[1] On the death of Brutus Babington, Bishop of Derry, Hampton was nominated to the see by king's letter dated 21 December 1611, and was elected.

He was placed in the role with the influence of his patrons in order to continue to reinforce royal preferences in civil and ecclesiastical matters, and to impose more discipline on the Church of Ireland.

[4] He faced much opposition in his new role, including challenges from Thomas Jones and Lancelot Bulkeley, Archbishops of Dublin, to the right of the see of Armagh to the primacy of Ireland (this was a dispute which had been going on intermittently for centuries, long before the Reformation).

In 1622 James Ussher, then bishop of Meath, preached a sermon before the Lord Deputy to which exceptions were taken by the recusants.

[1] While he died unmarried, he settled his brother's family on lands belonging to the see at Kilmore, County Armagh, on long leases at favourable terms, where their descendants continued to live for generations.