Northampton was first settled in the late 1840s after Lieutenant George Grey had passed through the area on his retreat from North-west Cape. A further exploration in 1842 led to the discovery of lead ore and copper which were subsequently mined at the Geraldine and Gwalla Mines respectively. It is claimed by the locals that the Geraldine Mine (located about 5 km west of the town) was the first lead mine in Australia.
The town was surveyed and declared in 1864. Its original name was 'The Mines' but it got its present name in 1871 as a combination of Northampton in England and an honour to the then governor of Western Australia, John Stephen Hampton.
By 1877 the district was producing about 4000 tons of lead and copper each year. The minerals were moved to Port Gregory by wagon - a situation which was clearly very unsatisfactory. In 1879, after considerable local pressure, a railway was completed from Geraldton to Northampton. It was the first government built railway in Western Australia and continued to run until it was finally closed in 1957.
Today the town boasts three buildings of genuine historic interest - Chiverton House (which is now the local museum), the Church of St Mary in Ara Coeli which was one of the many buildings in the Central West designed by the architect-priest Monsignor John Hawes, and the ruins of Gwalla Church, a true experiment in non–denominational religion built by the ex–convict Joseph Horrocks.
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