Hampton

Hampton, NB, incorporated as a town in 1991, population 4292 (2011c), 4004 (2006c). The Town of Hampton is situated 37 km northeast of SAINT JOHN on the Kennebecasis River. In 1966 Hampton was incorporated as a village with the amalgamation of the former communities of Hampton and Hampton Station and part of the parish of Norton.

The area was part of the seigneury granted to Charles de LA TOUR in 1635 and was also the site of native camps, but permanent settlement did not take place until the LOYALISTS arrived after 1784. Even then it was not until the 1850s, with the construction of the European and North American Railway, that a village called Ossekeag (Hampton Station) developed; the name was taken from Ossekeag Creek and is derived from the Maliseet word meaning "marshy brook." The current name is variously said to be for Hampton near London, Eng, Hampton, NY, and Abner Hampton, a local ferry operator.

The shire town for Kings County was moved to Hampton in 1871, complete with the large stone jail noted prominently in the memoirs of Henry More Smith, The Mysterious Stranger (1817). This agricultural community at the western end of the Kennebecasis and Petitcodiac valley system is on the main Moncton to Saint John rail line and is a suburb of Saint John. The town has the county's museum and many historic buildings, including the restored jail and the county courthouse. John P. HUMPHREY and W.A.C. BENNETT grew up in Hampton.