With its eighteenth-century brick porch, its twelfth century blocked doorway and sixteenth century tower, the All Saints Church lies in a meadow on the River Anton in Upper Clatford, Hampshire, England. The parish register of this church contains what is very probably the baptismal record of Mayflower passenger Stephen Hopkins: 1581: Stephen the son of John Hopkins the last of April This record was unearthed by Hopkins descendant Ernest Martin Christensen of Florida. His research results, published in The American Genealogist 79 (October 2004), indicate that Stephen and his sister Susanna Hopkins (baptized in 1584) were the children of John Hopkins and his second wife Elizabeth (Williams) Hopkins. By his first wife, Agnes (Borrowe) Hopkins, John had two other children, William Hopkins (1575) and Alice (1577/8), Stephen’s older half brother and half sister respectively. Christensen spent seven years researching 137 parish records and other sources in Hampshire to come up with these and additional findings. His work builds on that of Caleb Johnson (see p. 7). In The American Genealogist 73 (July 1998), Johnson publishes baptismal entries of Stephen’s first three children found in parish registers of Hursley, Hampshire, some fifteen miles from Upper Clatford. Hopkins had these children with his first wife, Mary, who died in 1613 (presumably while Hopkins was in Virginia). The three Hursley-born children were Elizabeth (1604), Constance (1606), and Giles (1607). By his second wife, Elizabeth after his return to England, he had seven additional children: Damaris, Oceanus, Caleb, Deborah, Damaris, Ruth, and Elizabeth. Johnson’s article also reproduces the estate inventory from the probate record of Mary Hopkins in 1613. Some of the inventory items make clear that Mary and Stephen were shopkeepers. The estate inventory also indicates that Mary was a widow, which Johnson attributes to the fact that at this time Hopkins was in Virginia but presumed dead. Johnson speculates that, “..the court or parish might well have found it expedient to assume he was dead in order to make the property available for his children’s support…”. For those who want the latest research on Hopkins’s English roots, the above two articles are “must reads”. And for the really dedicated Hopkins descendants, they may even inspire a sojourn into the Hampshire countryside.
Stephen Hopkins’ Biggest Achievement by Stephen A. Hopkins
Stephen Hopkins was a man of many achievements. Although not a Separatist, he and his family joined the Pilgrims’ journey to the New World perhaps because Stephen had al-ready been to the colony in Jamestown and therefore had experience valuable for the Mayflower group. Stephen, along with his second wife, Elizabeth, their three children and two indentured servants, made the long and dangerous trip aboard the Mayflower in 1620.
