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STEPHEN HOPKINS
It has been suggested that Stephen came from the parith of Wotten-under-Edge, Gloucestershire. [EAS0] It is argued that his wife Elizabeth was the Elizabeth Fisher who married a Stephen Hopkins in London on 19 February 1617/8. [EAS0]
Stephen came to New England on the Mayflower with his wife Elizabeth, two children, Giles and Constance, by a former wife, and two by Elizabeth called Damaris and Oceanus, the last one born at sea. They were accompanied by two servants, Edward Doty and Edward Leister. [OPP5]
Stephen's voyage on the Mayflower was his second trip to America. In 1609 he sailed on the Sea Venture for Virginia and was shipwrecked on Bermuda: this incident inspired Shakespeare's The Tempest. In Bermuda, Stephen was part of an attempted mutiny and sentenced to hang, but he pleaded tearfully and was spared. He two years in Jamestown before returning to England. [NPM0]
"Mr. Hopkins and his wife are now both dead, but they above twenty years in this place and had one son and four daughters born here. There son became a seaman and died at Barbadoes, one daughter died here and two are married; one of them hath two children and one is yet to married. So their increase which still survive are five. But his son Giles is married and hath four children. His daughter Constanta is also married and hath twelve children, all of them living and one of them married." [OPP5, written 1650]
Stephen was probably a leader of the non-Separatest settlers. [EAS0]
In 1621 the colonists sent Mr. Edward Winslow and Mr. Stephen Hopkins to visit Massasoit. [EAS0]
Stephen was on a 2 January 7 Charles [1631/2] tax list in Plymouth. [RPC3] Stephen was a freeman and on the council in Plymouth in 1633. [RPC0] He was on a 24 March 1633/4 Plymouth tax list. [RPC1]
Mr. Stephen Hopkins was chosen to be one the Assistants to the Governor on 1 January 1633/4, 1 January 1634/35 and 5 January 1635/6. [RPC5]
Stephen was on a committee to divide the meadow land in the bay on 1 July 1633. [RPC4] He was on a committee to determine trade policy for the colony on 1 October 1634 and on 7 March 1636/7 and a committee to advise on beaver trade on 7 June 1637. [RPC7] He was on a committee to view the hay ground between Eel River and the town of Plymouth on 20 March 1636/7. [RPCE] He was on a committee to agree upon a division of lands between Eel River and South River on 2 October 1637. [RPCM]
Mr. Hopkins was given land up the river that he had formerly had in a land distribution on 14 March 1635. [RPCI] He was given the hay ground he had the previous year on 20 March 1636/7. [RPCE] On 7 August 1638 Mr. Stephen Hokins was allowed to build a house at Mattacheese, to cut hay there that year and to winter his cattle as long as it did not cause him to withdraw from Plymouth. [PRCX]
Stephen Hopkins, gentleman, was on a 7 March 1636/7 list of freemen in Plymouth. [RPCK]
On 7 June 1736 John Tisdale, yeoman, entered a plea of assualt against Stephen, by whom he said he was dangerously wounded. Stephen was ordered to pay five pounds to the King, whose peace he had broken, and 40 shillings to John. [RPCC]
Mr. Stephen Hopkins was presented at the 2 October 1637 court for allowing men to drink in house on the Lord's day—before, during and after the meeting—and allowing servants and others to drink too excess. [RPCM] On 2 January 1637/8 William Reynolds was presented for being drunk at Stephen's house and lying under the table "vomiting in a beastly manner." Stephen was presented for permitting this. [RPCO] On 5 June 1638 Mr. Stephen Hopkins was presented for selling beer too expensively. [RPCV] Stephen, for upon two presentments against him at the previous court and three at the 4 September 1638 court, was fined for selling wine, beer, strong waters and nutmegs at excessive rates. [RPCZ]
Stephen Hopkin's indentured servant Dorothy became pregnant by the later-hanged mureder Arthur Peach. On 4 February 1638/9 thhe court ordered Stephen committed until he either took her and her child in or paid for someone else to look after them. He agreed to pay someone else. [PC07]
Plymouth Colony was called upon to aid the Connecticut Colony and the Massachusetts Bay Colony during the Pequot war and on 7 June 1637 it was decided to send men for land service. Mr. Stephen Hopkins, Giles Hopkins and Caleb Hopkins were two of three who volunteered to go. Stephen was also assigned to a committee to assess the men that should be sent. [RPCL]
Stephe's will is dated 6 June 1644 and inventory was taken on 17 July 1644. He mentions his deceased wife; his sons Giles and Caleb; his daughter Constance, the wife of Nicholas Snow; his daughters Deborah, Damaris, Ruth and Elizabeth; his grandson Stephen, son of his son Giles. [EAS0] Captain Miles Standish and Mr. William Bradford deposed to the will and Caleb Hopkins, the executor, exhibited an inventory on 20 August 1644. [PC08]
Children of Stephen Hopkins and an earlier wife:
i. Constance Hopkins married Nicholas Snow.
