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Auction: 26066 - Historical Documents, Autographs and Ephemera
Lot: 1005

John Hampden, First Cousin of Oliver Cromwell
1631 (21 March) ALS from John Hampden with extraordinary integral address panel reading "To my honoured and dear friend Sir Elliot at his Lodging in the Tower", the letter reads:

"'Tis well for mee that letters cannot blush, else you would easily read mee guilty. I am ashamed of so long a silence and know not how to excuse it, for as nothing but businesse can speake for mee, of wich kinde I have many advocates, so can I not tell how to call any businesse greater than holding an affectionate correspondence with so excellent a friend. My only confidence is I pleade at a barr of love where absolutions are much more frequent than censures. Sure I am the conscience of neglect doth not accuse mee, though evidence of fact doth. I would add more but ye entertainment of a straunger friend calls mee, and one other ineveitable occasion: Hold mee excused therefore dear friend; and if you vouschsafe mee a letter lett mee begg of you to teach mee some thrift of time; that I may imploy more in your service who will ever bee. Signed "Jo: Hampden".

Remarkable and a rare signature.

Notes: John Hampden (1595-1643) is remembered as a staunch Parliamentarian who himself had been imprisoned and evaded imprisonment for various breaches and unlawful acts under Charles' rule, including the refusal to pay taxes levied by the Crown. His addressee, Sir John Eliot (1592-1632) was known as a Puritan preacher and Parliamentarian. Once Vice Admiral of Devon, and a firm friend of George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, Eliot took a disliking to the Crown's rule, and to Buckingham's foreign policy. He was imprisoned in 1627 for dodging a tax levied by the crown, was released the next year, he was influential in the issuing of the Petition of Right, holding down the speaker of the House of Commons until his resolutions were passed. He was then imprisoned in the Tower by Charles and died just one year after this letter was sent.

Provenance:
Rowleys, 25 July 2020

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Estimate
£800 to £1,000

Starting price
£650