Life Passages
One Family’s Story
Stephen Hopkins was baptized on April 30, 1581 at Upper Clatford, Hampshire County, England. He married Mary Kent in England around 1603. The Hopkinses lived in Hursley, Hampshire County by May 1604 when their first daughter Mary was baptized. Stephen and Mary would have two more children together. Stephen Hopkins departed Hursley in 1608, leaving his family behind. He might have been the Stephen Hopkins who was shipwrecked off Bermuda in 1609 aboard the Sea Venture, and then was away in Virginia for some years. The Sea Venture wreck was one of the inspirations for Shakespeare’s play The Tempest. His wife, Mary, died in Hursley in May 1613. Her estate inventory referred to a shop. By February 1618, Stephen Hopkins was living in London, because he married Elizabeth Fisher on February 19, 1618 at St. Mary Matfelon, Whitechapel, London. They would have six children together.
Stephen and Elizabeth Hopkins came to New England aboard the Mayflower in 1620, along with children Constance, Giles, and Damaris; and two manservants Edward Dotey and Edward Leister. Elizabeth Hopkins was in advanced pregnancy at sailing and gave birth to her son Oceanus during the Mayflower crossing. Stephen Hopkins and his two manservants signed the Mayflower Compact. Stephen Hopkins was active in the first years of Plymouth Colony, serving several times as emissary to Massasoit. He was a freeman of the colony and served as Governor’s Assistant from 1633-1636. Though a man of social standing, in the 1630s, Hopkins was presented in court and fined for wounding John Tisdale, allowing drinking and playing “shovel-board” at his house on the Lord’s day, for “suffering excessive drinking in his house” and for “selling beer for two pennies the quart, not worth one penny the quart.”
Stephen Hopkins died in Plymouth between June 6 and July 17, 1644. Elizabeth died before her husband, passing away in the early 1640s. His will requested, “my body to be buried as near as conveniently may be to my wife deceased…”
Marriage
In the 17th century, couples chose a wedding date around both the religious calendar and the agricultural year. In England, certain seasons were prohibited, notably Lent and Advent. Few couples married in August, the peak month of harvest. In Holland at the time of the Pilgrims, marriage was considered a matter for the state rather than the church. It was a civil ceremony performed by two magistrates of the town or city. When they came to New England, the Pilgrims continued this Dutch custom of civil marriage. Couples were married by the governor or one of his assistants. In the early years of Plymouth Colony, Governor William Bradford recorded marriages in a small notebook or register. Unfortunately, the valuable source disappeared in the 18th century, and very few early marriage dates are known.