George Hammond British Minister Plenipotentiary to the U

George Hammond (1763–1853) was a British

diplomat A diplomat (from grc, δίπλωμα; romanized ''diploma'') is a person appointed by a state or an intergovernmental institution such as the United Nations or the European Union to conduct diplomacy with one or more other states or internati ...

and one of the first British

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s to the

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from 1791 to 1795.

Early career

Hammond came from

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, enjoyed a liberal education, and was a Master of Arts and Fellow of

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. During the peace talks between the

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of the United States of America and the

Kingdom of Great Britain The Kingdom of Great Britain (officially Great Britain) was a Sovereign state, sovereign country in Western Europe from 1 May 1707 to the end of 31 December 1800. The state was created by the 1706 Treaty of Union and ratified by the Acts of ...

that would culminate in the

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in 1783, he served as a Secretary to David Hartley; while in Paris, he also learned some French. Subsequently, Hammond was appointed chargé d'affaires at

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from 1788 to 1790, spent part of 1790 in

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, and in 1791 found himself Counsellor of Legation at

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Minister to the United States

Despite American grumbles over the lack of a British envoy since the peace treaty concluded the

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in 1783, the decision for the British was by no means a simple one. The

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lacked both a fixed seat of government and single leader to accredit an envoy, and few qualified diplomats desired the post and its yearly salary of £2,500. David Hartley, himself approached for the position, recommended his former secretary Hammond to Charles Jenkinson, who in turn passed on the name to newly appointed

Foreign Secretary The secretary of state for foreign, Commonwealth and development affairs, known as the foreign secretary, is a minister of the Crown of the Government of the United Kingdom and head of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. Seen as ...

William Grenville William Wyndham Grenville, 1st Baron Grenville, (25 October 175912 January 1834) was a British Pittite Tory politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1806 to 1807, but was a supporter of the Whigs (British political pa ...

. Hammond was soon given the job, boarded a ship for

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in September 1791 along with Edward Thornton, secretary of legation, and arrived five weeks later on 20 October. Hammond initially met with then Secretary of State

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, but waited to formally present himself to President

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before an American minister to England was chosen; his reception on 11 November 1791 formally established relations between the two countries. Although Hammond described his situation as "new, critical and rather embarrassing", he also stated that "If I accepted a quarter of the invitations to dinner and tea parties which I receive I should have little time for business", and said of the leading families that "I have reason to think most of them are

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at heart." Hammond had five children, aged oldest to youngest: William Andrew, George, Margaret, Edmund. The titles (including spelling) and dates in the timeline come directly from these papers. They continue: "In the year 1806, when Mr. Hammond was entitled, from length of service, to a pension of 1,200 ''l''., a pension of 600 ''l''. was granted to him, together with pensions of 150 ''l''. a year to each of his four children." His son, Edmund Hammond, would also join the Foreign Office. Hammond left his post on 14 August 1795, leaving the consul general at Philadelphia, Phineas Bond, in charge until Robert Liston arrived in America.

Later career

Following his return from the United States, Hammond became an Undersecretary at the

Foreign Office Foreign may refer to: Government * Foreign policy, how a country interacts with other countries * Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in many countries ** Foreign Office, a department of the UK government ** Foreign office and foreign minister * Unit ...

. In this position he advised and befriended Grenville and met

George Canning George Canning (11 April 17708 August 1827) was a British Tory statesman. He held various senior cabinet positions under numerous prime ministers, including two important terms as Foreign Secretary, finally becoming Prime Minister of the Unit ...

; Canning founded the newspaper the '' Anti-Jacobin'' in 1797, and Hammond acted as joint-editor. Hammond would later be sent to one or two posts in continental Europe, and sometime in the 1810s he was appointed as a commissioner on the Arbitration of Revolutionary Indemnities, and as such spent many years living alternatively in London and Paris. Hammond died in 1853 at the age of eighty-nine or ninety.

Timeline of career

*Secretary to Mr. Hartley's mission at Paris (17831784) *Charge d'Affairs at Vienna (21 September 178810 October 1789) *Secretary of legation at Copenhagen (20 February 179023 September 1790) *Secretary of embassy at Madrid (24 September 17905 July 1791) *Minister plenipotentiary to the United States (5 July 179130 October 1795) *Under secretary of state for foreign affairs (10 October 179520 February 1806) *Under secretary of state for foreign affairs (5 April 180711 November 1809) *Commissioner for British claims on France (September 1814July 1828)

References

External links