son of William Hampden and Elizabeth, second daughter of Sir Henry Cromwell and aunt of the protector, Oliver Cromwell. His father died when he was only three years of age, and left him heir to an extensive estate. He was educated first at the grammar-school of Thame, and then at Magdalen college, Oxford, which he entered when he was fifteen years of age. At nineteen he was admitted a student of the inner temple, and closely applied himself to the study of law, in which, as well as in general scholarship, he acquired great proficiency. In 1619 he married Elizabeth Symeon, daughter of Edward Symeon of Pyrton, Oxfordshire, a union which appears to have yielded him great happiness. During his early years Hampden is said to have mingled freely in the pursuits which were fashionable among men of large fortune at this period; but about the time of his marriage his character underwent a remarkable change. He adopted the religious principles and virtuous habits of the puritans, became noted for "an extraordinary sobriety and strictness," without any asceticism or austerity, however; for Clarendon admits, that after the change in his habits Hampden "preserved his own natural cheerfulness and vivacity, and above all a flowing courtesy to all men." At this period, too, he entered upon public life, and in 1621 took his seat in the house of commons as member for Grampound. He did not take any prominent part in public affairs during the life of James, though he acted cordially with the country party against the unconstitutional and oppressive measures of the court. He sat as burgess for Wendover in the first parliament of Charles I., which met in June, 1625. It was hastily dissolved in the month of August following, but pecuniary straits compelled the king to summon another parliament in February, 1626. Hampden was again returned for Wendover, and supported his friend. Sir John Eliot, in his attack upon the king's worthless favourite, Buckingham. Charles once more dissolved the parliament, and had recourse to a forced loan for the purpose of replenishing his exhausted exchequer. Hampden peremptorily refused to comply with this arbitrary demand, and was in consequence imprisoned first in the Gate House, and afterwards in Hampshire. A war with France, constrained Charles reluctantly to summon another parliament in 1628, and to release those patriots who had been imprisoned for their refusal to comply with his illegal demands. Hampden regained his liberty, and was once more returned for Wendover. As the commons steadily refused to grant him any money until they had obtained the redress of their grievances, Charles, after various delays and equivocations, at length gave his assent to the famous Petition of Right.—(See Charles I.) But no sooner was the parliament prorogued than, in open violation of his solemn promise publicly ratified, he had recourse once more to those arbitrary measures which he had bound himself to abandon. When the parliament again met in 1629, the commons proceeded to take into consideration these illegal and unjust proceedings, and were in consequence dissolved by the king, and their leader committed to prison. Though Hampden had taken a deep interest in this important contest, and sympathized strongly with the popular party, he was not one of the prominent debaters in the house, and he now retired to his beautiful residence in Buckinghamshire, where he diligently discharged the duties of a great landed proprietor and an active magistrate. In 1634 he lost his wife, to whom he was devotedly attached, and who had borne him ten children; and this heavy domestic calamity is believed to have deepened the interest which he took in public affairs. In 1636, at the instigation of Chief-justice Finch and Noy the attorney-general, an attempt was made by the king to levy ship-money from the inland counties—a new and most arbitrary stretch of power. Hampden at once refused to pay this illegal impost; and though a majority of the judges, who had previously been tampered with, decided against him, yet, as Clarendon admits, "the judgment proved of more advantage and credit to the gentleman condemned than to the king's service." So dark, however, grew the aspect of affairs that Hampden, Cromwell, Pym, Lords Saye and Brooke, and other leading patriots, resolved to take refuge in America, and were actually on board the ship in which they had taken their passage, when it was prohibited from sailing by an order of council. In the parliament which assembled in the spring of 1640 Hampden took his seat as member for Buckinghamshire, and was regarded as one of its most prominent members. In the course of a few weeks this parliament was dissolved by the king in a great rage (5th May), and several of its members were as usual thrown into prison. Its successor—the memorable Long Parliament—which met on the 3rd of November, 1640, at once proceeded resolutely to work in redressing the grievances of the country. The foremost place in its councils was by universal consent assigned to Hampden. Clarendon, a hostile witness, speaks in the highest terms of his talents for business as well as for debate, his industry, vigilance, and acuteness, and his remarkable ability in the management of men, and says, "the eyes of all men were now fixed upon him as their patriæ pater, and the pilot that must steer the vessel through the tempests and rocks which threatened it." The events which followed have already been related.