JOHN, a celebrated patriot, descended of the ancient family of Hampden in Buckinghamshire, was born in 1594. On leaving the university he entered the inns of court, where he made considerable progress in the study of the law. He was chosen to serve in the parliament which assembled at Westminster on the 5th of February 1626, and served in all the succeeding parliaments in the reign of Charles I. In 1636 he became universally known by his intrepid refusal to pay ship-money, as an illegal tax. Upon this he was prosecuted, and his conduct throughout the transaction gained him great reputation. When the Long Parliament began, the eyes of all men were fixed on him as the father of his country. On the 3rd of January 1642, the king ordered articles of high treason and other misdemeanours to be prepared against Lord Kimbolton, Mr Hampden, and four other members of the House of Commons, and went to that house to seize them; but they had retired. Mr Hampden afterwards made a speech in the house to clear himself of the charge brought against him. In the beginning of the civil war he commanded a regiment of foot, and did good service to the parliament at the battle of Edgehill. But 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 in a high degree the Socratic art 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. According to his panegyrist, he was a very wise man, and had the greatest talents for gaining popular influence that were ever possessed by any man. He was master of all his appetites and passions, and had thereby a very great ascendency over other men. He was also of an industry and vigilance never to be tired out, of parts not to be imposed upon by the most subtile, and of courage equal to his talents. (See Life of Hampden, by Lord Nugent, and more particularly the critique on that work in the Edinburgh Review.)