Great Hampden

Great Hampden is

Hallmark February 1997. A Tribute to John Hampden (1594-1643)

John Hampden, whose name is associated with a number of local places and buildings was born in London in 1594 and came from an ancient Buckinghamshire family which had extensive possessions not only in Bucks but in Essex, Berkshire and Oxfordshire. The family were lords of Great and Little Hampden, Stoke Mandevile and Kimble.

He was educated at the Free Grammar School in Thame and then at Magdalen College, Oxford where he was enrolled as a law student at the Inner Temple in 1613. Entering Parliament in 1621 as Member for Wendover. He also sat in the Parliaments of 1625, 1626 & 1628 and was one of the leaders of the Parliamentary party led by St. John Eliot and John Pym in opposition to the policies of King Charles I. Hampden was one of several jailed for refusing a forced loan in 1627.

In 1634 Charles, having dissolved Parliament attempted to obtain revenues by assessing London and other port towns for Ship Money, but this time the inland counties not previously liable to it were also taxed. Hampden forthwith refused to pay the 20 shillings he was taxed, a nominal sum for so wealthy a land owner because he considered the tax illegal. Only a fraction of the money raised was used in building up the Navy; the bulk of it went – straight into the Kings Coffers. This example was however widely followed. His refusal was made a test case before the Exchequer – Chamber in 1637 and 1638 and seven of twenty judges decided against him. However no further attempt was made to collect the tax and on the 7th December, 1640 the House of Commons. declared the judgement in Hampden’s case “against the laws of the realm, the right of property and the liberty of the subject........”. On 27th February. 1641 the House of Lords passed a similar resolution.

Hampden sat as Member for Buckinghamshire in the Short Parliament of 1640 and the long Parliament between 1640 and 1660 and was a member of nearly all the committees that were sitting at that time. He participated in impeaching Thomas Wentworth, Earl of Strafford, chief adviser to the King, on a charge of high treason for inciting the King to disregard Parliaments rights and for organising an army in Ireland to use against the Scots and English. On January 3rd 1642 the King had an impeachment drawn up against five members of Parliament: John Hampden, John Pym, Denzil Holles, Sir Arthur Haselrig and William Strode on a charge of treason for encouraging a Scottish invasion of England and levying war against the King.

The House of Commons authorised them to resist arrest and refuse to give them up. Four thousand of Hampden’s Buckinghamshire constituents rode to London to support him these were the famous Buckinghamshire Green Coats. On February 6th the King dropped the impeachment.

Hampden was a member of the historic Committee of Safety (the Parliamentary war Cabinet) formed on July 4th 1642 to take into consideration the “opposing force that may be raised against Parliament”. During the Civil War which followed he raised and led a regiment for the Parliamentary army. In 1643 he was at Watlington when he was given word that Prince Rupert of the Rhine, Charles 1st nephew, had attacked a group of Parliamentary recruits at Chinnor, killing fifty of them and sent 120 to Oxford roped to horses having then set fire to the Village. Hampden intercepted Rupert at Chalgrove along the line of Rupert's withdrawal. It was here that Hampden was wounded and died 6 days later at Thame in Oxfordshire on June 24th 1643. He was buried in Hampden Church. A monument to the battle was erected at Charlgrove. A cross stands near Great Hampden, which was formally in the parish of Stoke Mandeville, for which Hampden decline to pay the Ship Money and a statue stands to his memory in Aylesbury Market Square.