HAMPDEN, John, English statesman: b. London 1594; d. Thame, Oxfordshire, 24 June 1643. He was educated at Oxford and, possess ing an ample estate, led for several years the usual career of country gentlemen. He was cousin-german, by the mother's side, to Oliver Cromwell. He entered Parliament in the be ginning of Charles I's reign as member for Grampound, and continued to sit in the House of Commons three times in succession as mem ber for Wendover, and finally for Bucks. He was interested (1632) in the founding of Con necticut. In 1636 his resistance to Charles' de-, mand for ship-money made him the argument of all tongues, especially as it was after the decision of the judges in favor of the king's right to levy ship-money, that Hampden refused to pay it. Being prosecuted in the Court of Exchequer, he himself, aided by counsel, ar gued the case against the Crown lawyers for 12 days before the 12 judges, and al though it was decided against him by seven of them to five, the victory, as far as regarded public opinion, was his. From this time he re ceived the title of the "patriot Hampden.° Henceforward he took a prominent part in the great contest between the Crown and the Par liament, and was one of the five members whom the king, in 1642, attempted, in person, to seize in the House of Commons. When
civil war out Hampden acted with his usual decision, took command of a regiment in the Parliamentary army, under the Earl of Essex. Prince Rupert having appeared near Thame, in Oxfordshire, Hampden joined a few cavalry that were rallied in haste, and in the skirmish that followed on Chalgrove Field re ceived a wound which proved fatal six days after its infliction. His death was a great sub-' ject of rejoicing to the royal party, and of grief to his own. His character and conduct, from first to last, evince his conscientiousness, and he took his rank by acclamation on the one side, and tacitly on the other, high in the list of English patriots. Consult Clarendon's 'History of the Great • Nugent, 'Memorials of John Hampden' (1831), with Macaulay's essay on the same; Forster, 'Life of Hampden' (1837) ; Gardiner, 'History of the Great Civil War' (Vol. I, 1880).