Stephen Hopkins of the Mayflower is my 10x great grandfather through his daughter Constance (Hopkins)Snow. With some of my ancestors I've been unable to find much information to write a blogpost about them. I have the opposite problem with Stephen Hopkins. There is so much out there on him I could find enough for a half-dozen blogposts. But for the purposes of not falling too far behind on the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks challenge, I've chosen an excerpt from Annie Arnoux Haxtun's Signers of the Mayflower Compact, Volume 1. It was first published in 1869 and is written in florid style common to that period:
STEPHEN HOPKINS'S POSITION.
Stephen Hopkins's power and position are always shown by his being called "Mister," a title applied as Master.
"Only twelve people have the prefix Mr. in the whole list of the passengers on the Mayflower, Fortune and Little James."
Mr. Stephen Hopkins was a man of great enterprise, and in the present day would have been a very acceptable and appreciative companion at all athletic sports, whether on sea or land. At his place, near Eel River (Plymouth), which he sold in 1637, there was a wharf which gave evidence of age, and was the first one spoken of in the colony. His yacht is not mentioned, though he was part owner of the first ship built in Plymouth, but it was on hand if he could materialize matters to his liking, and there were sure to be "chips" on board for a time of need, though he never carried a "chip on his shoulder."
Not to give precedence to his allegiance to old Neptune, he owned the first horse on record (1644), when a mare belonging to the estate of Stephen Hopkins was appraised at £6 sterling.
Its rate of speed has not come to us, but nothing slow flourished under this master.
His otticeholding was continuous—of the Governor's Council from Plymouth, 16234-5-6; in 1637 one of the volunteers in aid of Massachusetts Bay and Connecticut in their war with the Pequods, when the colony concluded to send them assistance, and then was of the committee appointed to levy an assessment to pay the charges of the expedition; then in 1642 was chosen to the Council of War from Plymouth,
No desire could make a narrow-minded Puritan of Mr. Stephen Hopkins; he was broad enough for the methods of the present day. It was not in the blood to live up to the requirements of that early "Vigilance Committee," who were a law unto themselves, with a "single eye" to the faults of others.-p25
Signers of the Mayflower Compact, Volume 1, The Mail And Express Publishing Company, New York, New York, 1896
I expect to write more posts about Stephen Hopkins in the future,
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