ‘Elmerick,’ which was acted at Drury Lane Theatre, and some additional poems by him and references to his compositions are in the ‘Gentleman's Magazine’ for 1779, 1781, 1786, and 1787. Hammond's elegies are avowedly imitations of Tibullus, and Johnson condemned them as having ‘neither passion, nature, nor manners,’ nothing ‘but frigid pedantry.’ These strictures produced a quarto pamphlet of ‘Observations on Dr. Johnson's Life of Hammond,’ 1782, but time has given its verdict in favour of the critic. Thomson's ‘Winter’ includes a glowing apostrophe to Hammond.

[Johnson's Poets, ed. Cunningham, ii. 329–332, iii. 431; Berry's Genealogies (Kent), pp. 94–5; Pope's Works, ix. Letters (iv.); Miscell. Works of Lord Chesterfield, 1777, i. 47–8, 133, 277; Walpole's George III, i. 71; Notes by Walpole in Philobiblon Soc. Miscellanies, vol. xi.; Courtney's Parl. Rep. of Cornwall, p. 11; Notes and Queries, 2nd ser. xi. 348, 430–1, 493–4, xii. 33, 56.]

W. P. C.

HAMMOND, JOHN, LL.D. (1542–1589), civilian, whose mother is said to have been a sister of Alexander Nowell, dean of St. Paul's, was baptised at Whalley, Lancashire, in 1542, and was educated at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, where he became fellow, and in 1561 proceeded LL.B. He addressed Queen Elizabeth in a short Latin speech when she visited his college on 9 Aug. 1564 (cf. Nichols, Progresses, iii. 83, where the speech is printed). In 1569 he was created LL.D. and admitted a member of the College of Civilians (Coote, Civilians, p. 48). On 6 Feb. 1569-70 he became commissary of the deaneries of the Arches, Shoreham, and Croydon; in 1573 commissary to the dean and chapter of St. Paul's, London; a master of chancery in 1574; and chancellor of the diocese of London in 1575. He acted on two commissions in 1577, one with reference to the restitution of goods belonging to Portuguese merchants, and the other concerning complaints of piracy preferred by Scotchmen. In 1578 he attended the diet of Smalkald as a delegate from the English government, and in August 1580 went to Guernsey to investigate charges brought by the inhabitants against Sir Thomas Leighton, the governor. In March 1580-1 he took part in the examination by torture of Thomas Myagh, a prisoner in the Tower, charged with treasonable correspondence with Irish rebels.

From 1572 onwards Hammond was an active member of the ecclesiastical court of high commission. In May 1581 he examined Alexander Briant, a Jesuit, under torture in the Tower, and later in the year conducted repeated examinations of Edmund Campion [q. v.], preparing points for discussion out of Sanders's 'De Monarchia' and Bristowe's 'Motives.' On 29 April 1582 he similarly dealt with Thomas Alfield, a seminary priest, who was racked in the Tower. He sat as M.P. for Rye in the parliament meeting on 23 Nov. 1585, and for West Looe in the parliament meeting in October 1586. He probably died in December 1589; his will, dated 21 Dec. 1589, was proved on 12 Oct. 1590. He was father of John Hammond, M.D. [q. v.]

Some of his legal opinions are in Brit. Mus. Harl. MS. 6993 art. 39, and Lansd. MS. 144 art. 24.

[Cooper's Athenæ Cantabr. ii. 75, 544; Strype's Annals, and his Lives of Parker, Grindal, Whitgift, and Aylmer; Howell's State Trials, i. 1078-84.]

S. L. L.

HAMMOND, JOHN, M.D. (1551–1617), physician, son of John Hammond, LL.D. [q. v.], was born in London in 1551. He was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he graduated B. A. in 1573, and was elected a fellow. In 1577 he took the degree of M.A., and on 30 Aug. 1603 was incorporated M.D. at Oxford. He was elected a fellow of the College of Physicians on 13 May 1608. He was physician to James I and to Henry, prince of Wales, whom he attended in his last illness in 1612. His signature is attached to the original record of the post-mortem examination of the prince preserved in the Record Office, London. His only published work is an address to Dr. Matthew Gwinne [q. v.]