17212. Stephen HOPKINS
was born on 28 Oct 1581 in Wortley, Worton Underedge, Gloucestershire, England.
He emigrated in 1620 from to Massachusetts on the Mayflower. He signed a will
on 6 Jun 1644 in Plymouth, MA. He died on 17 Jul 1644 in Plymouth, Plymouth,
MA. STEPHEN, Plymouth, came in the Mayflower, 1620, with w. Eliz. s.
Giles, and d.Constance, both by former w. and by this had Damaris, as also a
s. b.
on the voyage, call. therefore, Oceanus, but he d. within a yr. He
also brot. serv. Edward Dotey, and Edward Leister, the duellists.
Deborah was b. prob. in 1622, bef. the div. of ld. Other ch. also,
they had, Caleb, Ruth, and ano. d. wh. d. bef. her f. beside Eliz. His
w. liv. at P. above 20 yrs.; and he d. 1644, had been an Assist.
1633-6. Constance had m. Nicholas Snow, bef. the div. of cattle 1627,
and she d. 1676; Deborah m. 1646, Andrew Ring; Damaris m. 1646, Jacob
Cooke; and Eliz. d. 1666, unm. Abstr. of his will is in Geneal. Reg.
IV. 281. (Savage 2:461)
STEPHEN, came in the Mayflower 1621, with 2d wife, Elizabeth, and two
children of 1st wife, Giles, and Constance, the latter of whom m.
Nicholas Snow. He had, on the passage, Oceanus, and after arrival,
Damaris, m. Jacob Cooke; Deborah, m. Andrew Ring; Caleb, Ruth, and
Elizabeth. (Genealogical Register of Plymouth Families, p 145)
Mayflower Web Pages:
ANCESTRAL SUMMARY:
Stephen Hopkins was possibly the unnamed son of Stephen Hopkins
baptized on 29 October 1581 in Wotten-under-Edge, Gloucester, England.
Little else is known about his ancestry. There is no evidence that
his first wife was named Constance Dudley, despite the
often-published claim, including the absurd statement in the Mayflower
Quarterly 63:345 that "the general consensus is she [Constance Dudley]
is his wife". There is "general consensus" only because of published
statements like that which mislead everyone into believing
there actually is some evidence.
This alleged "consensus" does not include such expert
genealogists as Robert S. Wakefield, FASG ("Mayflower Descendant"
43:13), Eugene Aubrey Stratton, C.G. ("Plymouth Colony: Its History
and Its People", p. 309), John D. Austin, FASG ("Mayflower Families
for Five Generations: Stephen Hopkins of the Mayflower", p. 4), Robert
Charles Anderson, FASG, ("The Great Migration Begins"), Alicia Crane
Williams, editor of the Mayflower Descendant (MD 43:87), and Clarence
Almon Torrey, FASG ("New England Marriages Prior to 1700"). The
baptism date given in that MQ 63:345 article is also
wrong, the year is 1581 not 1580, and the biographical information
presented is not sourced with any supporting documentation and should
be viewed with extreme skepticism (if it is to be viewed at all).
There is an interesting parish register extraction from the
I.G.I. which shows a "Constancia Hopkyns" baptized on 11 May 1606,
daughter of Stephen, in Hursley, Hampshire, England. This seems to
fit nicely with Constance Hopkins the Mayflower passenger, but more
investigation is clearly called for, since Hampshire is not really a
location we would expect Stephen Hopkins to be.
An I.G.I. entry for the baptism of Giles Hopkins on 22 December
1609 in St. Stephen's Coleman Street, London is not a parish register
extraction and I assume it is ficticious. This record will be
investigated shortly as a part of the Mayflower Web Page's search of
the London Parish Registers.
BIOGRAPHICAL SUMMARY:
Stephen Hopkins was one of only a few passengers on the Mayflower to
have made a prior trip to America. He came in 1609 on the Sea Venture
headed for Jamestown, Virginia. But instead, they were marooned on an
island, where the 150 passengers were stranded for nine months.
Hopkins led an uprising, challenging the governor's authority, and was
sentenced to death. But he begged and moaned about the ruin of his
wife, and so was pardoned. The company built two vessels and escaped
the island. After spending two years in Jamestown, Hopkins returned to
England.
