Hampton, Virginia

Hampton is an independent city in Virginia, United States. The population was 137,148 at the 2020 census, making it the seventh-most populous city in Virginia. Hampton is included in the Hampton Roads metropolitan area (sometimes called "Tidewater"), which has more than 1.8 million inhabitants and is the 37th-largest metropolitan area in the U.S.

Hampton traces its origins to Old Point Comfort, the site of Fort Monroe, named by English explorers led by Christopher Newport in 1607 during the founding of Jamestown. Following the American Civil War, Hampton University was established on the opposite bank of the Hampton River to educate newly freed African Americans and local Native Americans. In the 20th century, the city became home to Langley Air Force Base, NASA's Langley Research Center, and the Virginia Air and Space Center.

Since consolidation by a mutual agreement in 1952, Hampton has included the former Elizabeth City County and the incorporated town of Phoebus. The city features a wide array of business and industrial enterprises, retail and residential areas, historical sites, and other points of interest, such as a NASCAR short track, the oldest Anglican parish in the Americas (1610), and a moated, six-sided, historical bastion fort. Hampton is also known for its extensive waterfront and beaches.

Indigenous Americans settled in present-day Hampton before 10,000 BCE. In the early 1600s, the Tidewater region was populated by the Powhatan peoples who called the lands Tsenacommacah. The Powhatan Chiefdom was made up of over 30 tribes numbering an estimated 25,000 people before the arrival of English colonists.

In December 1606, three ships carrying men and boys left England on a mission sponsored by a proprietary company. Led by Captain Christopher Newport, they sailed across the Atlantic Ocean to North America. After a long voyage, they first landed at the entrance to the Chesapeake Bay on the south shore at a place they named Cape Henry (for Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales, the elder son of their king).

During the first few days of exploration, they identified the site of Old Point Comfort (which they originally named "Point Comfort") as a strategic defensive location at the entrance to the body of water that became known as Hampton Roads. This is formed by the confluence of the Elizabeth, Nansemond, and James rivers. The latter is the longest river in Virginia.

Weeks later, on May 14, 1607, they established the first permanent English settlement in the present-day United States about 25 miles (40 km) further inland from the Bay which became the site of fortifications during the following 200 years.

Slightly south, near the entrance to Hampton River, the colonists seized the Native American community of Kecoughtan under Virginia's Governor, Sir Thomas Gates. The colonists established their own small town, with a small Anglican church (known now as St. John's Episcopal Church), on July 9, 1610. This came to be known as part of Hampton. (With Jamestown having been abandoned in 1699, Hampton claims to be the oldest continuously occupied English settlement in the United States.) Hampton was named for Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of Southampton, an important leader of the Virginia Company of London, for whom the Hampton River, Hampton Roads and Southampton County were also named. The area became part of Elizabeth Cittie [sic] in 1619, Elizabeth River Shire in 1634, and was included in Elizabeth City County when it was formed in 1643. By 1680, the settlement was known as Hampton, and it was incorporated as a town in 1705 and became the seat of Elizabeth City County.