History of Hampton, Virginia, USA

Hampton originated around Fort Algernourne (now Fort Monroe), built in 1609 on the site of the village of Kecoughtan, named for the tribe that inhabited it, to protect the area from Spanish raiders. Permanent settlement dates from 1610, which makes it the nation’s oldest continuously settled community of English origin. It became part of Elizabeth City (later reorganized as Elizabeth City county) in 1620. St. John’s Church was established in 1610; the present structure, dating from 1728, has been restored. Hampton, named in the late 1600s for Henry Wriothesley, 3rd earl of Southampton, was organized as a town in 1705. It grew as a seaport, being surpassed later by Norfolk. Attacked by pirates (notably Blackbeard) in the early 1700s, and again during the American Revolution and the War of 1812, it was burned by Confederates in 1861 at the beginning of the American Civil War to prevent its capture by Union forces occupying nearby Old Point Comfort and Fort Monroe. It was rebuilt after the war and later flourished with the arrival of the railroad in the 1880s. Fishing and seafood-processing industries subsequently developed.