Stephen Hopkins brought with him on the Mayflower his wife
Elizabeth, children Giles and Constance by his first marriage, and
Damaris by his second marriage. A son Oceanus was born while the
Mayflower was at sea. Stephen participated in the early exploring
missions and was an "ambassador" along with Myles Standish for early
Indian relations.
In 1636, Hopkins was fined for the battery of John Tisdale, in
1637 he was found guilty of allowing men to drink on a Sunday at his house,
and in 1638 he was fined for not dealing fairly with an
apprentice-girl, Dorothy Temple. He was also charged with several
other minor crimes, including selling glass at too high a price,
selling illegal intoxicants, and allowing men to get drunk at his
house. However, this in no way indicated he was disloyal to the
Colony--in fact he was a prominent member, Assistant governor from
about 1633 until 1636, and he volunteered to fight in the Pequot War of 1637.
SOURCES:
1. Mayflower Families (Vol. 6): Stephen Hopkins for Five Generations,
General Society of Mayflower Descendants, 1992
2. The American Genealogist, 39:95-97, "Hopkins Family of Wortley,
Gloucestershire--Possible Ancestry of Stephen Hopkins", by Ralph
Phillips
3. Eugene Aubrey Stratton, Plymouth Colony, Its History and Its
People, 1620-1691, Salt Lake City, 1984
4. Mourt's Relation: A Journal of the Pilgrims at Plymouth, first
published London, 1621
5. Of Plymouth Plantation, by William Bradford, written c1630-1651
6. Annie Lash Jester, Adventurers of Purse and Person--Virginia
1607-1625, p. 213-217
Notes for Stephen Hopkins:
Stephen Hopkins was one of the original Pilgrims. He was a prominent
man in Plymouth Colony, and one of the few passengers of the Mayflower
who came to this country with servants. Governor William Bradford, in
his enumeration of the passengers of the Mayflower thus describes him
in his History of Plymouth Plantations:
Mr. Steven Hopkins and Elizabeth, his wife, and two children,
called Giles and Constanta, a daughter, both by a former wife, and two
more by this wife, called Damaris and Oceanus, the last was born at
sea, and two servants called Edward Dotey and Edward Lister. In 1650,
Governor Bradford writes:
Mr. Hopkins & his wife are now both dead, but they lived about 20
years in this place & had one son and four daughters born here. Their
son became a seaman and dyed at Barbadoes, one daughter died here &
two are married, one of them hath three children and one is yet to
marry. So their increase which still survive are 5, but his son Giles
is married & has 4 children. His daughter Constanta is also married &
hath 12 children all of them living & one married. One of these
children was Mary Snow, who married Thomas Paine.
Stephen setteled in the part of Eastham now included in the town
of Orleans, on the place at the head of the Cove, called by the
Indians "Kesscayoganseet." and later owned and occupied by James
Percival. The Mayflower was the vessel in which Steven Hopkins and
the other Pilgrims crossed the Atlantic Ocean to the New World in
1620. As originally conceived, the expedition included another vessel,
the Speedwell, but the latter proved unseaworthy. The Mayflower, about
180 gross tons and carrying 102 passengers, finally got under way from
Plymouth, England, on September 16, 1620. The ship was headed for
Virginia, where the colonists had been authorized to settle. As a
result of stormy weather and navigational errors, the vessel failed to
make good its course, and on November 21 the Mayflower rounded the end
of Cape Cod and dropped anchor off the site of present-day
Provincetown, Massachusetts.
The Mayflower remained anchored for the next few weeks while a
party from the ship explored Cape Cod and its environs in search of a
satisfactory site for the colony. Peregrine White, the first European
child born in New England, was delivered on the Mayflower in the
interim. On December 21, an area having been selected, the Pilgrims
disembarked from the Mayflower near the head of Cape Cod and founded
Plymouth Colony, the first permanent settlement in New England.
