Born on 22 May 1710, he was the second son of Anthony Hammond of Somersham Place, Huntingdonshire, who married Jane, only daughter of Sir Walter Clarges.
Hammond was educated at Westminster School; at about the age of 18 Noel Broxholme, his future brother-in-law, introduced him to Lord Chesterfield.
The elegies were included in Samuel Johnson's, Robert Anderson's, and Alexander Chalmers's collections of English poets; and were often republished, for example by Thomas Park in 1805 and George Dyer in 1818.
[1] The poems were mostly inscribed to Neæra or to Delia, but one was in praise of George Grenville, and another was pointedly addressed to Kitty Dashwood, and to this Lady Mary Wortley Montagu wrote an answer, printed in Dodsley's collection, iv.
[1][2] In 1740 Hammond had written a prologue for George Lillo's posthumous tragedy of Elmerick, which was acted at Drury Lane Theatre, and some additional poems by him and references to his compositions were in the Gentleman's Magazine for 1779, 1781, 1786, and 1787.