Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Hammond, Samuel
HAMMOND, SAMUEL, D.D. (d. 1665), nonconformist divine, is said to have been a ‘butcher's son of York.’ When at King's College, Cambridge, he was servitor to Dr. Samuel Collins (1576–1651) [q. v.], professor of divinity at Cambridge, and by the Earl of Manchester's interest obtained a fellowship in Magdalene College. He created a great impression in the university by his preaching in St. Giles's Church, and obtained many pupils and followers. Sir Arthur Hesilrigge [q. v.] took him into the north of England as his chaplain, and he settled for some time as minister in Bishop Wearmouth, but removed thence to Newcastle. An order of the common council, dated 5 Nov. 1652, appointed him as preacher at St. Nicholas Church, Newcastle, on Sunday and lecturer on Thursday, at a salary of 100l. At the Restoration he was ejected from his charge at Newcastle, and retired to Hamburg as minister to the society of merchants there. Lord-chancellor Hyde objected to renew the charter of the society of merchants, which was nearly expired, if they retained Hammond, and he was compelled to leave. He went first to Stockholm, where a merchant named Cutler befriended him, and then to Danzig, and finally to London, taking up his abode in Hackney. He died on 10 Dec. 1665.
While at Newcastle Hammond was concerned in the examination and exposure of an impostor named Thomas Ramsay. This man's frauds were exposed in a tract entitled ‘A False Jew: or a Wonderful Discovery of a Scot, baptized at London for a Christian, circumcised at Rome to act a Jew, rebaptized at Hexham for a Believer, but found out at Newcastle to be a Cheat,’ &c., Newcastle, 1653, 4to. The dedicatory epistles are signed by Tho. Weld, Sam. Hammond, Cuth. Sidenham, and Wil. Durant. The tract contains a second title-page and pagination, which is the ‘Declaration and Confession’ published by the impostor under the name of Joseph ben Israel. The minister of Hexham, T. Tillam, supposed himself unfairly treated in this pamphlet, and replied to it by ‘Banners of Love displayed …; or an Answer to a Narrative stuffed with Untruths, by four Newcastle Gentlemen,’ London, 1654, 4to. Hammond also helped to write a tract attacking the quakers, entitled ‘The Perfect Pharise, under Monkish Holines, opposing the Fundamental Principles of the Doctrine of the Gospel, … manifesting himself in the Generation of men called Quakers,’ &c., London, 1654, 4to. Hammond's name comes third among five Newcastle ministers who sign this tract. An introductory epistle ‘to the Reader’ by Hammond appears in a book called ‘God's Judgements upon Drunkards, Swearers, and Sabbath-Breakers,’ &c., London, 1659, 8vo. Calamy mentions with praise a letter from Stockholm as having ‘something of the spirit and style of the martyrs,’ but it was apparently never printed.
[Palmer's Nonconformists' Memorial, iii. 76; E. Mackenzie's Newcastle, i. 282; J. Brand's Newcastle, i. 307; Brit. Mus. Cat.]