Dictionary of Irish Architects 1720 - 1940

Architect, engineer and surveyor, of Ballinasloe, Co. Galway, and later of Dublin. John Hampton was the elder son of a merchant in Ballinasloe, Co. Galway, and the brother of WILLIAM HAMPTON. WILLIAM HAMPTON. (1) He is presumably the John Hampton who was awarded one of two first-class premiums at the Dublin Society's School of Drawing in Architecture on 11 April 1799.(2) He was apprenticed to RICHARD MORRISON  RICHARD MORRISON at the same time as JOHN BOWDEN. JOHN BOWDEN. (3) Both John and William Hampton were members of the team of over forty surveyors who were employed by the Bogs Commissioners circa 1810-1814.(4) John Hampton appears in Pigot & Co.'s City of Dublin and Hibernian Provincial Directory (1824) as an architect and engineer at Main Street, Ballinasloe. During the 1820s he and William tried to establish themselves in Ballinasloe as engineers, architects, teachers of surveying and levelling, proprietors of an 'artists' and mechanics' warehouse', and makers of 'accurate and elegant estate maps'.(5)

T.J. Mulvany gives an account of John Hampton in a letter to his son William of 29 October 1827: 'I met in Ballinasloe a very talented aquaintance Mr John Hampton, architect and surveyor, he served his time to Morrisson in Dublin as a fellow apprentice with John Bowden, he is a most admirable draughtsman. - And is also eminently skilled as an engineer, he had been for some years in London with Renny, he is now married in Ballinasloe, he has also been employed for the last two or three years by Nimmo, and when I last saw him he had but just returned from the north where he had been laying out roads. - He is a most excellent fellow full of talent and brain and full of heart. - If you had seen him in the churchyard of Ballinasloe pointing out to me his father's grave and struggling to keep the tears away whilst he spoke of him, you would require nothing more to show you what sort of man he is. - He is a large handsome fellow as you would see in a day's walk, should you ever meet him you'll meet a friend when you mention that you are my son.'(6)

Hampton was 'for many years' connected with the General Valuation of Ireland, which was established in 1828 under RICHARD GRIFFITH. RICHARD GRIFFITH. (7) When he actually settled in Dublin is not clear; in an advertisment in the Dublin Evening Post of 17 May 1828, 'Hampton and Brother' give an address at 25 Westmoreland Street, Dublin, as well as Ballinasloe.(8) By 1841 he was living at 2 Haddington Terrace,(9) where he died aged sixty-four on 27 December 1846.(10) He was buried at Mount Jerome Cemetery. He had married Sarah Sandford (1789ca-1875) in 1820, and had a son and two daughters. The son, Thomas Sandford Hampton (1822-1886), was an officer in the General Valuation Department.(11)

See WORKS.



References



(1) Information from Mrs Shirley McGlynn, Lavender Bay, NSW, Australia, in letter of 25 Feb 1997.
(2) MS. transcript from Royal Dublin Society minutes of School of Architectural Design admissions and prizewinners (in IAA).
(3) See note 6, below..
(4) Information from Mrs Shirley McGlynn, citing Reports of the Bog Commissioners (1810-1814) Parl. Papers HC 1810, vol. X, HC 1810-11, vol. VI, and HC 1813-14, vol. VI, and letter from O'Donoghue, 1 Feb 1996.
(5) Information from Mrs Shirley McGlynn, citing Dublin Evening Post, 17 May 1828, Western Argus and Ballinasloe Independent, 11 Jun 1828, and William Nolan (ed.), The Shaping of Ireland (Mercier Press, Cork, 1986).
(6) A.C. Mulvany, ed., Letters from Professor Thomas J. Mulvany RHA to his eldest son William T. Mulvany…from 1825-1845 (Dusseldorf, 1907), 30.
(7) O'Donoghue, citing Dublin Evening Mail, 30 Dec 1846.
(8) Information from Mrs Shirley McGlynn, citing Dublin Evening Post, 17 May 1828.
(9) Pettigrew & Oulton's DublinAlmanac (1841).
(10) See note 6, above.
(11) Information from Mrs Shirley McGlynn.


4 work entries listed in chronological order for HAMPTON, JOHN


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Building: CO. GALWAY, BALLINASLOE, CHURCH OF ST JOHN (CI, CREAGH PARISH)
Date: 1816-17;1822
Nature: JH paid £51.3s.1d. as balance 'for Galleries etc', 1816, £3.1s.5d. for 'Roman cement on steeple', 1817.  Bill of £4.12s.8d. paid for unspecified work, 1822.
Refs: NA, M5360, pp.9,10 (reference from Brendan O'Donoghue);  RCB Library, 'An account of of all sums of money levied for building and repairing of churches...June 1824' (information from Frank Keohane).

Building: CO. GALWAY, TUAM, CATHEDRAL OF ST MARY (CI)
Date: 1821
Nature: 'Mr Hampton, Architect' paid £1.14s.1½d 'for examining the repairs done to the Cathedral and Parish Church by Mr Fraser, and also for reporting to the vestry the state of the roof'. (Probabably John Hampton but possibly William Hampton.)
Refs: RCB Library, 'An account of of all sums of money levied for building and repairing of churches...June 1824' (information from Frank Keohane).

Building: CO. GALWAY, KILLERERAN, CHURCH (CI)
Date: 1821
Nature: JH's plans for new church 'on a new more convenient site' accepted by vestry on 24 Apr 1821.  Received payment of £11.7s.6d. for same.
Refs: RCB Library, 'An account of of all sums of money levied for building and repairing of churches...June 1824' (information from Frank Keohane).

Building: CO. GALWAY, CLONBROCK
Date: 1824
Nature: JH sent 3 designs for Clonbrock portico, one of which built..
Refs: E.McP files, citing '5/19'; Mark Bence-Jones, Burke’s Guide to Country Houses. Volume I, Ireland. (London, 1978), 86.