JOHN, a celebrated patriot, descended of the ancient family of Hambden in Buckinghamshire, was born in 1594. From the university he went to the inns of court, where he made considerable progress in the study of the law. He was chosen to serve in the parliament which began at Westminster Feb. 5, 1626; and served in all the succeeding parliaments in the reign of Charles I. In 1636 he became universally known, by his refusal to pay ship-money, as being an illegal tax; upon which he was prosecuted. His conduct throughout this transaction gained him a great reputation. When the long parliament began, the eyes of all men were fixed on him as their pater patriæ. On January 3, 1642, the king ordered articles of high treason and other misdemeanours to be prepared against Lord Kimbolton, Mr Hambden, and four other members of the house of commons, and went to that house to seize them; but they had retired. Mr Hambden afterwards made a speech in the house to clear himself of the charge laid against him. In the beginning of the wars he commanded a regiment of foot, and did good service to the parliament at the battle of Edgehill. He received a mortal wound in an engagement with Prince Rupert, in Chalgrave-field in Oxfordshire, and died in 1643. He is said to have possessed the Socratic art in a high degree, of interrogating, and under the notion of doubts, insinuating objections, so that he infused his own opinions into those from whom he pretended to learn and receive them. He was, say his panegyrists, a very wise man and of great parts; and had the greatest talents for popularity that were ever possessed by any man: He was master over all his appetites and passions, and had thereby a very great ascendant over other men's: He was of an industry and vigilance never to be tired out, of parts not to be imposed upon by the most subtle, and of courage equal to his best parts.

VOL. X. Part I.