The Pilgrims were probably more than 800 km (500 mi) northeast of
their intended destination in Virginia. The patent for their
settlement in the New World, issued by the London Company, was no
longer binding, and some among the passengers desired total
independence from their shipmates. To prevent this, 41 of the adult
male passengers, including John Alden, William Bradford, Steven
Hopkins, William Brewster, John Carver, Miles Standish, and Edward
Winslow, gathered in the cabin of the Mayflower and formulated and
signed the Mayflower Compact; all adult males were required to sign.
The Mayflower Compact was the first constitution written in America.
It consolidated the passengers into a "civil body politic," which had
the power to frame and enact laws appropriate to the general good of
the planned settlement. All colonists were bound to obey the
ordinances so enacted. This compact established rule of the majority,
which remained a primary principle of government in Plymouth Colony
until its absorption by the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1691.
(source: Ancestors of Eugene Hunter Payne, Thomas Colwell Payne
(paynetc@@aol.com),
http://www.familytreemaker.com/users/p/a/y/Thomas-C-Payne/index.html)
Over the past two centuries, many people have--either deliberately or
because of poor research--published accounts of Mayflower ancestry
that are completely false. Here is a collection of the most commonly
known false and faked Mayflower lines. This list is based on a series
of articles appearing in the Mayflower Descendant, volume 20, 21, 23,
34 titled "False and Faked Mayflower Lines"; the Mayflower Descendant
article in volume 43 entitled "A Mayflower
Hoax Resurfaces"; and other published articles in the Mayflower
Descendant, The American Genealogist, the New England Historic and
Genealogical Register, or the Mayflower Families and Mayflower
Families in Progress series of books.
The list is organized alphabetically by the surname involved.
Source
abbreviations are as follows: MD = Mayflower Descendant; MQ =
Mayflower Quarterly, NEHGR = New England Historic and Genealogical
Register; MF = Mayflower Families for Five Generations; MFIP =
Mayflower Families in Progress, TAG = The American Genealogist, NYGBR
= New York Genealogical
and Biographical Record, and TG = The Genealogist.
HOPKINS. Stephen Hopkins' first wife has not been identified.
There is no evidence it was Constance Dudley as often-times claimed.
[MD 43:13, MF 6:4]
HOPKINS. John Hopkins of Cambridge, Mass., and Hartford Conn.,
was not a descendant of Stephen Hopkins of the Mayflower. [MD 23:76;
MF 6]
HOPKINS. William Hopkins of Southold, Long Island, was not
William3 Hopkins, the son of Gyles2 Hopkins (Stephen1) of Eastham. [MD
23:76; MF 6]
(source: Mayflower Web Pages,
http://members.aol.com/calebj/mayflower.html)
From A Francis Cooke Mayflower Study:
Stephen HOPKINS Mayflower(1182). Bowman Notes: He most
likely was the Stephen Hopkins who sailed on the Seaventure to
Virginia in 1609, but was shipwrecked in Bermuda, where he was almost
hanged for mutiny. He spent two years in Jamestown, where he learned
much of later use to the Plymouth colonists (Adventurers of Purse and
Person -Virginia 1607-1625, ed. by Annie Lash Jester with Martha
Woodroof Hiden, 2nd ed. (1964), p. 213-17). See also the excellent
account of his family in Dawes-Gates 2:443-51, which includes the
reasoning for believing that the Stephen Hopkins of Virginia was
identical with the one of Plymouth.
Hopkins arrived at Plymouth on the 1620 Mayflower
accompanied by his wife, Elizabeth, and his sons Giles and Oceanus,
and daughters Constance and Damaris, Oceanus having been born at sea
on the Mayflower, plus two servants, Edward Doty and Edward Leister.
Damaris died during the early years, and Hopkins and his wife later
had a second daughter Damaris. He was probably also one of the
dissenters at Plymouth whose actions led to the necessity for drafting
the Mayflower Compact. Bradford (Ford) 1:219, and Mourt's Relation, p.
40, tell how in 1621 the colonists sent Mr. Edward Winslow and Mr.
Stephen Hopkins on a mission to visit Massasoit. Mourt's Relation, pp.
7-8, also shows how Hopkins warned colonists on an early expedition
about an Indian trap to catch deer, and how Bradford, not hearing the
warning, stepped on the trap and was immediately caught by his leg.
