What is Hampton Roads? The land and the water and the history...

"Hampton Roads" is this region in southeastern Virginia where we live. Everybody calls it that.

"Hampton Roads" refers to both a body of water and the region of land in the southeastern portion of Virginia made up of the "Seven Cities" of:
Chesapeake
Hampton
Newport News
Norfolk
Portsmouth
Suffolk
and Virginia Beach (also the largest city in Virginia)

and several smaller towns:
Franklin, Poquoson and Williamsburg.

The water area "Hampton Roads" (known locally as "the harbor") is one of the world's biggest natural harbors.

Before "Hampton Roads" was a place to live, it was a place to park your boat. First and foremost, it's the name for the body of water between the Peninsula and South Hampton Roads. More precisely, it's the body of water formed by the meeting of the James, Nansemond and Elizabeth rivers, which then flows out the other end into the Chesapeake Bay.

And how did it get its' name?

It's a condensed version of the original name given it by English settlers:
The Earl of Southampton's Roadstead.

"Roadstead" is an old English word for a protected anchorage, not as enclosed as a harbor but still shielded from the ocean waves.

And the Earl of Southampton? He was Henry Wriothesley, the third Earl of Southampton (1573-1624). His biggest claim to fame is that he was a patron of William Shakespeare. In return for the financial aid, Shakespeare dedicated two of his long poems, "Venus and Adonis" and "The Rape of Lucrece," to Wriothesley.

Unfortunately for Southampton, he was linked to the plot by the Earl of Essex, Queen Elizabeth I's ex-boyfriend, to stage a coup against the queen's government. He was thrown in the Tower of London, sentenced to death.

Fortunately for Southampton, his sentence was commuted to life in prison, and after Elizabeth died and was succeeded by James I, he was released.

The earl was also a backer of the Virginia Company, the outfit that settled Jamestown and the other early settlements in Virginia.

Some things never change. People who put the money up get things named after them.


When driving from Hampton to Norfolk on the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel (HRBT), after you emerge from the tunnel - much of the water you see on your left is the Chesapeake Bay, and much of the water you see on your right is "Hampton Roads", the water.