Hampton, Archbishop of Armagh and putative Primate of Ireland from 1613
until his death on 3 January 1625, was born at Calais in about 1551,
the son of John Hampton, an Anglican clergyman in Hampshire.
Nothing else much seems to be known about his ancestry (there was a
post here about 8 years ago which stated he had a brother Francis).
The will of Susan Docwra, proved at the P.C.C. in 1644 (Prob 11/192)
includes a bequest to her grandson of "a purse with a gold seal thereon
which was sometime the (?Archbishop)Hampton's Lord Primate of Ireland"
[apparently this was considered an important item, as it is listed very
early in the will]. Thus, Susan Docwra was presumably somehow
connected with Christopher Hampton.
From the Visitation records of Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire, we
find that Susan was the wife of Ralph Docwra of Fulbourne, Cambs, and
the daughter of "John Hawkings" of Stamford, Lincolnshire. [Likely, he
was the one of that name who was Alderman - i.e. Mayor - of Stamford in
1574].
I have located the P.C.C. will for Susan's mother, Frances Hawkins,
proved on 28 January 1577 (Prob 11/59). In this document, the
testatrix bequeaths 10 shillings apiece to:
(a) Ambrose, Richard, William, Thomas and Alice Lane; she also mentions
her brother-in-law, William Lane, so these are likely the children of a
sister of Frances Hawkins;
(b) Anthony, Jane, Edward, William, Thomas, Jane (sic) and Marie
Whithead; she also mentions her brother Christopher Whitehead, so these
are likely the children of her brother(s);
(c) Christopher, William, Thomas, Francis and Edward Hampton.
I surmise that this is Christopher Hampton, the future Archbishop (and
his brother Francis, assuming that the earlier poster was correct).
Further, it is a good possibility that their mother was a further
sister of Christopher Whitehead and Frances Hawkins. Perhaps further
investigation of the Whitehead family will produce results.
Frances Hawkins also named her son Robert Barber; I note that the IGI
has a marriage entry for Coston, Leicestershire in 1558: "John Hawkins
married Frances Barber".
MA-R