Stephen Hopkins "Sea Venture" and "Mayflower" Passenger

Here's a good summary of the current evidence:

Origins

Caleb Johnson, who has written a biography of Hopkins, writes, "Stephen Hopkins was not from Wortley, Wotton-under-Edge, Gloucestershire, as has been previously published in numerous books and articles, and the claim he married a woman named Constance Dudley is complete fiction. This alleged origin was disproven in my article, "The True English Origins of Stephen Hopkins of the Mayflower", published in The American Genealogist 73:161-171. The Wotton-under-Edge claim was never factually sound to begin with, based simply on a few name coincidences and wild speculations."

Johnson found the baptisms of Stephen's children Giles and Constance, as well as the burial of his wife Mary, at Hursley, Hampshire, England. Giles, Constance, and additional daughter Elizabeth are named in Mary's estate papers dated 10 May 1613.

In 2002, Ernest Christienson published the results of his search of "some 137 parish records and other sources," concluding that Stephen was most likely the son of John Hopkins and Elizabeth Williams, baptized the 'last of April', 1581, at Upper Clatford, Hampshire. [6]

http://werelate.org/wiki/Person:Stephen_Hopkins_%282%29

I found another site. Very interesting. Run by a descendant, I believe. Stuck it in my bookmarks (which are not very organized -- not sure exactly where at the moment). Anyway, I think that it had good references. I'll try to get my bookmarks more organized and find it again.

Don't usually get involved in people searches but ran my link to him and found, at least according to Geni that he is 1st cousin 12 times removed thu Brockway line...

I will have to look at the info I have...

Goes Ephraim 1703 Brockway to Deborah Jones, to Henry Palmer,to Thomas Palmer,to Margaret Palmer, to John Poole (Knight),to Mary Poole to Stephen Hopkins "Mayflower" passenger...

This is, of course, according to Geni and not anything I was aware of before....

If this line is of interest please feel free to use it or contact me..I have Brockway info but the other is, or has been, side info that...I guess NOW, I will look into.

OOPS...After Ephraim comes MARGARET 1667 Jones...then Deborah Jones etc...

Fay

You may be out of luck -- I'm disconnecting the Sir John Poole line from Mayflower Stephen Hopkins. It's disproven according to his official biography. :)

No problem...didn't know of the connection before...no worse off that its incorrect....I'm OK being aquamarine, don't need to be blue-blood...

Go for it.

Bummers...disconnecting the Pooles from the Mayflower takes me out of the Stephen Hopkins loop. Still got that Signers Project link to him to peak my interest tho!

I will watch the discussion, let me know if you need my help with anything, but I don't want to be tied to the project...too much on my plate already!

Oh, Erica.... this is the the second Sea Venture discussion.

I checked that Almanac of Colonial History I checked out of the library...neither Sea Venture or the captain were listed in the index, but that doesn't mean I won't find reference to something in the text. Will keep you posted.

I started on this last night, as you probably saw :). I didn't realize how crazy it would get until I couldn't find the extra kids (William, Bethia) in some of the source material that someone had posted. I gave up and went to bed. :) I'm interested in being involved, but Geni hasn't found a path linking me to Mr. Hopkins yet.

Just kidding--he is my 6th cousin 8 times removed :) Looks like we are related somehow, Erica!

Ever since I got rid of Sir Poole Stephen Hopkins moved up to being my second cousin!

If you're up to helping with a Hopkins Family Project, Lindsay, I'd love to get one going. It takes Anita off the hook from the way I tend to suck her in. :)

Definitely am! Just let me know what extra stuff I need to do aside from researching/merging.

Eh, we'll figure that out as we go along. :) Geni is enhancing the Project tools so it's getting more and more useful: they now have a Project Merge Center, for example, so we can merge directly from there instead of from the larger merge center. Much more focused for me.

If there's anyone else we can draft for the enterprise, ask them to post to this discussion. Take a look and see if you can find some good sources for descendants -- I put a bunch in the "documents" tab of the Stephen Hopkins master profile, but not sure how far down the historical stream I got (the dude is just too interesting himself LOL.)

I'll post when I have some ID's loaded to the Project that I need to create.

BTW I'm busy mega merging the Hopkins family and breaking incorrect parentage. :)

Yeah...project merge issues....LOVE IT!!!!

