George Hammond (diplomat)

George Hammond (1763–1853) was a British diplomat and one of the first British envoys to the United States from 1791 to 1795.

Hammond came from East Riding of Yorkshire, enjoyed a liberal education, and was a Master of Arts and Fellow of Merton College, Oxford. During the peace talks between the 13 colonies of the United States of America and the Kingdom of Great Britain that would culminate in the Treaty of Paris 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 Vienna from 1788 to 1790, spent part of 1790 in Copenhagen, and in 1791 found himself Counsellor of Legation at Madrid.

Despite American grumbles over the lack of a British envoy since the peace treaty concluded the American revolution in 1783, the decision for the British was by no means a simple one. The Articles of Confederation 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 £2500. 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 William Grenville. Hammond was soon given the job, boarded a ship for Philadelphia in September 1791 along with Edward Thornton, secretary of legation, and arrived five weeks later on 20 October.

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