Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

There are no restrictions.

Use Restrictions

See the University of Virginia Library’s use policy.

Preferred Citation

Hammond Family Papers, Accession #5395-a, Special Collections Dept., University of Virginia Library, Charlottesville, Va.

Acquisition Information

The papers were a gift to the library from the son of Kensey Johns Hammond, Mr. Lewis M. Hammond, Charlottesville, Virginia on 31 March 1976.

Biographical/Historical Information

Kensey Johns Hammond was born in Baltimore, Maryland on June 26, 1858 to Charles Howes Hammond and Julia (Johns) Hammond. He received his B.A. degree at Hampden-Sydney College in 1878, and his M.A. at Johns Hopkins University in 1879. He entered Virginia Theological Seminary in 1879, and was ordained a deacon in June 1882. For one year he served at two small churches in Maryland, St. Mary's, Franklin, and St. Jude's, Calverton. After his ordination to the Episcopal priesthood in June 1883, he did missionary work in West Virginia for five years. From 1888 until 1913 he was the rector of Immanuel Church in Wilmington, Delaware. Hammond married Caroline Machen in 1896, by whom he had two sons, Kensey Junior and Lewis Machen. Hammond served as the rector of St. Stephen's Church, Culpeper from 1914 until his retirment in 1935. He died in Baltimore on August 2, 1937.

Scope and Content Information

The Hammond Family Papers, ca. 1751-1937, consist of 1.3 shelf feet (ca. 425 items) of correspondence, papers, and bound volumes, principally relating to Episcopal clergyman Kensey Johns Hammond, 1858-1937. The collection includes a few eighteenth and early nineteenth century letters written by Hammond's great-great grandfather and great grandfather, both named Nicholas Hammond, and a number of mid-nineteenth cnetury letters written to Hammond's mother, Julia Johns, before her marriage. All of this correspondence is personal. The remaining letters were written to Kensey Johns Hammond by relatives and friends, discussing personal and church affairs and genealogy.

The collection contains eight bound volumes of Hammond's diaries, 1879-1936. The volume for 1907-1912 was lost and apparently destroyed. In his diaries, Hammond described seminary and parish life, his reading, trips around the United States, and family affairs. He kept exact records of marriages, baptisms, parish visits, and sermons, for his various churches.

There are a few folders of family papers, including wills, family trees, and notes on genealogy. Newspaper clippings, notebooks, a scrapbook, and a commonplace book round out the collection.

The Hammond Papers would be useful to the researcher interested in the Episcopal Church in Maryland, Virginia, and Delaware, and to the genealogist.

Organization

The papers arrived at the library in rough chronological order; this rough order has been retained and perfected. Series within the papers are arranged in the following order: 1) correspondence, 2) papers, 3) souvenirs and mememtoes, 4) newspaper and magazine clippings, 5) diaries, and 6) other bound volumes.