—(See Charles I. and Eliot, Sir John.) Suffice it to say here that Hampden, though, as Clarendon admits, acting with great mildness and moderation, took a prominent part in the impeachment of Strafford (though he appears to have disapproved of the proceeding by bill), the punishment of Finch, Windebank, and other servile tools of the king, and in the abolition of the star-chamber and the high commission court. In the following session he strenuously supported the Grand Remonstrance, and it was by his calmness and sagacity that the excitement of the house, during the violent debate on that address, was allayed, and the members were prevented from proceeding to personal violence. He was one of the five members whom the king attempted illegally to arrest in the house on a charge of high treason. When hostilities actually commenced, Hampden strove with characteristic energy and vigour to bring the question at issue to a speedy decision. He subscribed a large sum to defray the expenses of the war, and raised a regiment of infantry in Buckinghamshire, of which he was made colonel. His zeal in acquiring a knowledge of his military duty was as conspicuous as his courage and activity, and it soon became evident that his talents for war were not inferior to his talents for government. He was satisfied that the time for hesitation and moderation was now past; he therefore strongly disapproved of the dilatory and languid proceedings of the first parliamentary generals, and on all occasions urged the adoption of vigorous and decisive measures. As Clarendon remarks, when Hampden drew the sword he threw away the scabbard. It is probable that, if he had lived, he would have superseded Essex in the supreme command. But unhappily for his country his brilliant career was now near a close. On the 17th of June, 1643, he was mortally wounded in a skirmish at Chalgrove Field, near Thame in Oxfordshire, and died on the 24th in the forty-seventh year of his age. His death was that of a christian and a hero, and the tidings of this disastrous event caused the most profound grief throughout almost the whole kingdom. Hampden was undoubtedly one of the purest, most disinterested, and upright patriots our country has ever produced. His abilities both as a statesman and a debater were of the highest order, while his integrity, prudence, modesty, affability, and consummate address, gained him the esteem and confidence even of his opponents, on whom, as Clarendon admits, "he always left the character of an ingenious and conscientious person." His enemies, however, accused him of subtlety and even craft; and he certainly possessed in a remarkable degree the art of infusing his own opinions into the minds of others, and of inducing them unconsciously to carry out his views. He was peculiarly reticent and self-possessed; a man of few words, sagacious, calm, and cautious, with an indomitable will and energy which nothing could turn aside or subdue. "Never," says Guizot, "had a man inspired a nation with so much confidence. Whoever belonged to the national party looked to Hampden for the success of his views; the more moderate had faith in his wisdom; the more violent in his devoted patriotism; the more honest in his uprightness; the more intriguing in his talents. His name thus stands fixed for ever on that height whither the love and full confidence of his contemporaries had carried it."—J. T.
* HAMPDEN, Renn Dickson, D.D., Bishop of Hereford, was born in 1792 at Barbadoes. He entered Oriel college, Oxford, in 1810, and after greatly distinguishing himself as a student, became a fellow and tutor of that college. In 1832 he was Bampton lecturer, when he delivered those discourses which were afterwards published under the title of "The Scholastic Philosophy considered in its relation to Christian Theology." Shortly after the publication of this volume Dr. Hampden was appointed head of St. Mary hall; in 1834 he became professor of moral philosophy, and on the death of Dr. Burton he was named regius professor of divinity in the university. As this appointment was exceedingly distasteful to many of the members of the