When Samoset first came to the settlement on 16 February 1620/21, the
Englishmen were suspicious of him, and they "lodged him that night at
Steven Hopkins house, and watched him" (Mourt's Relation, p. 33).
Hopkins was an Assistant at least as early as 1633, and he continued
in 1634, 1635, and 1636. He was on the original freeman list, and he
was a volunteer in the Pequot War (PCR 1:61).
Keeping in mind the delicate balance in Plymouth between
"covenant" and "noncovenant" colonists, it is reasonable
to assume
that Hopkins must have been a leader of the non-Separatist settlers,
and in his career at Plymouth can be seen some of the ambiguity that
attached to the non-Separatists living in a Separatist colony. On 7
June 1636, at a time when Hopkins was an Assistant, the General Court
found him guilty of battery against John Tisdale, and he was fined £5,
and ordered to pay Tisdale forty shillings, the court observing that
he had broken the King's peace, "wch [p.309] he ought after a speciall
manner to have kept" (PCR 1:42). On 2 October 1637 he was presented
twice, first for suffering men to drink in his house on the Lord's day
before meeting ended, and for allowing servants and others to drink
more than proper for ordinary refreshing, and second for suffering
servants and others to sit drinking in his house contrary to orders of
the court, and to play at shovel board and like
misdemeanors (PCR 1:68). On 2 January 1637/38 Hopkins was presented
for suffering excessive drinking in his house "as old Palmer, James
Coale, & William Renolds" (PCR 1:75). On 5 June 1638 he was presented
for selling beer for two pence a quart which was not worth a penny a
quart, and for selling wine at excessive rates "to the oppressing &
impovishing of the colony"; he was fined £5 for some of these
offenses, including selling strong waters and nutmegs at excessive
rates (PCR 1:87, 97). In the Dorothy Temple case he was "committed to
ward for his contempt to the Court, and shall so remayne comitted
untill hee shall either receive his servant Dorothy Temple, or els
pvide for her elsewhere at his owne charge during the terme shee hath
yet to serve him" (PCR 1:112). On 3 December 1639 he was presented for
selling a looking glass for sixteen pence which could be bought in the
Bay Colony for nine pence, and he was also fined £3 for selling strong
water without license" (PCR 1:137).
Jonathan Hatch, who from the records seems to have been a
recurring disciplinary problem in the colony, on 5 April 1642 was
ordered by the court to dwell with Mr. Stephen Hopkins, "& the said
Mr
Hopkins to have a speciall care of him" (PCR 2:38).
He dated his will 6 June 1644, inventory 17 July 1644, and
mentioned his deceased wife; sons Giles and Caleb; daughter Constance,
wife of Nicholas Snow; daughters Deborah, Damaris, Ruth and Elizabeth;
and grandson Stephen, son of his son Giles (MD 2:12). Ralph D.
Phillips, "Hopkins Family of Wortley, Gloucestershire-Possible
Ancestry of Stephen Hopkins," TAG 39:95, suggests that he might have
come from the parish of Wotten-under-Edge, Gloucestershire, but the
evidence is not sufficient to say positively. Some writers, such as
Banks in English Ancestry, pp. 61-64, and Jacobus in Waterman Family,
1:86, have felt that his wife, Elizabeth, may have been Elizabeth
Fisher, whom a Stephen Hopkins married at London 19 February
1617/18-Mourt's Relation, p. 15, states that he was of London. If so,
she would have been a second wife, for the births of some of his
children would predate this marriage. Dawes-Gates 2:443, citing the
London marriage record, states that his wife was "undoubtedly"
Elizabeth Fisher. Timothy Hopkins, "Stephen Hopkins of the Mayflower
and Some of His Descendants," NEHGR 102:46, 98, 197, 257, 103:24, 85,
166, 304, 104:52, 123, 213, 296, 105:32, 100, covers some of his early
generations, but it is not documented. George E. Bowman wrote an
article in MD 5:47 to consolidate much of the early information known
about his family. A popularized biography of Stephen Hopkins was
written by Margaret Hodges, Hopkins of the Mayflower-Portrait of a
Dissenter (New York, 1972). Claims that a John Hopkins of Hartford,
Connecticut, was his son are baseless. By his first wife he had
Constance, who married Nicholas Snow, and [p.310] Giles, who married
Catherine Wheldon. By Elizabeth Fisher he had the Damaris, who died
young; Oceanus, who died young; Caleb, who died at Barbados as an
adult without issue; Deborah, who married Andrew Ring; the second
Damaris, who married Jacob Cooke, son of Francis; Ruth, who died
without issue; and Elizabeth, who died without issue (Dawes-Gates,
2:449).
