Henry Hammond

He was educated at Eton and at Magdalen College, Oxford, becoming demy or scholar in 1619, and fellow in 1625. He took orders in 1629, and in 1633 in preaching before the court so won the approval of the Earl of Leicester[?] that he presented him to the living of Penshurst[?] in Kent. In 1643 he was made archdeacon of Chichester. He was a member of the convocation of 1640, and was nominated one of the Westminster Assembly of divines. Instead of sitting at Westminster he took part in the unsuccessful rising at Tunbridge[?] in favour of King Charles I, and was obliged to flee in disguise to Oxford, then the royal headquarters.

There he spent much of his time in writing, though he accompanied the king's commissioners to London, and afterwards to the ineffectual convention at Uxbridge in 1645, where he disputed with Richard Vines, one of the parliamentary envoys. In his absence he was appointed canon of Christ Church and public orator of the university. These dignities he relinquished for a time in order to attend the king as chaplain during his captivity in the hands of the parliament. When Charles was deprived of all his loyal attendants at Christmas 1647, Hammond returned to Oxford and was made subdean of Christ Church, only, however, to be removed from all his offices by the parliamentary visitors, who imprisoned him for ten weeks.

Afterwards he was permitted, though still under quasi-confinement, to retire to the house of Philip Warwick at Clapham in Bedfordshire. In 1650, having regained his full liberty, Hammond betook himself to the friendly mansion of Sir John Pakington, at Westwood, in Worcestershire, where he died on the 25th of April 1660, just on the eve of his preferment to the see of Worcester. Hammond was held in high esteem even by his opponents. He was handsome in person and benevolent in disposition. He was an excellent preacher; Charles I pronounced him the most natural orator he had ever heard. His range of reading was extensive, and he was a most diligent scholar and writer.

His writings, published in 4 vols. fol. (1674 - 1684), consist for the most part of controversial sermons and tracts. The Anglo-Catholic Library contains four volumes of his Miscellaneous Theological Works (1847 - 1850). The best of them are his Practical Catechism, first published in 1644; his Paraphrase and Annotations on the New Testament; and an incomplete work of a similar nature on the Old Testament. His Life, a delightful piece of biography, written by Bishop Fell, and prefixed to the collected Works, has been reprinted in vol. iv. of Wordsworth's Ecclesiastical Biography. See also Life of Henry Hammond, by GG Perry.

Reference

• This entry incorporates public domain text originally from the 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica.