I've been trying to sort out the interconnected sources regarding Benjamin's origins. Here's what I've come up with so far:
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The granddaddy of all sources is a private Memorandum Book kept by Captain Elnathan Hammond (1703-1793), grandson of Benjamin, written roughly between 1755-1781, excerpted in NEHGR 30 (1876).
Unfortunately, in his book, Elnathan reports at least two things as fact (enthusiastically, in great detail) that we now know to be wrong:
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That Elizabeth was a sister/aunt of the famous Penns. Disproved 1900 in NEHGR 54.
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That Rev. John Lothrop was talking about Benjamin's mother when he wrote, "Elizabeth Hammon, my sister" in church records in Scituate in 1636. Disproved 1995 by Anderson.
#2 creates a further problem, since Elnathan appears to be the original source for the claim that Elizabeth, Benjamin, and his three sisters sailed on the Griffin: "in the same ship or vessel with that worthy Minister Mr. John Lothrop". We now know Lothrop wasn't their minister, so the sailing is also questionable.
Here are the major sources on Benjamin that I know of, in chronological order because that matters:
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Battell, Philip. "Descendants of Benjamin Hammond", The New England Historical and Genealogical Register, Volume 30. Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1876, pp. 28-32. Digital image on Google Books and archive.org.
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Hammond, Roland. A history and genealogy of the descendants of William Hammond of London, England and his wife Elizabeth Penn: through their son Benjamin of Sandwich and Rochester, Mass., 1600-1894. Boston: David Clapp & Son, Printers, 1894. Digital image on Ancestry.com.
Both of these are based on Elnathan's book and reproduce his two errors. Roland does an otherwise thorough job sorting out the Lavenham/Watertown Hammonds from Benjamin's family whom he calls "William of London". Also, Roland Hammond states that there were no records kept of daughters in the famous Penn family, i.e., nothing to disprove Elnathan, as of 1894.
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Lea, J. Henry, Esq. "Genealogical Gleanings among the English Archives", The New England Historical and Genealogical Register, Volume 54. Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1900, 325-9. Digital image on Google Books.
Penn baptism records found, including daughters, no Elizabeth.
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Hammond, Frederick Stam. History and Genealogies of the Hammond Families in America: with an Account of the Early History of the Family in Normandy and Great Britain, 1000-1902, Volume 1. Oneida, N.Y.: Ryan & Burkhart, Printers, 1902, pp. 565-7. Digital image on Ancestry.com and archive.org.
F.S. Hammond acknowledges the famous-Penns error here, but says, "It is probable that her name was Elizabeth Penn, however, as there exists no satisfactory reason for doubting the general accuracy of the record kept by Capt. Elnathan Hammond and his father."
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Anderson, Robert Charles. The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England, 1620-1633, Volume 2, G-O. Boston: New England Historical and Genealogical Society, 1995, pp. 853-4. Digital image on Ancestry.com.
This is the profile for the Lavenham/Watertown Hammonds, and Anderson shows that Rev. Lothrop's 1636 reference to "Elizabeth Hammon, my sister" was referring to a member of the Watertown family, not Benjamin's mother.
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There's a Genealogy of the Family of Horatio Hammond which I haven't seen; he's apparently descended from the Lavenham/Watertown Hammonds.
Here's the remaining problem. I've looked for sources other than Elnathan to corroborate any of the following claims and I cannot find any - they all go back to Elnathan one way or another:
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That Benjamin's parents were named William and Elizabeth
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That Elizabeth's maiden name was Penn
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That they were from London (and "left a good estate" there)
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That Benjamin had sisters Elizabeth, Martha and Rachel
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That they sailed on the Griffin
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That Elizabeth and the sisters came to New England at all
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That Elizabeth died in Boston and was buried there in 1640
I'm happy to trust Captain Elnathan on matters that occurred during his lifetime, but the second-hand tales of his grandparents who died in his infancy, and his great-grandparents who died decades before his father, their grandson, was even born, I'm much less inclined to accept on the Captain's word alone given the errors. It sounds more like a mythology than a genealogy.
Finally, in my searchings, I found a hint in Anderson:
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Anderson, Robert Charles. The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England, 1620-1633, Volume 2, G-O. Boston: New England Historical and Genealogical Society, 1995, p. 1280.
John Hardy, who arrived 1634, had a servant named Benjamin Hammon. Benjamin was involved in a court case (presumably in Salem) in 1640 and as a result was sentenced to serve Hardy for an additional year. F.S. Hammond reports the first record of Benjamin is found in Yarmouth in 1643. Yarmouth is not really near Salem, so it's tenuous, but the timing makes it interesting.
