Thomas Hampton was born at Blaisdon in Gloucestershire (baptised March 1844), and probably worked on the canals for a while. By 1870 he was living in Hereford, being married there that year. He died in 1896, still resident at Bath St. Hereford. He left a manuscript containing tunes, which is now in the possession of his great-great granddaughter, Becky Dellow, who is researching both TH and the tunes. Although the manuscript was compiled in Hereford, Becky believes some of the tunes were remembered from TH’s childhood in Gloucestershire.
Handwriting evidence shows that the first nine tunes in the book were compiled by Walter Soobroy, who lived close to Thomas Hampton in Hereford. It seems likely that Soobroy was teaching Hampton and used the tunes for that purpose. Tunes 6 and 7 in the ms (not transcribed here) are exercises on scales. Neither have we included tune 17 God Save the Queen nor the following hymns:
Safe in the Hands of Jesus,
Sun of my Soul,
Come to the Saviour and
Tell me the Old Old Story
The numbering of the hymns in the ms. suggests that TH’s source was Sankey’s popular hymn book, Sacred Songs and Solos, published in 1870, 1880 and 1890, or a publication copied from it.
We are grateful to Becky Dellow for copies of the manuscript, and for access to the results of her research.

Index to tunes in Thomas Hampton’s Manuscript