John Hampden

Perish may that man and his posterity that will not deny himself in the greatest part of his fortune (rather than the king shall want) to make him both potent and beloved at home, and terrible to his enemies abroad, if he will be pleased to leave those evil counsells about him, and take the wholesome advice of his great counsell the parliament.

John Hampden (c. June 1595 – 24 June 1643) was an English politician from Oxfordshire, who was killed fighting for Parliament in the First English Civil War. An ally of Parliamentarian leader John Pym, and a cousin of Oliver Cromwell, he was one of the Five Members whom Charles I of England tried to arrest in January 1642, a significant step in the outbreak of fighting in August. All five are commemorated at the State Opening of Parliament each year.

Quotes

• Perish may that man and his posterity that will not deny himself in the greatest part of his fortune (rather than the king shall want) to make him both potent and beloved at home, and terrible to his enemies abroad, if he will be pleased to leave those evil counsells about him, and take the wholesome advice of his great counsell the parliament.
  • Speech reported in The Weekly Intelligencer (27 June to 4 July 1643), quoted in Charles Harding Firth, 'Hampden, John (1594–1643)', Dictionary of National Biography, Vol. XXIV. Hailes—Harriott (1890), p. 258

Quotes about John Hampden

• Mr. John Hambden was one that Friends and Enemies acknowledged to be most Eminent, for Prudence, Piety, and Peaceable Counsels, having the most universal Praise of any Gentleman that I remember of that Age. I remember a moderate, prudent aged Gentleman, far from him but acquainted with him, whom I have heard saying, That if he might choose what person he would be then in the world, he would be John Hambden.
  • Richard Baxter, Reliquiæ Baxterianæ: Or, Mr. Richard Baxters Narrative of the Most Memorable Passages of His Life and Times, Part III (1696), p. 177

• The feelings of the colonies were formerly the feelings of Great Britain. Theirs were formerly the feelings of Mr. Hampden when called upon for the payment of twenty shillings. Would twenty shillings have ruined Mr. Hampden's fortune? No! but the payment of half twenty shillings, on the principle it was demanded, would have made him a slave.
  • Edmund Burke, speech in the House of Commons on American Taxation (19 April 1774), quoted in The Works of The Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. I (1854), p. 392

• He was not a man of many words, and rarely began the discourse, or made the first entrance upon any business that was assumed; but a very weighty speaker, and, after he had heard a full debate and observed how the House was like to be inclined, took up the argument, and shortly and clearly and craftily so stated it that he commonly conducted it to the conclusion he desired; and if he found he could not do that, he never was without the dexterity to divert the debate to another time, and to prevent the determining any thing in the negative which might prove inconvenient in the future.
  • Lord Clarendon, The History of the Rebellion and Civil Wars in England Begun in the Year 1641, Vol. I, ed. W. Dunn Macray (1888), p. 245

• He was rather of reputation in his own country than of public discourse or fame in the kingdom before the business of ship-money: but then he grew the argument of all tongues, every man inquiring who and what he was that durst at his own charge support the liberty and property of the kingdom, and rescue his country from being made a prey to the Court. His carriage throughout that agitation was with that rare temper and modesty that they who watched him narrowly to find some advantage against his person, to make him less resolute in his cause, were compelled to give him a just testimony.
  • Lord Clarendon, The History of the Rebellion and Civil Wars in England Begun in the Year 1641, Vol. III, ed. W. Dunn Macray (1888), p. 62

• When this Parliament began, (being returned knight of the shire for the county where he lived,) the eyes of all men were fixed on him as their Patriæ pater, and the pilot that must steer their vessel through the tempests and rocks which threatened it. And I am persuaded his power and interest at that time was greater to do good or hurt than any man's in the kingdom, or, than any man of his rank hath had in any time: for his reputation of honesty was universal, and his affections seemed so publicly guided that no corrupt or private ends could bias them.
  • Lord Clarendon, The History of the Rebellion and Civil Wars in England Begun in the Year 1641, Vol. III, ed. W. Dunn Macray (1888), p. 62

• After he was amongst those members accused by the King of high treason, he was much altered, his nature and carriage seeming much fiercer than it did before. And without question, when he first drew his sword he threw away the scabbard; for he passionately opposed the overture made by the King for a treaty from Nottingham, and, as eminently, any expedients that might have produced an accommodation in this that was at Oxford; and was principally relied on to prevent any infusions which might be made into the earl of Essex towards peace, or to render them ineffectual if they were made; and was indeed much more relied on by that party than the general himself.
  • Lord Clarendon, The History of the Rebellion and Civil Wars in England Begun in the Year 1641, Vol. III, ed. W. Dunn Macray (1888), p. 63

