Edward Hopkins (1600 – March 1657) was an English colonist and politician and 2nd Governor of the Connecticut Colony. Active on both sides of the Atlantic, he was a founder of the

New Haven New Haven is a city in the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound in New Haven County, Connecticut and is part of the New York City metropolitan area. With a population of 134,023 ...

and

Connecticut Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York (state), New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the ...

colonies, serving seven one-year terms as Governor of Connecticut. He returned to England in the 1650s, where he was politically active in the administration of

Oliver Cromwell Oliver Cromwell (25 April 15993 September 1658) was an English politician and military officer who is widely regarded as one of the most important statesmen in English history. He came to prominence during the 1639 to 1651 Wars of the Three ...

as a Lord Commissioner of the Admiralty and member of Parliament. He remained in England despite being elected Governor of Connecticut in 1655, and died in London in 1657. Hopkins' will left substantial assets, in trust, for "Encouragement unto those forreign Plantations for the breeding up of Hopefull youth in the way of Learning both at ye Gramar School& Colledge for the publick Service of the Country in future times ndfor the upholding& promoting of the Kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ in those parts of the earth." However, the inchoate state of American law on trusts kept The Charity of Edward Hopkins (as this trust is now known) mired in litigation for the next 135 years. The eventual resolution of the case made

Harvard College Harvard College is the undergraduate college of Harvard University, an Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636, Harvard College is the original school of Harvard University, the oldest institution of higher ...

the major beneficiary of the trust, along with the

Hopkins School Hopkins School is a private, college-preparatory, coeducational, day school for grades 7–12 located in New Haven, Connecticut. In 1660, Edward Hopkins, seven-time governor of the Connecticut Colony, bequeathed a portion of his estate to found s ...

New Haven, Connecticut New Haven is a city in the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound in New Haven County, Connecticut and is part of the New York City metropolitan area. With a population of 134 ...

and other schools and institutions. As a side effect of the early administration of the trust, the town of Hopkinton, Massachusetts was named after him after

bought 12 500 acres of land there from the Hopkins endowment.

Biography

Edward Hopkins was born in 1600 in

Shrewsbury Shrewsbury ( , also ) is a market town, civil parish, and the county town of Shropshire, England, on the River Severn, north-west of London; at the 2021 census, it had a population of 76,782. The town's name can be pronounced as either 'Sh ...

Shropshire Shropshire (; alternatively Salop; abbreviated in print only as Shrops; demonym Salopian ) is a landlocked historic county in the West Midlands region of England. It is bordered by Wales to the west and the English counties of Cheshire to ...

to Edward Hopkins and Katharine Lello Hopkins. Educated at

Shrewsbury School Shrewsbury School is a public school (English independent boarding school for pupils aged 13 –18) in Shrewsbury. Founded in 1552 by Edward VI by Royal Charter, it was originally a boarding school for boys; girls have been admitted into ...

, he then went to

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

where he became a successful merchant engaging in trade with the

Near East The ''Near East''; he, המזרח הקרוב; arc, ܕܢܚܐ ܩܪܒ; fa, خاور نزدیک, Xāvar-e nazdik; tr, Yakın Doğu is a geographical term which roughly encompasses a transcontinental region in Western Asia, that was once the hist ...

. He may have benefited from connections with his uncle, Sir Henry Lello, who served for a time as English Ambassador to the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University ...

Warden A warden is a custodian, defender, or guardian. Warden is often used in the sense of a watchman or guardian, as in a prison warden. It can also refer to a chief or head official, as in the Warden of the Mint. ''Warden'' is etymologically identic ...

of the Fleet Prison, and Keeper of the

Palace of Westminster The Palace of Westminster serves as the meeting place for both the House of Commons and the House of Lords, the two houses of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Informally known as the Houses of Parliament, the Palace lies on the north b ...

. He married Ann Yale (born about 1615, daughter of Thomas Yale Sr. and Ann (Lloyd) Yale of Wales, and step-daughter of Theophilus Eaton) in 1636 or 1637 in

Hartford, Connecticut Hartford is the capital city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It was the seat of Hartford County until Connecticut disbanded county government in 1960. It is the core city in the Greater Hartford metropolitan area. Census estimates since t ...

). He became involved in efforts to establish a colony on the shore of

Long Island Sound Long Island Sound is a marine sound and tidal estuary of the Atlantic Ocean. It lies predominantly between the U.S. state of Connecticut to the north and Long Island in New York to the south. From west to east, the sound stretches from the Eas ...

that were under the aegis of the Lord Say and Sele and

Baron Brooke Baron Brooke is a title in the Peerage of England. It was created in 1621 and was absorbed into the Earldom of Warwick in 1759. History The title was created in 1621 for Fulke Greville, who was already 5th Baron Willoughby de Broke. Greville was ...

. Although Hopkins was not apparently a signer of the Saybrook Colony's patent, he was involved in procuring provisions for the colonization effort's inaugural expedition in 1635, headed by

Lion Gardiner Lion Gardiner (1599–1663) was an English engineer and colonist who founded the first English settlement in New York, acquiring land on eastern Long Island. He had been working in the Netherlands and was hired to construct fortifications on th ...