"He spent two years in Jamestown, where he learned much of later use
tot he Plymouth colonists." (A Francis Cooke Mayflower Study)
Will of Stephen Hopkins
The last Will and Testament of Mr. Stephen Hopkins exhibited upon
the Oathes of mr Willm Bradford and Captaine Miles Standish at the
generall Court holden at Plymouth the xxth of August Anno dm 1644 as
it followeth in these wordes vizt.
The sixt of June 1644 I Stephen Hopkins of Plymouth in New
England being weake yet in good and prfect memory blessed be God yet
considering the fraile estate of all men I do ordaine and make this to
be my last will and testament in manner and forme following and first
I do committ my body to the earth from whence it was taken, and my
soule to the Lord who gave it, my body to b eburyed as neare as
convenyently may be to my wyfe Deceased And first my will is that out
of my whole estate my funerall expences be discharged secondly that
out of the remayneing part of my said estate that all my lawfull Debts
be payd thirdly I do bequeath by this my will to my sonn Giles Hopkins
my great Bull wch is now in the hands of Mris Warren. Also I do give
to Stephen Hopkins my sonn Giles his sonne twenty shillings in
Mris Warrens hands for the hire of the said Bull Also I give and
bequeath to my daughter Constanc Snow the wyfe of Nicholas Snow my
mare also I give unto my daughter Deborah Hopkins the brodhorned black
cowe and her calf and half the Cowe called Motley
Also I doe give and bequeath unto my daughter Damaris Hopkins the Cowe
called Damaris heiffer and the white faced calf and half the cowe
called Mottley Also I give to my daughter Ruth the Cowe called Red
Cole and her calfe and a Bull at Yarmouth wch is in the keepeing
of Giles Hopkins wch is an yeare and advantage old and half the curld
Cowe Also I give and bequeath to my daughter Elizabeth the Cowe called
Smykins and her calf and thother half of the Curld Cowe wth Ruth and
an yearelinge heiffer wth out a tayle in the keeping of Gyles
Hopkins at Yarmouth Also I do give and bequeath unto my foure
daughters that is to say Deborah Hopkins Damaris Hopkins Ruth Hopkins
and Elizabeth Hopkins all the mooveable goods the wch do belong to my
house as linnen wollen beds bedcloathes pott kettles
pewter or whatsoevr are moveable belonging to my said house of what
kynd soever and not named by their prticular names all wch said
mooveables to be equally devided amongst my said daughters foure
silver spoones that is to say to eich of them one, And in case any of
my
said daughters should be taken away by death before they be marryed
that then the part of their division to be equally devided amongst the
Survivors. I do also by this my will make Caleb Hopkins my sonn and
heire apparent giveing and bequeathing unto my said sonn aforesaid all
my Right title and interrest to my house and lands at Plymouth wth all
the Right title and interrest wch doth might or of Right doth or may
hereafter belong unto mee, as also I give unto my saide heire all such
land wch of Right is Rightly due unto me and not at prsent in my reall
possession wch belongs unto me by right of my first comeing into this
land or by any other due Right, as by such freedome or otherwise
giveing unto my said heire my full & whole and entire Right in all
divisions allottments appoyntments or distributions whatsoever to all
or
any pt of the said lande at any tyme or tymes so to be disposed Also I
do give moreover unto my foresaid heire one paire or yooke of oxen and
the hyer of them wch are in the hands of Richard Church as may appeare
by bill under his hand Also I do give unto my said heire Caleb
Hopkins all my debts wch are now oweing unto me, or at the day of my
death may be oweing unto mee either by booke bill or bills or any
other way rightfully due unto mee ffurthermore my will is that my
daughters aforesaid shall have free recourse to my house in Plymouth
upon any occation there to abide and remayne for such tyme as any of
them shall thinke meete and convenyent & they single persons And for
the faythfull prformance of this my will I do make and ordayne my
aforesaid sonn and heire Caleb Hopkins my true and lawfull Executor
ffurther I do by this my will appoynt and make my said sonn and
Captaine Miles Standish joyntly supervisors of this my will according
to the true meaneing of the same that is to say that my Executor &
supervisor shall make the severall divisions parts or porcons legacies
or whatsoever doth appertaine to the fullfilling of this my will It is
also my will that my Executr & Supervisor shall advise devise and
dispose by the best wayes & meanes they cann for the disposeing in
