Something I've Learned About My Family...

A painting of the signing of the Mayflower Compact. Perhaps my ancestor, Stephen Hopkins, is in this painting!

One of my most distant ancestors is Stephen Hopkins, a man who arrived to America on the Mayflower. In fact, he was a prominent man on the ship; he was one of the signers of the Mayflower Compact, which was signed the day the ship docked in the New World, and he was an assistant to the governor of Plymouth Colony through 1636, after arriving in America in 1620. Apparently, Stephen was a businessman of sorts – a tanner and a merchant, he was asked to assist in the governance and financial business of the colony.

Stephen Hopkins had three children with his first wife even before coming to the New World: Elizabeth, Constance, and Giles. With his second wife, Stephen had seven more children, two of whom had children of their own. I wonder which one is more directly related to me, which one gave birth to my direct ancestors. I wonder how I could even find out! Interestingly, one of Stephen’s children was the only baby born aboard the Mayflower. Unfortunately, this child died at around age seven. Elizabeth Hopkins, Stephen’s second wife, died in 1640, before he did, and he indicated that he wanted to be buried near her. So romance was alive, even in the seventeenth century!

Here’s the craziest part: historians now think that this Stephen Hopkins, my ancestor, had actually been on voyages intended for the New World before the Mayflower! Apparently, Stephen left England on a ship headed for Jamestown, to bring the colony supplies and their new governor, Sir Thomas Gates. However, the ship crashed on the island of Bermuda after weathering a severe storm for five days. It is thought that on this ship was another soon-to-be-famous passenger, John Rolfe, who would later marry Pocahontas. During his time shipwrecked, Stephen began voicing his dissent against the governor, Gates, and was sentenced to death for mutiny. After many people begged for mercy for him, however, he was pardoned. (I can’t believe I’m learning this about my own relative!)

Eventually, a new ship was constructed, which sailed to Jamestown as they originally intended. Within four years, Stephen learned of his wife’s death back in England, and soon returned to care for his children. Six years later, despite the incredible hardships he had already survived during his first trip to America, he departed once again for the New World on the Mayflower.

Here’s a fun fact: in 1611, Shakespeare debuted The Tempest, which tells the tale of a shipwreck near Bermuda. One of the characters in a subplot of the play is thought to have been possibly based on Stephen Hopkins. I’m related to a superstar!

The history of this ancestor is extremely interesting and I plan to pursue it further, to see if I can get any more information on him and his children. I hope to find out which of his children I am directly related to, although I realize that this might be a very difficult task, as these people died so many years ago. I will update with more information soon!