The Lives of the Poets of Great Britain and Ireland/Volume 4/Anthony Hammond
Anthony Hammond, Eſq;
This gentleman was deſcended from a good family, of Somerſham-Place, in the county of Huntingdon, and was born in the year 1668.[1] When he arrived at a proper age, he was choſen member of Parliament, and did not remain long in the houſe before he diſtinguiſhed himſelf as a very eminent ſpeaker. Having eſpouſed the court intereſt, his zeal and merit recommended him to very conſiderable public employments, particularly that of being one of the commiſſioners of the royal navy, which place he quitted in the year 1712. The ingenious Mr. Southern in his dedication of his Innocent Adultery, to Mr. Hammond, ſpeaks thus of him. ‘If generoſity with friendſhip, learning with good ſenſe, true wit and humour, with good-nature, be accompliſhments to qualify a gentleman for a patron, I am ſure I have hit right in Mr. Hammond.’
Our author obliged the public with a Miſcellany of Original Poems, by the Moſt Eminent Hands; in which himſelf had no ſmall ſhare. In this miſcellany are ſeveral poetical performances of Mrs. Martha Fowkes, a lady of exquiſite taſte in the belle accompliſhments.
As to Mr. Hammond’s own pieces, he acknowleges in his preface, that they were written at very different times, and particularly owned by him, leſt they ſhould afterwards be aſcribed to other perſons; as the Ode on Solitude, was falſely aſcribed to the earl of Roſcommon, and other pieces of his, were likewiſe given to other authors.
This author wrote the Life of Walter Moyle, Eſq; prefixed to his works.——Mr. Hammond died about the year 1726.
- ↑ Coxeter’s Miſcellaneous Notes.