marriage or other wise for the best advancnt of the estate of the
forenamed
Deborah Damaris Ruth and Elizabeth Hopkins Thus trusting in the Lord
my will shalbe truly prformed according to the true meaneing of the
same I committ the whole Disposeing hereof to the Lord that hee may
direct you herein
June 6th 1644
Witnesses hereof By me Steven Hopkins
Myles Standish
William Bradford
(Mayflower Web Pages)
We know that there were taxes, also called rates, in Plymouth Colony
as early as 1623, for one of the matters agreed when newcomers arrived
that year was that every male over sixteen years of age would pay a
bushel of Indian wheat, or the equivalent, toward the maintenance of
government and public officers. We do not hear much more about taxes
until colony records show that on 2 January 1632/33 Governor Bradford,
Captain Standish, John Alden, John Howland, John Doane, Stephen
Hopkins, William Gilson, Samuel Fuller, Sr., John Jenny, Cuthbert
Cuthbertson, and Jonathan Brewster \were ordered by the court to
assess taxes on the colonists, payable in grain or the equivalent.
(Plymouth Colony: Its History and People, pp 48-49)
On 2 January 1633/34 rates were again assessed by the new governor,
Thomas Prence, and William Bradford, Captain Standish, John Howland,
Stephen Hopkins, John Doane, William Gilson, William Collier, John
Jenny, Robert Hicks, Jonathan Brewster, Kenelm Winslow, and Stephen
Deane. Only eighty individuals were rated this time, and we can note
that some of the names on the 1632/33 list, but missing from the
1633/34 list, were among those who had died in the epidemic, though in
a few cases their widows took their places. The ratings consisted of:
£0/9 shillings 45 individuals
£0/12 shillings 7 individuals
£0/18 shillings 13 individuals
£1/4 shillings 3 individuals
£1/7 shillings 8 individuals
£1/10 shillings 1 individual (Stephen Hopkins)
£1/16 shillings 1 individual (Isaac Allerton)
£2/5 shillings 2 individuals (William Collier &
Edward Winslow)
TOTAL 80 taxpayers
"That no one was above the law can be seen in the 1636 conviction of
Stephen Hopkins, who was at the time an Assistant and magistrate
himself, but still was fined £5 for battery against John Tisdale, the
court observing that Hopkins should have especially been one to
observe the king's peace." (Plymouth Colony: Its History and People)
Somewhat more specific, though a bit confusing also, is the case of
Lydia Hatch, Jonathan Hatch, Edward Mitchell, Edward Preston, and John
Keene. On 1 March 1641/42 Lydia Hatch was sentenced to be whipped for
"suffering Edward Mitchell to attempt to abuse her body by
uncleanesse," and for not reporting it, and also for lying in the same
bed with her brother Jonathan. Edward Mitchell was sentenced to be
whipped at both Plymouth and Barnstable for "his lude and sodomiticall
practices tending to sodomye wth Edward Preston, and other lude
carryages wth Lydia Hatch." Edward Preston was sentenced to be whipped
at Plymouth and Barnstable at the same time as Mitchell for his lewd
practices tending to sodomy with [p.201] Edward Mitchell, and for
"pressing John Keene thereunto (if he would have yeilded)." John Keene
"because he resisted the temptacon, & used meanes to discover it, is
appoynted to stand by whilst Mitchell and Preston are whipt, though in
some thing he was faulty." Jonathan Hatch "was taken as a vagrant,
&
for his misdemeanors was censured to be whipt, & sent from constable
to constable to Leiftennant Davenport at Salem." A few days later it
was determined that Jonathan Hatch would dwell with Mr. Stephen
Hopkins, with Hopkins to have a special care of him. (Plymouth Colony:
Its Historya nd People)
"On 5 June 1638 he was presented for selling beer for two pence a
quart which was not worth a penny a quart, and for selling wine at
excessive rates 'to the oppressing & impovishing of the colony'; he
was fined £5 for some of these offenses, including selling strong
waters and nutmegs at excessive rates." (A Francis Cooke Mayflower
Study: PCR 1:87, 97)
In 1671 the court ordered that no rum could be sold in the colony for
more than five shillings a gallon, or if retailed no more than two
pence a gill. John Barnes and Stephen Hopkins were sometimes punished
for charging more than a fair price. (Plymouth Colony: Its History
and People)
Pilgrim Criminal Records
Even the Pilgrims were not always perfect "Christian angels". In
fact, some racked up quite a criminal history. It could certainly be
noted, however, that the Pilgrims who did rack up criminal histories
all belonged to the London contingent, and were not the religious
Separatists from Leyden.
