Fire in Hampton

On Friday morning last [August 29th], about one o'clock, the Academy at Hampton was discovered to be on fire, and in a short time it was completely destroyed. A library of about six hundred volumes, belonging to the Olive Branch, a society connected with the institution, and the chemical apparatus, were also destroyed. There was an insurance of $1200 upon the building, in the Portsmouth Mutual Co., Portsmouth. We learn that the Academy has a fund, but whether or not any portion of it can be appropriated towards the rebuilding, we are uninformed.

It is supposed that this fire was the work of an incendiary, although it was possibly the result of accident, as the Sons of Temperance held a meeting in the hall of the Academy on the evening. They left, however at nine o'clock, supposing all safe.

Fires

Nearly every night during the last week, commencing with Sunday, fires have been seen from this town, lighting up some one or more quarters of the horizon. The light of the Concord fire was distinctly seen in this town for several hours. The beautiful Academy at South Berwick was burnt, the fire having been communicated by incendiaries, on the same night that the Hampton Academy was destroyed.

Read more about this rash of fires in 1851