Does everyone know that the character of Stephano in Shakespeare's "The Tempest" is based on Stephen Hopkins? I think Shakepeare was making fun of him?

Was wondering if anyone could locate a good youtube of a scene from that to add to the profile.

Also, Sibelius wrote "incidental music for "The Tempest." I found some on youtube and linked it, but could not find "Stephano's Song." I bet it's been done by other composers as well, and I'd love to get the words separately in as a document. So that's more internet searches.

Well written description of life in Jamestown VA and what it was like for Stephen Hopkins:

http://www.mccarterfamily.com/mccarterpage/stories/stephen_hopkins/...

I am reading "Mayflower" by Nathaniel Philbrick. I will add in references to Mr. Hopkins as I find them for you...

pg 25: [In reference to the Leiden group on the Speedwell meeting up with the London group on the Mayflower in Southhampton in early summer, 1620} .... Stephen Hopkins was making his second trip to America. Eleven years earlier in 1609 he had sailed on the Sea Venture for Virginia, only to become shipwrecked in Bermuda---an incident that became the basis for Shakespeare's "The Tempest". While on Bermuda, Hopkins had been part of an attempted mutiny and had been sentenced to hang, but pleading tearfully for his life, he was, at the last minute, given a reprieve. Hopkins spent two years in Jamestown before returning to England and was now accompanied by his pregnant wife Elizabeth; his son, Giles, and daughters Constance and Damaris, along with two servants, Edward Doty and Edward Leister."

Notes about that passage: When it comes to the origins of the Mayflower's passengers, there is an incredible wealth of genealogical research on which to draw. Upon its publication in 1986, Eugene Stratton's "Plymouth Colony: Its History and People, 1620-1691", with biographical sketches written with the research help of Robert Wakefield, became THE single source for information about the Pilgrims. Since then, the publication of Robert Anderson's "The Great Migration Begins, 1620-1633" has set a new standard - recently surpassed by the updated biographies contained in Anderson's "The Pilgrim Migration", which incorporate important new research, such as Caleb Johnson's "The True History of Stephen Hopkins of the Mayflower" in the "American Genealogist", which established, almost for a certainty, that Hopkins was the same Stephen Hopkins who had previously been shipwrecked on Bermuda during a passage to Virginia in 1609.

I have to get the Caleb Johnson biography ...

Erica...

bibliography info: Johnson, Caleb H. "The True Origin of Stephen Hopkins of the Mayflower" "The Amercan Genealogist 73" no 3 (July 1998), pp. 161-71

Just a side note about Stephen Hopkins, and other ancestors....this site shows my relation to Stephen Hoptins is my "10th great uncle's uncle's wife's father" through my father. Yet I can prove that he is in fact my 11th great grandfather through my mother. For some reason, I don't seem to be related to ANYONE through my mother's side past what I have entered into my tree on this website. And my mother is related to several Mayflower passengers and the Wampanoag Indians and many, many, many famous (and infamous) people. Yet, Geni cannot seem to see this. I'd love for someone to be able to show me relations through my mother.
Sharon

This is the only public ancestor I see on your mothers side

Susan White

1) I think you need to fill in more profiles to connect to existing trees on Geni including Stephen Hopkins
2) you probably need to make more profiles public in order to connect

I'm sending you a collaboration request - should help when you get to merge points

I don't think I am connect to Stephen Hopkins but I am connected to others and the Indians in that area and time period. Erica will help you and then maybe we can if we are also connected.

Facebook has a Mayflower descendants page with lots of cousins and are very helpful. It is not a sanctioned Mayflower site, rather casual, but informative. One of the administrators is a John Bradford Towle.

@Erica Howton I would like to be a part of this group...

Yes , it sounds interesting.

hows this for a tongue twister he is my 6th great grandmother's husband's wife's sister's husband's second great grandfather.

I thought my husband was a descendant of Stephen Hopkins through his daughter Damaris who married Jacob Cooke, then Mary Cooke who married John Rickard, then Mary Rickard b. 1709 to Joseph Phinney b. 1709, then Noah Phinney. But that seems to have gone away in geni.com. Not sure why?

Mayflower Descendants is the name of the Facebook page.
There was a mention of the Hopkins heritage society.