Elizabeth Hopkins

Elizabeth Hopkins (born likely circa 1585 in England, died between 1638 and 1644 at Plymouth) was a passenger on the Mayflower.^[1] The first Thanksgiving feast was cooked by her and the other three adult Pilgrim women who also survived their first winter in the New World (Eleanor Billington, Mary Brewster, and Susanna White), along with young daughters and male and female servants.^[2][3]

Elizabeth Hopkins was possibly the second wife of Stephen Hopkins, whom she married on February 19, 1617/8 at St. Mary Matfellon, Whitechapel; however, her situation is not clear and she may have been Hopkins' third or even fourth wife.^[1] His children Giles and Constance, referred to by Bradford as being children of a former wife who may have been Hopkins first wife, although this also is not clear. This wife was also probably the mother of an older daughter Elizabeth who may have been deceased prior to the Mayflower departure.^[4] Author Simon Neal, in a June 2012 Mayflower Quarterly article on this family, for purposes of convenience, assumes Elizabeth to be Hopkins' second wife and the mother of Giles and Constance to be children of the unknown first wife. The identity of his wife Elizabeth is unknown, although there is a marriage record in the parish registers of St. Mary Whitechapel in London for a Stephen Hopkins to Elizabeth Fisher on 19 February 1617/18, and it has been commonly established that this is the second marriage of Mayflower passenger Stephen Hopkins. And although it cannot be particularly assumed that this was Hopkins's second marriage, it does fit into the time-period.^[4] Although there is no evidence found to date of what happened to the Stephen Hopkins and Elizabeth Fisher who married at St. Mary Whitechapel, author Simon Neal assumes that they were the Mayflower couple for the purposes of his research on this family. A search by Neal of baptisms in St. Mary Whitechapel in the second half of the 16th century reveals an Elizabeth Fisher who was baptized on 3 March 1582, but her father is not named and it is almost impossible to find out anything about her family. This Elizabeth would have been about age 35 when she married Stephen Hopkins and would have been close to his age, as he was thought to have been born about 1581.^[5]

Neal concludes that it is not possible to trace the origins of the Elizabeth Fisher who married Stephen Hopkins in the parish of St. Mary Whitechapel. She could have been from that parish or somewhere nearby in London or Stepney and of the Fisher family of Great Coates in Lincolnshire. And Neal emphasizes that there is no conclusive evidence that this is the same couple who embarked on the Mayflower but is assumed by most genealogists to be so.^[6] Elizabeth had already died when her husband Stephen wrote his will on 6 June 1644 as in it he asks to be buried next to his deceased wife Elizabeth.^[7]

Children of Stephen and Elizabeth Hopkins:^[8][9]

• Damaris (1) was born about 1618 in England and died young in Plymouth. Mayflower passenger.
• Oceanus was born in the fall of 1620 aboard the Mayflower. He was the only child born on the Mayflower.^[10] He had died by 22 May 1627.
• Caleb was born in Plymouth about 1624. He became a seaman and died at Barbados between 1644 and 1651.
• Deborah was born in Plymouth about 1626 and died probably before 1674. She married Andrew Ring at Plymouth on 23 April 1646 and had six children.
• Damaris (2) was born in Plymouth about 1627-28 and died in Plymouth between January 1665/66 and 18 November 1669. She married Jacob Cooke after 10 June 1646 and had seven children. Jacob was a son of Pilgrim Francis Cooke.
• Ruth was born about 1630 and died in Plymouth between 30 November 1644 and spring 1651. She was unmarried.
• Elizabeth was born in Plymouth about 1632 and probably died before 6 October 1659. She was unmarried.^[8][9][11]

References