HAMMOND, William

A local man who was active in the government of Dover for almost 30 years, Hammond first appeared on juries in the town in the summer of 1408.3 Egerton 2088, ff. 137v, 138. By September 1413 he had been chosen as one of the 12 jurats, although it is impossible to determine the date of his earliest election, and by December 1418 he was listed among the four ‘custodes’ of the port of Dover. As a jurat in later years he regularly attended meetings of the mayor’s court. In October 1422 Hammond was elected as one of the barons for Dover to sit in Henry VI’s first Parliament, but it is not clear how long he and his fellow baron, John Braban*, remained at Westminster. The following September Hammond was again called upon to represent the Ports, this time as one of the bailiffs sent to the annual herring fair at Great Yarmouth.4 Romney assmt. bk. NR/FAc 2, f. 138. It is probable that he served constantly as one of the jurats of Dover throughout the early 1420s, but not until September 1427 can his membership of this body be once more confirmed. In 1428-9 he attended a meeting of the Brodhull as one of Dover’s delegates, a duty he performed again in May, July and December 1435 and April 1439.5 Add. 29615, f. 153v; White and Black Bks. 5, 6, 12. At the meeting of December 1435 he reported on his second visit to Yarmouth as one of the Cinque Ports’ bailiffs, stating that he and his colleagues had been ‘honestly received ... according to their liberties and ancient custom’. This news was no doubt received with considerable relief, in view of the Ports’ earlier clashes with the authorities at Yarmouth.6 White and Black Bks. 7.

Hammond was only rarely employed on special business by the Port of Dover. In 1429-30 he and a fellow jurat, John Sherman, were paid 16s. 8d. for a set of weights and measures that they had purchased to comply with the recent parliamentary ordinance, and he was the collector in Canon Ward for the assessment made upon the Portsmen to finance the King’s passage to France for his coronation. In 1434-5 he was paid 4d. for beer provided for John Pirie* when he visited Dover, probably shortly before the Parliament in which Pirie sat as a baron for the Port.7 Add. 29615, ff. 159, 179v, 206. As one of the jurats in 1436 he witnessed the agreement ending the dispute between Dover and its member-port of Faversham over the latter’s contributions for Dover’s parliamentary barons and other matters.8 Dover Chs. ed. Statham, 195. Like his fellows, Hammond was also appointed as an arbiter in local disputes, although that fact that he did this less frequently than some of his colleagues and that, despite a long career in municipal government, he never served as mayor, suggests he lacked the legal training and experience that became increasingly evident among the leading Portsmen during the course of the fifteenth century.9 Egerton 2089, f. 71.

Little is known of Hammond’s private affairs, and it is unclear whether he is to be identified with William atte Hammond, a butcher who was sued in the constable of Dover castle’s court in December 1428.10 SC2/180/46, rot. 5d. Resident in Canon Ward, where he paid maltolts, the MP also rented a cellar under Dover’s common hall,11 Add. 29615, ff. 101, 130; 29810, ff. 23, 40v, 53. and held property elsewhere in Kent: in 1416 he had been able to claim exemption as a Portsman from paying the parliamentary subsidy in the hundreds of St. Augustine and Bewsborough12 E179/124/88. Hammond was last elected as a jurat in September 1444 and he presumably died shortly afterwards as there are no further references to him after this date.