The Hampden family were very influential in English politics from 1621 – 1720.
John Hampden’s statue stands at the entrance of the central lobby of the Houses of Parliament and he has been referred to as ‘The Patriot’ and ‘Father of the Nation’. His son and grandson were also at the centre of political affairs but there was a calamitous fall from grace in 1720.
John Hampden had been a royal ward as his father died when he was a minor. The Hampdens were wealthy landowners, with Puritan religious sympathies.
John Hampden became an M.P. and was a friend of the leading parliamentarian Sir John Eliot, and was, like him imprisoned for refusing to pay a forced loan by King Charles I. After the death of Eliot, in prison, in 1632 Hampden was said to have become embittered.
In 1635, the king attempted to impose ‘Ship Money’ tax without the consent of parliament [which had been prorogued]. John Hampden and his tenants famously refused to pay the tax, in St Nicholas’ Church Great Kimble.
Eventually, in 1637 the courts found in favour of the King, but both sides were now on the road to conflict. The king recalled parliament and then attempted to
arrest five key members, including John Hampden. When the civil war broke out John Hampden and John Pym were the leaders of the parliamentary side.
Hampden died of wounds received in controversial circumstances at the battle of Chalgrove Field. A truce was called and men from both sides attended his funeral.
Richard Hampden succeeded his father and was influential in Parliament throughout the next fifty years. He actively opposed the succession of King
Charles II’s Roman Catholic brother James II and played a major part in the ‘Glorious Revolution of 1688. His religious views were far more militant than his father’s had been and there were controversies over appointments of priests to Great Kimble and the issues of the altar and the font in St Nicholas Church.
Richard’s son – the younger John Hampden involved himself in dangerous plotting against King Charles II in the ‘Rye House Plot’. He escaped with his life, due to the Hampden name, and had to pay a heavy fine. He also escaped with his life when he supported the Monmouth Rebellion – others were not so lucky and fell foul of the notorious ‘Bloody Assize’ overseen by the Hampden’s neighbour Judge Jeffries.
The Hampden descent came down to the younger Richard Hampden in 1696. Disgrace was to follow embezzlement in 1720 although the core estates were not sold in deference to the family’s service to the nation.
For more on John Hampden and the Hampden family see Chapter 4
For the controversies over Great Kimble Church see Chapter 12