. After restrictions were placed on emigration to New England, the proprietors of the venture essentially abandoned it. In 1637 he joined a venture led by Theophilus Eaton, an indirect relation through his wife, and John Davenport which led to the establishment of a settlement at the mouth of the Quinnipiac River and the founding of the

New Haven Colony The New Haven Colony was a small English colony in North America from 1638 to 1664 primarily in parts of what is now the state of Connecticut, but also with outposts in modern-day New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware. The history of ...

. Two months later he was sent north to recently founded

Hartford Hartford is the capital city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It was the seat of Hartford County until Connecticut disbanded county government in 1960. It is the core city in the Greater Hartford metropolitan area. Census estimates since t ...

on the

Connecticut River The Connecticut River is the longest river in the New England region of the United States, flowing roughly southward for through four states. It rises 300 yards (270 m) south of the U.S. border with Quebec, Canada, and discharges at Long Islan ...

to negotiate additional land purchases for the New Haven colonists, but decided to instead stay in Hartford, becoming one of the early settlers of the

Connecticut Colony The ''Connecticut Colony'' or ''Colony of Connecticut'', originally known as the Connecticut River Colony or simply the River Colony, was an English colony in New England which later became Connecticut. It was organized on March 3, 1636 as a settl ...

. In the colony's first election in 1639 he became one of several Assistants to the General Court. Then, in 1640 Hopkins was elected Governor. Because the colony's charter forbade reelection to the Governorship, Hopkins and John Haynes (Connecticut's first Governor) traded off as Governor (save one term by George Wyllys) between 1639 and 1655, each serving as Deputy Governor to the other when not Governor. Hopkins survived an assassination attempt in 1646 by a Native American tribe, made because Connecticut protected the chief of their rival tribe. He advocated the

New England Confederation The United Colonies of New England, commonly known as the New England Confederation, was a confederal alliance of the New England colonies of Massachusetts Bay, Plymouth, Saybrook (Connecticut), and New Haven formed in May 1643. Its primary pur ...

, serving as one of its commissioners. Even though he invested significantly in the colony, he also made money, supplying the colony with provisions from Europe and monopolizing the local fur trade among other activities. In 1650 he negotiated the Treaty of Hartford with Dutch Director-General of New Netherland

Peter Stuyvesant Peter Stuyvesant (; in Dutch also ''Pieter'' and ''Petrus'' Stuyvesant, ; 1610 – August 1672)Mooney, James E. "Stuyvesant, Peter" in p.1256 was a Dutch colonial officer who served as the last Dutch director-general of the colony of New Ne ...

of the

Stuyvesant family The Stuyvesant family is a family of American politicians and landowners in New York City. The family is of Dutch origin and is descended from Peter Stuyvesant (1610–1672), who was born in Peperga, Friesland, Netherlands and served as the last ...

, which established boundaries between the Dutch and English colonies in Connecticut and Long-Island. Hopkins returned to England several times during his rotating stints as Governor.

appointed him a Commissioner of the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against Fr ...

and later a Lord Commissioner of the Admiralty ; where the members were governing the

Board of Admiralty The Board of Admiralty (1628–1964) was established in 1628 when Charles I put the office of Lord High Admiral into commission. As that position was not always occupied, the purpose was to enable management of the day-to-day operational requi ...

of England as one of the

Great Officers of State Government in medieval monarchies generally comprised the king's companions, later becoming the Royal Household, from which the officers of state arose, initially having household and government duties. Later some of these officers became ...

. He also oversaw the printing of the New Haven Colony's first laws, and served in the

English Parliament The Parliament of England was the legislature of the Kingdom of England from the 13th century until 1707 when it was replaced by the Parliament of Great Britain. Parliament evolved from the great council of bishops and peers that advised t ...

during Cromwell's reign. Hopkins was elected Connecticut's Governor a final time in 1655 (despite still being in England) as an attempt by Connecticut residents to draw back their well-respected Governor. He did not return, however, and the lieutenant Governor Thomas Welles served out Hopkins' final term. Hopkins died in March 1657 in the London parish of

St Olave Hart Street St Olave's Church, Hart Street, is a Church of England church in the City of London, located on the corner of Hart Street and Seething Lane near Fenchurch Street railway station. John Betjeman described St Olave's as "a country church in the w ...

Legacy

Money from Hopkins' estate funded the creation of

in New Haven, Connecticut, the wish of John Davenport, founder of the New Haven colony. In addition, Hopkins Classical School in

Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As part of the Boston metropolitan area, the cities population of the 2020 U.S. census was 118,403, making it the fourth most populous city in the state, behind Boston, ...

and Hopkins Academy also trace their roots to Edward Hopkins. Hopkinton, Massachusetts, named for him, was established on land purchased using funds from his estate.

References

Sources

*
An Account of the Trust Administered by the Trustees of the Charity of Edward Hopkinsalt

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hopkins, Edward 1600 births 1657 deaths Colonial governors of Connecticut English emigrants Lieutenant Governors of Connecticut Politicians from Shrewsbury English MPs 1656–1658 Founders of Hartford, Connecticut Magistrates of the Connecticut General Court (1636–1662) Members of the Parliament of England for Dartmouth Lords of the Admiralty