'Anecdotes' (i. 235, ed. 1795). Its original source seems to have been a memorandum drawn up by Harley, earl of Oxford (now in the possession of Captain Loder-Symonds of Hinton Manor, Faringdon). In order to settle this important question Lord Nugent and a select party of friends, on 21 July 1828, broke open what they believed to be Hampden's grave, and 'to remove all doubts' amputated both arms of the body with a penknife, and minutely inspected them. A detailed account of this outrage was published, in which judgment was solemnly given in favour of Pye's story. Later, however, Lord Nugent found reason to believe that he had examined some one else's body, suppressed all mention of these researches in his 'Life of Hampden,' and there described Pye's story as unworthy of any credit ('Narrative of the Disinterment of the Body of John Hampden, Esquire,' Gent. Mag. 1828, pp. 125, 201, 395; reprinted in Lipscomb, Buckinghamshire, ii. 251; cf. Nugent, Life of Hampden, ii. 434). It is certain that Hampden died at Thame, and local tradition points out the Greyhound Inn there as the house in which his death took place.
It is frequently stated that the king offered to send his own surgeon to attend Hampden. The source of this statement is a passage in the memoirs of Sir Philip Warwick (p. 240), who says that 'the king would have sent him over any chirurgeon of his had any been wanting, for he looked upon his interest, if he could but gain his affection, as a powerful means of begetting a right understanding betwixt him and his two houses.' Charles accordingly sent Dr. Gyles, the parson of Chinnor, to inquire as to his progress. A detailed narrative of Hampden's last moments and last words, said to have been drawn up at the time by a certain Edward Clough, was contributed to the 'Gentleman's Magazine' in 1815 by an anonymous correspondent (Gent. Mag. 1815, p. 395, 'A true and faithfull Narrative of the Death of Mr. Hambden;' reprinted by Lipscomb, ii. 250). This, though accepted as genuine by Hampden's biographers, is an impudent forgery, largely based on hints derived from Clarendon, and containing many words and expressions not in use in the seventeenth century. The last words attributed to Hampden ('O Lord, save my country') are probably copied from the somewhat similar utterance ascribed to the younger Pitt (Academy, 2 and 9 Nov. 1889).
Hampden's will, dated 28 June 1636, is printed in the selection of 'Wills from Doctors' Commons' published by the Camden Society in 1862 (p. 99). He was buried, on 25 June 1643, in the church of Great Hampden, where a monument to him was in the next century erected by his great-grandson, Robert Trevor Hampden, fourth lord Trevor (Lipscomb, ii. 285). Other memorials were erected by Lord Nugent at Stoke Mandeville and Chalgrove (F. G. Lee, History of the Church of Thame, p. 538).
Hampden's death, according to Clarendon, caused as great a consternation in the puritan party 'as if their whole army had been defeated' (Rebellion, vii. 80). 'Every honest man,' wrote Colonel Arthur Goodwin, 'hath a share in the loss, and will likewise in the sorrow. He was a gallant man, an honest man, an able man, and take all, I know not to any living man second' (Webb, Civil War in Herefordshire, i. 306). 'Never kingdom received a greater loss in one subject,' wrote Anthony Nichol (Hist. MSS. Comm. 6th Rep. vii. 553). 'The loss of Colonel Hampden,' said a newspaper article published the week after his death, 'goeth near the heart of every man that loves the good of his king and country, and makes some conceive little content to be at the army now he is gone. . . . The memory of this deceased colonel is such that in no age to come but it will more and more be had in honour and esteem' (The Kingdom's Weekly Intelligencer, 27 June-4 July 1643).
Hampden's memory was also celebrated in two elegies published in 1643: (1) An 'Elegiacal Epitaph ' by John Leicester; (2) an 'Elegy on the Death of that worthy Gentleman, Col. John Hampden,' by Captain J[ohn] S[tiles] of Hampden's own regiment. More remarkable than these verses was the tribute of Richard Baxter to Hampden's character. In the earlier editions of his 'Saint's Rest,' 1653-9, Baxter wrote that he thought of heaven with the more pleasure because he should there meet among the apostles and divines of all ages Lord Brooke and Pym and Hampden. Afterwards, to avoid offence, he blotted out this passage, but defended his estimate of Hampden:' One that friends and enemies acknowledged to be most eminent for prudence, piety, and peacefulness, having the most universal praise of any gentleman that I remember of that age' (Saint's Rest, chap, vii.; Reliquiæ Baxterianæ, ed. 1696, iii. 177). Royalist opinion admitted Hampden's ability, and rejoiced at the death of so formidable an enemy. 'He was,' says Clarendon, 'a supreme governor over all his passions and affections, and had thereby a great power over other men's. He was of an industry and vigilance not to be tired out or wearied by the most laborious, and of parts not to be imposed upon by the most subtle or sharp;
