William Hammond (c.1635–c.1685) was an English gentleman and Grand Tourist.[1] He has been identified since 1792 as the William Hammond who was an original Fellow of the
Royal Society.[2]
Background
The Hammond family had been established Kent landowners since 1551.[3] In the 1550s the monastic property that became St Alban's Court, at
Nonington, was bought by Thomas Hammond. The name was because of its previous association with
St Albans Abbey in Hertfordshire. On the
Dissolution of the Monasteries it had come to
Christopher Hales; via his heiresses to Alexander Culpepper of
Bedgebury; and a member of the Culpepper family had sold it on to Thomas Hammond.[4] Sir William Hammond (1579–1615) was the grandson of Thomas Hammond.[3]
Anthony Hammond (1608–1661)
Anthony Hammond of
Wilburton (identified also as of St Albans's Court, Kent) was son of Sir William Hammond (1579–1615) of St Albans Court.
William Hammond (born 1614) the poet was his brother. Their mother Elizabeth Archer or Aucher, daughter of Margaret Sandys, was the granddaughter of
Edwin Sandys, Archbishop of York.[5]Sir Miles Sandys, 1st Baronet was therefore his great-uncle.[6] The main seat of Sir Miles Sandys was Wilburton.[7] Elizabeth Aucher was sister of
Sir Anthony Aucher, Member of Parliament (withdrawn) for
Rochester.[8]
Involved in the
draining of the Fens, Anthony Hammond was an
adventurer in the
Bedford Level: he was one of those with shares in the original 1631 indenture (as "Anthony Hamond of St Albons in the Count of Kent, Esquire"). He had a supervisory role, in drainage work started from 1649 by
Sir Miles Sandys, 2nd Baronet (died 1654) and others, under
Cornelius Vermuyden, and was paid £20 per month. Superintendent of the South Level in 1654, he was replaced in that post by
Samuel Fortrey, the following year.[9][10][11] The Hammond's Eau drain is named after him.[12]
Anthony Hammond married Anne Digges, daughter of
Dudley Digges, and they had four sons: William, Anthony, Dudley and Edward and numerous daughters including Hester, Frances, and Jane.[13] In 1661 he died at Wilburton.[14] He has been credited as the author of The Gentleman's Exercise (1662) by A. H., a supplement to the
falconry manual of
Simon Latham.[15][16]
The second son, Anthony Hammond, bought Somersham Place, a former episcopal palace of the bishops of Ely, around 1660; or leased a wing of what was a building falling to ruins. He died there in 1680.[17][18] He was father of
Anthony Hammond (1668–1738) the Member of Parliament, who was also a Conservator of the Bedford Level.[19]
Early life
William Hammond was the son of Anthony Hammond (1608–1661). He matriculated at
Wadham College, Oxford in 1650.[20] He corresponded with his parents at Wilburton (as Wilberton).[16] He speculates at one point in a letter from Paris on taking a higher degree at Oxford, through
John Wilkins; and mentions that his scientific library had been built around suggestions from
Lawrence Rooke,
Charles Scarburgh,
Seth Ward and
Christopher Wren.[21] A potential career in medicine motivated Hammond's continental tour.[22]
Tour 1655 to 1658
Hammond based his Tour around extended over-winter stays in Paris. In 1656 he went from there to
Florence, returning via
La Fleche. In 1657 he went to
Lyon,
Nîmes and
Montpelier. In 1658 the route was Lyon, Florence, Paris; followed by
Amsterdam, Germany and the
Spanish Netherlands.[23]
In a series of letters, most apparently surviving, Hammond wrote in detail to his parents about his travels.[1] He had practical support, and an introduction to
Sir Kenelm Digby, from
Henry Holden in Paris, Holden being a good friend of Lady Mary Stanley, mother of
Thomas Stanley and sister of Anthony Hammond, William's father. He carried out some research on French
silk manufacturing, at the request of
Edward Digges, his mother's brother.[24][25]Jonas Moore, a family friend, sent Hammond a mathematical problem; he disclaimed any remaining competence in mathematics, and passed it to Digby to circulate among French mathematicians.[26]
Hammond had a companion "Cosin Bowyer" for some of the way, able to lend him money, and "Heir of Camberwell". Following Brennan, this was a son of
Sir Edmund Bowyer of
Camberwell Green, who had married Hammond's great-aunt Hester Aucher, sister of Elizabeth Aucher.[27][28] Sir Edmund's heir
Anthony Bowyer, a future barrister and politician, matriculated at
Christ Church, Oxford in 1651.[29][30] Boywer fell ill with
smallpox at Nîmes, and Hammond tended him there in September and October 1657. He commented on the banking of the
River Rhône, compared to that used in the Fens.[31]
Later life
According to Alumni Oxonienses, he may be the William Hammond who entered
Gray's Inn, in 1663.[20] Hammond mentions his chamber, in Gray's Inn.[32] William Hammond, Esq. occurs as an "Old Adventurer" in a petition to Charles II concerned with the Great Level of the Fens.[33]John Collins commented in a 1677 letter to
John Wallis that Hammond was a "great lover" of mathematics.[34]
Family
Hammond married, as her second husband, Elizabeth, daughter of
Sir John Marsham, 1st Baronet.[35] Marsham's wife Elizabeth was a sister of Anthony Hammond, his father, so this was a marriage of first cousins.[36] The children of this marriage were three sons, one of whom died young, and two daughters: their daughter Anne married
William Wotton, and Elizabeth married Oliver St John, son of
Sir Oliver St John (died 1673), the judge. The eldest son William succeeded his father. By a second marriage Hammond had no children.[37][38]
A possible relative, Gabriel Richards, is mentioned in William Hammond's letters as a "cousin".[39] Some unresolved issues remain about the putative family connection.
William Hammond FRS
Hunter gives as definite information on William Hammond the Fellow of the Royal Society: the date of admission in 1661; the description "Kentish gentleman"; and activity in the Society to 1681. The suggestion that William Hammond FRS, of Kent, had travelled abroad as education for a future physician occurred in the 1792 Topographical Miscellanies of
Samuel Egerton Brydges. His uncle the poet, also mentioned by Hunter, is thought to have died c.1655.[40][41]
Legacy
Hammond's letters from his tour survive in two copies. One set, which passed through the hands of
Bruce Ingram, is in the Brotherton Collection of the
University of Leeds. A second set was copied by an unknown person, placed only as a first cousin of Lady Elizabeth Lombe, wife of
Sir Thomas Lombe, in the middle years of the 18th century. It is in the
British Library.[42]
^E. S. de Beer, Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London Vol. 7, No. 2 (Apr. 1950), pp. 172–192, at p. 182. Published by: Royal Society. Stable URL:
https://www.jstor.org/stable/531317
^W. H. Bernard Saunders and Walter Debenham Sweeting, editors (April 1892).
Fenland Notes & Queries. Vol. 2. Peterborough: G. C. Caster. p. 85. Retrieved 19 April 2016 – via
Internet Archive. {{
cite book}}: |last= has generic name (
help)
^'Parishes: Somersham', in A History of the County of Huntingdon: Volume 2, ed. William Page, Granville Proby and S Inskip Ladds (London, 1932), pp. 223–230. British History Online
http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/hunts/vol2/pp223–230 [accessed 20 April 2016].
^Michael Hunter,
The Social Basis and Changing Fortunes of an Early Scientific Institution: An Analysis of the Membership of the Royal Society, 1660–1685, Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London Vol. 31, No. 1 (Jul. 1976), pp. 9–114, at p. 43. Published by: Royal Society. Stable URL:
https://www.jstor.org/stable/531552