Constituency Dates
Truro 1741 – 7 June 1742
Family and Education
b. 22 May 1710, 2nd s. of Anthony Hammond, M.P., commr. of the navy, of Somersham Place, Hunts. by Jane, da. of Sir Walter Clarges, 1st Bt., M.P., of St. Martin in the Fields. educ. Westminster 1722. unm. suc.to estate of uncle at Swaffham, Norf. 1733.
Offices Held

Equerry to Frederick, Prince of Wales 1733 – d.

Address
Main residence: Hanover Sq., London.
biography text

Accompanying Lord Chesterfield on his embassy to The Hague in 1728, Hammond, the poet, was sent over to London with the act of concurrence of the States General to the Treaty of Vienna in 1732, receiving a gratuity of £200 for his pains. Through Chesterfield he became acquainted with George Lyttelton, William Pitt, and other members of that set, and in 1733 obtained a post in the household of the Prince of Wales. Returned for Truro as an opposition Whig on the recommendation of Chesterfield in 1741, he died 7 June 1742, in Chesterfield’s words,

in the beginning of a career which, if he had lived, I think he would have finished with reputation and distinction. But such is the folly, knavery, and futility of the world, and such was his truth, fidelity and attachment to me, that, in my opinion, I have lost more by his death than he has.1Chesterfield, Letters, 255, 502; Maty, Mems. of Lord Chesterfield, 47-48, 133; Cal. Treas. Bks. and Pprs. 1731-4, p. 229.

Horace Walpole, on the other hand, described Hammond as ‘a man of moderate parts,’ who ‘attempted to speak in the House of Commons and did not succeed, nor is his poetry at all remarkable’.2Horace Walpole’s ms additions to Maty.

Author
E.C.
Volume
Commons 1715-1754
Notes
  • 1. Chesterfield, Letters, 255, 502; Maty, Mems. of Lord Chesterfield, 47-48, 133; Cal. Treas. Bks. and Pprs. 1731-4, p. 229.
  • 2. Horace Walpole’s ms additions to Maty.