Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 24.djvu/262

 in Greek verse, prefixed to Gwinne's 'Vertumnus,' 1607. He died in 1617. His youngest son, Henry Hammond [q. v.], was the famous divine; an elder son, Robert, was father of Colonel Robert Hammond [q. v.]

 HAMMOND, ROBERT (1621–1654), soldier, born in 1621, was second son of Robert Hammond of Chertsey, Surrey, and grandson of John Hammond, M.D. [q. v.] In 1636 he became a member of Magdalen Hall, Oxford, but left the university without taking a degree (, Athenæ, iii. 500). Royalist pamphleteers state that Hammond began his military career under Sir Simon Harcourt (An Answer to a Scandalous Letter written by Hammond, the Head-gaoler, 1648). In the summer of 1642 his name appears as a lieutenant in the list of the army destined for Ireland (, Army Lists, p. 68). On 6 July 1642 he obtained a commission as captain of a foot company of two hundred men, to be levied for the parliament in London and the adjoining counties, and on 11 March 1643 was appointed a captain in Essex's regiment of cuirassiers (Clarke MSS. vol. lxvii.) In June 1644 Hammond, then serving under Massey, distinguished himself at the capture of Tewkesbury. In the following October a quarrel between Hammond and Major Grey led to a hasty duel in the streets of Gloucester, in which Grey lost his life. Hammond was tried by court-martial, and unanimously acquitted (28 Nov. 1644), on the ground that he had acted in self-defence (Bibliotheca Gloucesterensis, pp. 100, 109; Commons' Journals, iii. 712). In spite of his youth Hammond was in 1645 appointed to the command of a regiment of foot in the new model (, p. 103). He was doubtless assisted by the fact of his relationship to the Earl of Essex, at whose funeral in October 1646 he bore the banneret of Devereux and Grey (, The Devereux Earls of Essex, ii. 508). At the battle of Naseby Hammond's regiment formed part of the reserve. He took part in the storming of Bristol and Dartmouth and in the battle of Torrington, and captured Powderham Castle and St. Michael's Mount (, Anglia Rediviva, pp. 42, 126, 181, 187, 201, 313). In October 1645, during the siege of Basing House, Hammond was taken prisoner by the garrison, and when that garrison was captured Cromwell sent him up to London, that he might give the House of Commons an account of the victory (ib. p. 150;, Civil War in Hampshire, pp. 237-41). The commons, on hearing his relation, voted him 200l. to recoup his losses as a prisoner (Commons' Journals, iv. 309). After the close of the war in England Hammond was offered the command of a force destined for the relief of Dublin, but, as Holles observes, 'he stood upon his pantoufles, stipulating such terms that no prince or foreign state that had given assistance could have stood upon higher' (Memoirs of Lord Holles, 69; the 'Propositions of Colonel Hammond concerning the Present Service of Dublin' are printed in, Hypocrites Unmasking, 1647, p. 5). In the struggle between army and parliament during the summer of 1647, Hammond cast in his lot with the former. On 1 April 1647 he appeared at the bar of the House of Commons to answer for his conduct in permitting the circulation of the army's petition in his regiment. Only four hundred of his regiment were willing to serve in Ireland, though Hammond himself had declared his conviction that were Skippon commander-in-chief, the greater part of the army would follow him. He signed the vindication of the officers presented to parliament on 27 April 1647, and the letter of the officers to the city on 10 June. He was also one of those appointed to treat with the parliamentary commissioners on behalf of the army on 1 July 1647 (, vii. 445, 458, 466, 603).

In the summer of 1647 doubts seem to have been entertained by Hammond as to whether the army was justified in using force against the parliament. He consequently sought and obtained retirement from active military service. On 3 Sept. 1647 the Earl of Pembroke, who since 1642 had been governor of the Isle of Wight, announced to the House of Lords that Fairfax, by his authority as commander-in-chief, had commissioned Colonel Hammond to be governor of that island, and therefore desired the lords to accept his own resignation, and pass an ordinance appointing Hammond. An ordinance to that effect was accordingly passed on 6 Sept. (Lords' Journals, ix. 421; Hist. MSS. Comm., 6th Report, p. 94). In 1648 events rendered the question whether Hammond derived his authority from army or parliament a point of considerable importance, and it was then argued by Ireton and the army leaders that the ordinance was a mere 'formality by way of confirmation' (, Letters between Colonel Robert Hammond and the Committee at Derby House, 1764, p. 98). The office itself was at this time a sinecure. Cromwell afterwards reminded Hammond that 'through dissatisfaction' he had 'desired retirement, and thought of quiet in the Isle of Wight' (, Cromwell, Letter lxxxv). Hammond