Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 24.djvu/264

 perplexities. Cromwell, Ireton, and other representatives of the army wrote to 'dear Robin,' arguing that his obedience was due to the army rather than to the parliament, and that he should take their side in the struggle (, pp. 95-113;, Cromwell, Letter lxxxv.) On 21 Nov. he received a letter from Fairfax, ordering him to come to St. Albans, and informing him that Colonel Ewer had been sent to guard the king during his absence. This was followed by the appearance of Ewer himself, with instructions to secure the person of the king in Carisbrooke Castle till it should be seen what answer the parliament would make to the army's remonstrance. Hammond felt bound personally to obey the commander-in-chief, and set out for St. Albans. But, conceiving that he was entrusted with the charge of the king by parliament, he announced his intention of opposing Ewer by force, if necessary, and left the king in charge of Major Rolph and two other officers, with strict injunctions to resist any attempt to remove him 'from the island (Old Parliamentary Hist. xvii. 254-62; Cart, Memorials of the Civil War, ii. 61, 66). The House of Lords commanded Hammond not to leave his post, but he had already started, and when he tried to return was detained and put under guard until the king had been seized and carried to Hurst Castle (, vii. 1351).

Hammond's custody of the king lasted from 13 Nov. 1647 to 29 Nov. 1648. In recognition of his services parliament voted him an annuity of 500l. a year, to be settled on himself and his heirs (3 April 1648.) This was changed later into a pension of 400l. a year, and finally (23 Aug. 1654) commuted for lands in Ireland to the value of 600l. a year (Commons' Journals, v. 524, vi. 2, 257, vii. 316; Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1654, pp. 321, 328).

During the earlier part of the Commonwealth Hammond took no part at all in public affairs, but his friendship with Cromwell seems to have been only temporarily interrupted. On 22 July 1651 he wrote to Cromwell to intercede for the life of Christopher Love [q. v.], protesting most warmly his own attachment to Cromwell and to the cause of the Commonwealth (, State Papers, p. 75). When Cromwell became protector he seized the opportunity of bringing his friend again into employment. In August 1654 Hammond was appointed a member of the Irish council (27 Aug. 1654: Fourteenth Report of the Deputy-Keeper of Public Records in Ireland, p. 28). He went over at once to Dublin, and commenced the task of reorganising the judicial system, but was seized with a fever, and died early in October 1654 (, ii. 602; Mercurius Politicus, pp. 3780, 3848). Wood gives 24 Oct. as the date of his death, but it is announced in 'Mercurius Politicus' for 12-19 Oct., and it is there stated that his funeral was to take place on 19 Oct. (Mercurius Politicus, pp. 3848, 3864). Dr. Simon Ford [q. v.] of Reading is said to have published 'a book on the death of that much bewailed gentleman, Colonel Robert Hammond,' dedicated to his widow and other relatives (Notes and Queries, 2nd ser. x. 116). It is not to be found either in the Bodleian Library or the British Museum. Hammond married Mary (b. 1630) sixth daughter of John Hampden (, Buckinghamshire, ii. 276, 292), by whom he had three daughters. After his death she married Sir John Hobart, bart., of Blickling, Norfolk (ib. p. 272; State Letters of Roger, Earl of Orrery, i. 27;, House of Cromwell, ed. 1787, ii. 125, 130).

Colonel Robert Hammond is frequently confused with his uncle, Thomas Hammond (, Lives of the Regicides), lieutenant-general of the ordnance in the new model army (, p. 100). Thomas Hammond was one of the judges of Charles I, and attended regularly during the trial, but did not sign the death-warrant. He died before 1652 (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1652, p. 233), and was one of the twenty dead regicides excepted from the act of indemnity as to forfeiture of their estates.

[Carlyle's Letters and Speeches of Cromwell; Noble's House of Cromwell, ed. 1787, and Lives of the Regicides, 1798; Memoirs of Sir T. Herbert, ed. 1702; Ashburnham's Vindication of John Ashburnham; Memoirs of Sir John Berkeley in Maseres's Select Tracts relating to the Civil War, 1815. Hammond's letters during his custody of the king are printed in the Lords' Journals, the Old Parl. Hist., Rushworth, Cary's Memorials of the Civil Wars, and in Birch's Letters between Colonel Robert Hammond and the committee at Derby House. The originals are mostly among the Tanner MSS. in the Bodleian.]  HAMMOND, SAMUEL, D.D. (d. 1665), nonconformist divine, is said to have been a ‘butcher's son of York.’ When at King's College, Cambridge, he was servitor to Dr. Samuel Collins (1576–1651) [q. v.], professor of divinity at Cambridge, and by the Earl of Manchester's interest obtained a fellowship in Magdalene College. He created a great impression in the university by his preaching in St. Giles's Church, and obtained many pupils and followers. Sir Arthur Hesilrigge [q. v.] took him into the north of England as his chaplain, and he settled for some time as minister in Bishop Wearmouth, but removed