Ship Money The Tryal of John Hambden Esq of Stoke Mandeville in the County of Bucks in the great Case of Ship Money between his Majesty K Charles I and that Gentleman, London 1719, folio 238pp disbound good condition. Signed to front by Richard West, lawyer and playwright, and manager of Lord Chancellor Macclesfield’s impeachment in 1725, which is no doubt why he had this personal copy of the Hampden trial. A famous case and one of the corner stones of the origins of the Civil War. Hampden, a wealthy landowner who allied himself to the Parliamentary cause strongly argued against the legality of the tax, imposed by Charles I in his desperate attempt to rule without the sanction of Parliament. He was tried in 1635, convicted and had an enormous fine of &pound50,000 (say &pound4.5 million today), was detained during the King’s pleasure and have a paper on his head showing his offence and then publicly displayed wearing it. The draconian nature of the sentence hardened Parliamentary resolve against the King, and this directly to the outbreak of war in 1642 – Hampden taking a leading role at the head of his own regiment of foot.