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- Stephen Hopkins, a descendant of Sir Richard Hopkins of Coventry, England, was a tanner and merchant who was one of the passengers on the Mayflower in 1620, arriving with his family and settling in Plymouth Colony. Hopkins was recruited by the Merchant Adventurers to provide governance for the colony as well as to assist with the colony's ventures. He was a member of a group of passengers known to the Pilgrims as "The Strangers" since they were not part of the Pilgrims' religious congregation. Hopkins was one of forty-one signatories of the Mayflower Compact and was an assistant to the governor of the colony through 1636.
It is believed that the Stephen Hopkins who arrived on the Mayflower was the man of that name who had arrived in Virginia in 1609 aboard the new flagship of the Virginia Company, the Sea Venture, with Sir George Somers took the helm. He held the position of Minister's Clerk, serving as lay reader to the chaplain of the fleet. The ship was enroute to the Jamestown Colony in Virginia with much needed supplies when it was deliberately driven onto the reefs of Bermuda to prevent its foundering as a result of the damage it had sustained during a severe storm. All 150 passengers, crew and a dog survived the mishap. The ship's longboat was fitted with a mast and sent to Virginia for help, but it and its crew were never seen again. While stranded on the island, Stephen Hopkins attempted to start a mutiny, for which he was sentenced to death. But he was eventually set free after complaining of the "ruin of his wife and children." Hopkins and the remaining survivors spent nine months on Bermuda building two smaller ships, the Deliverance and Patience, from Bermuda cedar and materials salvaged from the Sea Venture. He and the other castaways eventually made their way to Jamestown, where Hopkins appears to have stayed for (some say) two years before returning to England. The Hopkins family is considered one of the First Families of Virginia. The story of the Sea Venture shipwreck, and Hopkins' mutiny, is said to be the inspiration for "The Tempest" by William Shakespeare.
The Pilgrim Hopkins Heritage Society was founded in 2005 to perpetuate the memory of the Hopkins family who arrived on the Mayflower in 1620. The Society encourages research on Stephen Hopkins, one of the most colorful and independent-minded Mayflower passengers, on his first wife, Mary, his second wife, Elizabeth, and on their descendants. The Society assists descendants of the Pilgrim Hopkins family to acquire proof of eligibility for membership into the General Society of Mayflower Descendants.
http://www.pilgrimhopkins.com/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Hopkins_(Mayflower_passenger)
https://youtu.be/O0sTqTessL4?si=VRH0o0QIQZZHHVNO [1, 2]
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1581 - 1644 (~ 63 years)
[1, 2] 