• He was very temperate in diet, and 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; and of a personal courage equal to his best parts; so that he was an enemy not to be wished wherever he might have been made a friend, and as much to be apprehended where he was so as any man could deserve to be. And therefore his death was no less congratulated on the one party than it was condoled on the other. In a word, what was said of Cinna might well be applied to him; Erat illi consilium ad Jacimis aptum; consilio aulem, neque lingua neque manu[s] deerat; he had a head to contrive, and a tongue to persuade, and a hand to execute, any mischieve. His death therefore seemed to be a great deliverance to the nation.
  • Lord Clarendon, The History of the Rebellion and Civil Wars in England Begun in the Year 1641, Vol. III, ed. W. Dunn Macray (1888), p. 64

• All his thoughts and endeavours of his life was zealously in for this cause of Gods, which he continued in all his sickness, even to his death; for all I can heere the last words he spake was to mee, though he lived six or 7 howers after I came away as in a sleepe: truly Jenny (and I know you may easily be persuaded to it) he was a gallant man, an honest man, an able man, and take all, I know nott to any man liveinge second, God now in mercy hath rewarded him.
  • Arthur Goodwin to Lady Wharton (26 June 1643), quoted in Rev. John Webb Memorials of the Civil War between King Charles I. and the Parliament of England as it affected Herefordshire and the Adjacent Counties, Vol. I, edited and completed by the Rev. T. W. Webb (1879), p. 307

• The loss of Colonel Hampden 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), quoted in Charles Harding Firth, 'Hampden, John (1594-1643)', Dictionary of National Biography, Vol. XXIV. Hailes—Harriott (1890), p. 261

• We can scarcely express the admiration which we feel for a mind so great, and, at the same time, so healthful and so well proportioned, so willingly contracting itself to the humblest duties, so easily expanding itself to the highest, so contented in repose, so powerful in action. Almost every part of this virtuous and blameless life which is not hidden from us in modest privacy is a precious and splendid portion of our national history.
  • Thomas Babington Macaulay, 'John Hampden', The Edinburgh Review (December 1831), Critical and Historical Essays, Contributed to The Edinburgh Review, Vol. I (1843), p. 427

• This is evidently the writing not only of a man of good sense and natural good taste, but of a man of literary habits. Of the studies of Hampden little is known. But, as it was at one time in contemplation to give him the charge of the education of the Prince of Wales, it cannot be doubted that his acquirements were considerable. Davila, it is said, was one of his favourite writers. The moderation of Davila's opinions and the perspicuity and manliness of his style could not but recommend him to so judicious a reader. It is not improbable that the parallel between France and England, the Huguenots and the Puritans, had struck the mind of Hampden, and that he already found within himself powers not unequal to the lofty part of Coligni.
  • Thomas Babington Macaulay, 'John Hampden', The Edinburgh Review (December 1831), Critical and Historical Essays, Contributed to The Edinburgh Review, Vol. I (1843), p. 447

• Poor Hampden is dead, and I profess to you I have scarce strength to pronounce that word. Never kingdom received a greater loss in one subject. Never man a truer and faithfuller friend.
  • Anthony Nicholl to Sir Thomas B. (27 June 1643), quoted in Seventh Report of the Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts. Part I. Report and Appendix (1879), p. 553

• Mr. Hambden is a great Brother, and the very Genius of that Nation of People leads them always to oppose as well civilly as ecclesiastically all that ever Authority ordains for them; but in good faith were they right served, they should be whipt Home into their right Wits, and much beholden they should be to any that would thoroughly take Pains with them in that Kind.
  • Lord Strafford to William Laud (27 November 1637), quoted in William Knowles, The Earl of Strafforde's Letters and Dispatches, With An Essay towards his Life, by Sir George Radcliffe. From the Originals in the Possession of his Great Grandson The Right Honourable Thomas, Earl of Malton, Knight of the Bath, Vol. II (1740), p. 138

• He was certainly a person of the greatest abilities of any of that Party. He had a great knowledge both in Scholarship and in the Law. He was of a concise and significant language, and the mildest, yet subtillest, speaker of any man in the House; and had a dexterity, when a question was going to be put, which agreed not with his sense, to draw it over to it, by adding some equivocall or sly word, which would enervate the meaning of it, as first put. He was very well read in history; and I remember the first time I ever saw that of D'Avila of the Civil Warrs of France, it was lent me under the title of Mr. Hambden's Vade mecum; and I beleive no copy was liker an originall, than that rebellion was like ours.
  • Philip Warwick, Memoirs of the Reigne of King Charles I. With A Continuation to the Happy Restauration of King Charles II (1701), p. 240