Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition/Hamm

HAMM, a town of Prussia, capital of a circle in the government district of Arnsberg, province of Westphalia, is situated at the junction of several railways, on the Lippe at its confluence with the Ahse, 22 miles N.W. of Arnsberg. It is enclosed by walls, but the ditches which formerly surrounded it have been filled up and converted into promenades. The principal buildings are two Catholic and two Evangelical churches, a gymnasium, a poorhouse, an orphanage, and an infirmary. The town is flourishing and rapidly increasing, and possesses very extensive wire factories (in connexion with which there are puddling and rolling works), foundries, machine works, and manufactories of gloves, baskets, wadding, leather, sausages, sago, starch, chemicals, sugar-of-lead, gum, lac, varnish, oil, and beer. The population in 1875 was 18,877.

Hamm, which became a town about the end of the 11th century, was originally the capital of the countship of Mark, and was fortified in 1226. It became a member of the Hanseatic League. In 1614 it was besieged by the Dutch, and in 1622 it was taken by Tilly, after which during the Thirty Years’ War it was alternately in the hands of the imperial and the Hessian forces. In 1666 it came into the possession of Brandenburg. In 1761 and 1762 it was bombarded by the French, and in 1763 its fortifications were dismantled.