ii. Giles Hopkins married Catherine Wheldon.
Children of Stephen and Elizabeth Hopkins:
iii. Damaris Hopkins died young. [EAS0]
iv. Oceanus Hopkins was born on the Mayflower in 1620. He died before the 1627 land division. [EAS0]
v. Deborah Hopkins married Andrew Ring [EAS0] on 23 April 1646. [PC09]
vi. Damaris Hopkins was born in Plymouth. [EAS0] She married Jacob, the son of Francis Cooke. [EAS0]
vii. Ruth Hopkins died leaving no children. [EAS0]
viii. Elizabeth Hopkins died leaving no children. [EAS0]
ix. Caleb Hopkins died in Barbadoes, leaving no children. [EAS0]
References:
OPP5. William Bradford, Of Plymouth Plantation 1620–1647, edited and annotated by Samuel Eliot Morison (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2001), 442, 445.
NPM0. Nathaniel Philbrook, Mayflower (New York: Viking, 2006), 25–26.
RPC3. Nathaniel Shurtleff, Records of the Colony of New Plymouth: Court Orders, vol. 1, 1633–1644 (Boston, William White, 1855), 9–11.
RPC0. Nathaniel Shurtleff, Records of the Colony of New Plymouth: Court Orders, vol. 1, 1633–1644 (Boston, William White, 1855), 3–4.
RPC1. Records of the Colony of New Plymouth: Court Orders, vol. 1, 1633–1644, 27–29.
RPC4. Records of the Colony of New Plymouth: Court Orders, vol. 1, 1633–1644, 14.
RPC5. Records of the Colony of New Plymouth: Court Orders, vol. 1, 1633–1644, 21, 32, 36.
RPC7. Records of the Colony of New Plymouth: Court Orders, vol. 1, 1633–1644, 31, 52–54, 60–62.
RPCC. Records of the Colony of New Plymouth: Court Orders, vol. 1, 1633–1644, 36, 41.
RPCI. Records of the Colony of New Plymouth: Court Orders, vol. 1, 1633–1644, 40–41.
RPCK. Records of the Colony of New Plymouth: Court Orders, vol. 1, 1633–1644, 52–54.
RPCE. Records of the Colony of New Plymouth: Court Orders, vol. 1, 1633–1644, 55–57.
RPCL. Records of the Colony of New Plymouth: Court Orders, vol. 1, 1633–1644, 60–62.
RPCM. Records of the Colony of New Plymouth: Court Orders, vol. 1, 1633–1644, 68.
RPCO. Records of the Colony of New Plymouth: Court Orders, vol. 1, 1633–1644, 74–75.
RPCV. Records of the Colony of New Plymouth: Court Orders, vol. 1, 1633–1644, 86–87.
RPCX. Records of the Colony of New Plymouth: Court Orders, vol. 1, 1633–1644, 92–94.
RPCZ. Records of the Colony of New Plymouth: Court Orders, vol. 1, 1633–1644, 96–98.
PC07. Records of the Colony of New Plymouth: Court Orders, vol. 1, 1633–1644, 112–3.
EAS0. Eugene Aubrey Stratton, Plymouth Colony: Its History and People, 1620–1691 (Salt Lake City: Ancestry, 1986), 307–10.
PC08. Records of the Colony of New Plymouth: Court Orders, vol. 2, 1633–1644, 75.
PC09. Records of the Colony of New Plymouth: Court Orders, vol. 2, 1633–1644, 98.
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12-Jun-2020