First called the "Plantation of Winnacunnet", Hampton was one of four original New Hampshire townships chartered by the
General Court of Massachusetts, which then held authority over the colony.
Winnacunnet is an
Algonquian Abenaki word meaning "pleasant pines" and is the name of the town's
high school, serving students from Hampton and the surrounding towns of
Seabrook,
North Hampton, and
Hampton Falls. In March 1635,
Richard Dummer and John Spencer of the
Byfield section of
Newbury, Massachusetts, came round in their
shallop, coming ashore at the landing, and were much impressed by the location. Dummer, who was a member of the General Court, got that body to lay its claim to the section and plan a plantation here. The Massachusetts General Court of March 3, 1636, ordered that Dummer and Spencer be given power to "To presse men to build there a Bound house." The town was settled in 1638 by a group of parishioners led by
Oxford University graduate Reverend
Stephen Bachiler, who had formerly preached at the settlement's namesake:
Hampton,
England. The town, incorporated in 1639, once included Seabrook,
Kensington,
Danville,
Kingston,
East Kingston,
Sandown, North Hampton and Hampton Falls. On September 18, 1679, the Acts of
Privy Council records that Stephen Bachiler's son-in-law, "
Christopher Hussey of Hampton, Esquire", was appointed by
King Charles II to "govern the provence of New Hampshire" as a member of the newly established council of seven men. In 1683, Hampton Councilman Edward Gove launched a
rebellion against the royal governor. He was arrested, and Crown Magistrate
Richard Waldron sentenced him to be
hanged, drawn, and quartered, the only time in New Hampshire history that one received that sentence. While Gove was waiting in the Tower of London,
King James II commuted his sentence and he returned to Hampton. Also among Hampton's earliest settlers was
Thomas Leavitt, who previously had been among the first settlers at
Exeter. His descendant Thomas Leavitt, Esq., lived in Hampton Falls, and was the leading
Democratic politician in southern New Hampshire for many years. He made a noted early survey and plan of the town of Hampton in 1806. James Leavitt, of the same family, occupied the home which had previously belonged to Gen.
Jonathan Moulton. Later members of the family ran Leavitts' Hampton Beach Hotel, a fixture in the area for generations. Construction of the
railroad in the 1850s, as well as the Exeter and Hampton Trolley line, made Hampton's oceanfront a popular resort. Hampton Beach remains a tourist destination, offering shops, restaurants, beaches, and summer seasonal housing. ==Geography==