HAMMOND, HENRY, a learned divine of the Church of England, was born at Chertsey in 1605. He was educated at Eton, and graduating at Oxford became a fellow of Magdalene College. Upon taking orders he became rector of Penshurst in Kent, and in 1643 archdeacon of Chichester. When the civil war broke out he hastened to join the king at Oxford, was made canon of Christ Church, and public orator in 1645. Three years later he was driven from the university by the parliamentary visitors, and confined for some time. After regaining his liberty he retired to Westwood, in Worcestershire, the seat of Sir John Pakington, where he spent the remainder of his days, dying at the very moment when the restored head of the Stuart family had fixed upon him for preferment to the see of Worcester.
Hammond's works, published in 4 vols. fol., 1674-84, consist, for the most part, of controversial sermons and tracts. The best of them are his Practical Catechism, his Paraphrase and Annotations on the New Testament, and an incomplete work of a similar nature on the Old Testament. Though these, with others of Hammond's works, have long since lost any value they may at one time have had, their author possessed many qualities entitling him to be remembered long after his works are forgotten. He was an excellent preacher. Charles I., whose taste on aesthetic questions was indisputable, pronounced him the most natural orator he had ever heard. His range of reading was very extensive, and comprised modern as well as ancient literature and philosophy. His charities and kindnesses to the poor were unbounded. Antony-a-Wood says that he became known as the "most zealous promoter of almsgiving that lived in England since the change of religion," and that, consequently, he "had the disposal of great charities reposed in his hand." With all this wealth, however, his habits were self-denying and abstemious, and he often gave away in charity luxuries which might have been of much service to his own feeble health. His industry was astonishing. "No burden was more heavy," he used to say, "or temptation more dangerous, than to have time lie on one's hand." In 1739 a collection of Hammond's Letters was published by Peck.