Page 3 - Hampdens Monument Unveiled

PREFACE

This booklet contains five contemporary newspaper reports
concerning the unveiling of the John Hampden Monument at
Chalgrove, Oxfordshire n the 19th June 1843 by George
Grenville, Lord Nugent. In 1828 Nugent had gained permission
from the 5th Earl of Buckinghamshire to exhume John Hampden's
body which lay in Great Hampden church, to establish the cause
of death and in 1832 he published a biography, "Some Memorials
of John Hampden his Party and his Times." He had used John
Hampden's reputation and political exemplar to further his own
cause throughout his parliamentary career and this genuine
adulation of John Hampden resulted in a more permanent
memorial, the Monument at Chalgrove Field. Subscriptions to
raise a monument were sought personally by Lord Nugent from his
friends and political associates. Those with Hampden family
connections also offered their financial assistance. The
original plot of land, on which the Monument stands, was listed
as measuring seven perches (approx. 7 yards by 5 1/2 yards) in
the Enclosure Award of 1845. Here it states the land, plot 222,
was allotted for 2 pounds 5 shillings by the Commissioners to
the Rev. Renn Dickson Hampden D.D. his heirs and assigns. In
the 1822 the Magdelen College gazetteer of Chalgrove the
monument site was owned by the church, being a corner of a
field known as Little Bush Furlong. The Monument was situated
at the crossroads of the Watlington to Stadhampton Road and
Warpsgrove Lane, near to the site where Lord Nugent supposed
that Hampden was mortally wounded. The Monument is best
described on pages 72 to 74 CHECK Page Nos of this booklet.
Some contemporaries complained that it was unfinished, so in
1863 George Hampden Cameron Esq. added the capstone and
probably the outside railings. Actions such as this re-enforced
Hampden Cameron's claim to the Hampden estate. He also had the
following text cut into the stone on the eastern side of the
Monument underneath the bust of Hampden on the lower part of
the column.

‘THIS MONUMENT WAS REPAIRED AND COMPLETED BY
GEORGE HAMPDEN CAMERON ESQ.

THE PRESENT OWNER OF HAMPDEN ESTATES
A DESCENDANT OF THE PATRIOT JOHN HAMPDEN
THROUGH HIS DAUGHTER MARY WIFE OF SIR JOHN
HOBART BART ] AND BY SIR HENRY EDMUND AUSTEN
OF SHALFORD IN THE COUNTY OF SURREY ANOTHER
DESCENDANT OF JOHN HAMPDEN THROUGH JULIANA

DAUGHTER OF RICHARD HAMPDEN
THE PATRIOT'S SECOND SON 1863’