STEPHEN HOPKINS:
1607: Mutiny. Sentenced to death, but sentence commuted on behalf of
his wife and children.
1636: Assault and Battery of John Tisdale, fined £5. 40s.
1637: Disorderly Conduct: Allowing drinking and scuffleboard in his
house on a Sunday, allowing servants to get drunk.
1638: Disorderly Conduct: Allowing three friends to get drunk at his
house
1638: Price Fixing: Selling beer and nutmeg above the accepted price
limit
1638: Breach of Contract: Failing to properly provide for his
servant Dorothy Temple per his contract.
1639: Illegal Sale of Alcohol without a License
(Mayflower Web Pages)
Notes:
Dorothy Temple, a servant to Stephen Hopkins, was sentenced on 4 June
1639 to be whipped twice for "uncleanes and bringing forth a male
bastard," but she fainted after the first whipping, and so the second
one was canceled. She was not of course whipped until she had been
delivered of the baby and recovered. She named the baby's father as
Arthur Peach, who shortly before had been hanged for murdering an
Indian. One wonders also
what happened in a case like this, where it was impossible for the
child's father to marry her. In Dorothy Temple's case, her master,
Stephen Hopkins, was ordered to keep her and her child for the
duration of her indenture—about two years. However, Hopkins refused to
do so, and the Assistants, of whom he himself had been one just a few
years earlier, committed him to house arrest until he would either
take her back or otherwise provide for her. Mr.
John Holmes, the Messenger of the Court, for £3 and other
consideration, agreed to take her and her son into his house according
to her indenture, and discharge both Hopkins and the colony of any
further obligation for their support. It can be assumed that when her
indenture was finished, she and her child, if he survived, went
elsewhere. (Plymouth Colony: Its History and People)
The contract or covenant was an almost inviolate part of servitude,
and was to be strictly observed by both parties. Though this was not
always honored by one or the other party, whenever any breaches came
to the attention of the court, it almost invariably decided in favor
of strict compliance. A classic case of compliance involved Mayflower
passenger Stephen Hopkins, whose unmarried servant Dorothy Temple, on
showing signs of pregnancy, named the father as the recently executed
Arthur Peach (who was therefore not available to marry her). He was married
to Mary before 1604 in England.
17213. Mary died
in 1613 in Hursley, Hampshire, England. She was buried on 9 May 1613 in Hursley,
Hampshire, England. She was born in probably Hampshire, England. Children
were:
i.
Elizabeth HOPKINS was born in 1604 in Hursley, Hampshire, England. She was
baptized on 13 May 1604 in Hursley, Hampshire, England. She was living in 1613.
She died prob. before 1620.
ii.
Constance HOPKINS was born in 1606 in Hursley, Hampshire, England. She was
baptized on 11 May 1606 in Hursley, Hampshire, England. She died mid-Oct 1677
in Eastham, Barnstable, Massachusetts.
4238 iii.
Giles HOPKINS.
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