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HAMPDEN, William (1570-97), of Great Hampden, Bucks.
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Family and Education
bap. 5 Nov. 1570, 1st s. of Griffith Hampden by his 2nd w. educ. prob. Pembroke, Camb. 1586; Clifford’s Inn; I. Temple Jan. 1589. m. Elizabeth, da. of (Sir) Henry Cromwell alias Williams of Hinchingbrooke, Hunts., 2s. inc. John. suc. fa. 1591.
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Biography
Hampden, father of John Hampden, died too young to leave much impression on the surviving records. A minor country gentleman, he inherited various properties in Buckinghamshire, including the manors of Great Kimble and Upton. His lands in Monks Risborough lay close to those of his brother-in-law, (Sir) Jerome Horsey, who represented several Cornish boroughs in Parliament, and was related to Reginald Mohun II, who, in the last resort, probably secured Hampden’s return for East Looe. He was appointed to the conference on the subsidy, 1 Mar. 1593. He died 2 Apr. 1597 and was buried some three weeks later. A brass is preserved in the church of St. Mary Magdalene, Great Hampden. In his will, dated 23 Mar. and proved 9 June of that year, he apologised for his inability to make better provision for his wife, ‘the greatest part of my worldly happiness in this life and a special blessing of God that it pleased him to bestow her as a treasure upon me’. She was to have a chamber in the house at Great Hampden, £100 worth of jewels, and £40 of plate. Many friends, relatives and servants received horses, each carefully described and sometimes named. Other servants, ‘being of the yeomanry’, were to receive 40s. apiece. The residue was to pay his heavy debts. The executors were his cousin William Hampden and George Croke. Hampden’s widow, the Protector’s aunt, later paid heavily for the wardship of the elder son.
G. Lipscomb, Bucks. ii. 235-6; Vis. Bucks.(Harl. Soc. lviii), 70; I. T. Recs. i. 356; W. Berry, Co. Genealogies, Bucks. 77, 106; VCH Bucks. ii. 257, 288, 290, 300; iii. 461; iv. 313 n; D’Ewes, 481; PCC 52 Cobham, 29 Harrington; HMC Hatfield, vii. 231, 278; xiv. 15-16; J. Hurstfield, Queen’s Wards, 127, 264.
