Hampton is a sea-coast town about half-way between Newburyport and Portsmouth. It was settled very early, but owing to the lack of streams furnishing good water power, and the absence of a good harbor on her coast line, the town was early passed by both Portsmouth and Exeter as a trade centre.

The Boston & Maine railroad substantially follows the line of the old post road from south to north. The post-office is located near the station, and the most important stores are there, while the village stretches away for nearly two miles toward the beach.

There is in Hampton, the usual New England (Hampton) academy, which is also the town's high school. It is conducted with a spirit and liberality that deserve the highest degree of success. There is a large shoe factory that is now managed by an Exeter company as an auxiliary to their business there.

The surface of the town is gently undulating, and well laid out in farms tht indicate intelligent and successful tillage. The free use of sea weed as a manure insures, from the abundance of forms of potash which it contains, remarkable crops of corn. It may be said that in all New Hampshire there are no more beautiful farm scenes than here. The old farmhouses, with their old style furniture, now so much in fashion, the abundance of shade, and the nearby beach has long made Hampton a favored resort of a large number who still cherish fond recollections of youthful days passed amid the "Orchards and meadows and the deep tangled wildwood" of their parents' homes.

With all the attractioins Hampton possesses, there is something more in which it may justly feel great pride. It is in the number of the well-built and commodious schoolhouses, with good, clean outbuildings, and well-kept grounds attached. In this respect it has set an example to all the neighboring towns.

The town has the First church, Congregational orthodox, with an organization virtually dating back to a society in Holland in the Pilgrim days, before the Puritans came to Massachusetts.

The present Free Baptist church was first organized in 1834.

The Methodist church, after many vicissitudes, was successfully established in 1837.

The Second Advent church dates from 1871.

The First church was finally disestablished as the legal church of the town in 1839, and became an independent society, supported by its members alone.

The town contains about 1600 inhabitants.