Hampton (United States)

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Hampton city (1990 pop. 133,793), independent and in no county, SE Va., a port of Hampton Roads at the mouth of the James River, connected to Norfolk by bridge and tunnel; settled 1610 by colonists from Jamestown, inc. 1849. It has a large seafood packing and shipping industry (fish, crabs, and oysters), as well as manufacturing (computers, electronic and transportation equipment, machinery, chemicals, and wood products). Nearby military installations include Langley Air Force Base (est. 1917) and adjacent NASA Langley Research Center, as well as historic Fort Monroe (built 1819–34 to command the entrance to Chesapeake Bay).

One of the oldest continuous English settlements in the country, Hampton was founded on the site of the Native American village Kecoughtan. It was attacked by pirates in the late 17th cent. ( Blackbeard was captured off the coast), shelled in the Revolutionary War, sacked by the British in 1813, and nearly burned to the ground by evacuating Confederates in 1861 to prevent its possession by Union troops. It is the seat of Hampton Univ. Of interest are St. John's Episcopal Church (1728; original church est. 1610) and a nearby reproduction of a Native American village.

Hampton since 1965 part of the Greater London outer borough of Richmond upon Thames , SE England, on the Thames River. It is the site of Hampton Court Palace, which occupies about eight acres (3.25 hectares) and contains approximately 1,000 rooms. The palace was begun by Cardinal Wolsey in 1514 as his private residence. After his downfall it was taken (1530) by Henry VIII and remained a royal residence until the time of George II. William III had part of it torn down and enlarged and redesigned by Christopher Wren . Although much of the palace has been open to the public since 1838, many of its rooms are occupied by royal pensioners. A portion of the Wren building was gutted by fire in 1986, restored, and reopened to the public in 1993. On the palace grounds is a sumptuous garden, the site of a celebrated maze. The Hampton Court Conference (1604) was held early in the reign of James I; its purpose was to consider reforms of the Established Church for which its Puritan clergy had petitioned. Few concessions were made to the Puritans. The conference authorized a new version of the Bible (the King James Version).