John Hampden

John Hampden (ca. 1595 – 1643) was an English politician, the eldest son of William Hampden, of Hampden House, Great Hampden in Buckinghamshire, (b. 1570), son of Griffith Hampden and Anne Cavea and descendant of a very ancient family of that county, said to have been established there before the Norman conquest, and of Elizabeth, second daughter of Sir Henry Cromwell, and aunt of Oliver Cromwell. The towns of Hampden, Maryland, Hamden, Connecticut and Hampden, Maine, as well as the county of Hampden, Massachusetts are named in his honour. Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia is also named in honour of John Hampden and of Algernon Sydney, another English patriot.