General Resources on Hampton's History

At the old railroad crossing on Exeter RoadThe library has thousands of pages of historical information on its website. You can explore these pages using the menus at left, but what if you are just looking for general historical information? Here are some helpful links:

WW1 eagle Published Histories

Joseph Dow's "History of the Town of Hampton from its first settlement in 1638 to the autumn of 1892"

The classic history of Hampton's first two and a half centuries is available on the library's website. Volume two, the genealogies, has been entered into an online genealogical database.

Peter Randall's " Hampton, a century of town and beach, 1888-1988"

Peter Randall wrote this history for the town's 350th anniversary in 1988. Full of interesting photos, this book provides a full history of Hampton Beach, and updates the history of the Town from where Joseph Dow left off.


WW1 eagle Newspaper Columns

John Holman's "Historic Hampton" articles

Hampton Historian John Holman's historical newspaper articles give glimpses into a wide range of Hampton's history. John also volunteers at the library and is responsible for getting much of the historical content of our website online.

James Tucker's "Our Town" articles

From 1950 until his death in 1961, James W. Tucker wrote a column in The Hampton Union entitled "Our Town", covering both historical and contemporary events. Some of his historical articles are republished here.


WW1 eagle Other General Historical Web Pages


Oral Histories

Interesting reminiscences by some of Hampton's former citizens.

Anniversary pamphlets

Historical addresses and pamphlets celebrating Hampton's anniversaries in 1838, 1888, 1938, 1963, 1976, and 1988.

Miscellaneous historical vignettes

A number of interesting historical pamphlets and newspaper articles on a wide variety of topics.

Recent history

The "Year in Review" stories from local newspapers since 1998.