Background
Edward Hopkins was born in 1600 in Shrewsbury, England. He was apparently the son of Edward or Edmund Hopkins who married Katherine, a sister of Sir Henry Lello, the couple having six other children.
Edward Hopkins was born in 1600 in Shrewsbury, England. He was apparently the son of Edward or Edmund Hopkins who married Katherine, a sister of Sir Henry Lello, the couple having six other children.
Practically nothing is known of Hopkins' early life until he had become prominent as a Turkey merchant in London. He either made or inherited a considerable estate and was a wealthy man when he emigrated to New England with Theophilus Eaton and John Davenport in 1637. After a stay of some months in Boston his two companions settled at New Haven, but Hopkins chose the already established town of Hartford.
Hopkins' wealth, ability, and public spirit soon caused him to become one of the leaders of the Connecticut colony, and he was elected assistant in 1639 and governor in 1640. He was reelected to the former office in 1641, 1642, 1655, and 1656 and to the governorship in 1644, 1646, 1650, 1652, and 1654. Most of that time he alternated in office with John Haynes, since the Connecticut law did not allow the same individual to serve two successive terms. When not governor, he was usually deputy governor, as in the years 1643, 1645, 1647, 1649, 1651, and 1653.
In July 1643 he was appointed one of the Connecticut commissioners to go to Boston to "agitate the businesses of the Combination" which was to become the United Colonies. When that combination was formed he was elected commissioner in several years. Aside from public affairs, he was engaged in all the pursuits which under the simple conditions of the day afforded opportunities for the profitable investment of colonial capital, such as the fur trade, fishing, merchandising, and milling. In 1640 he was given the exclusive right for seven years to trade at Waranacoe and adjacent places up the Connecticut River. In the same year he proposed a plan for importing cotton wool on a large scale for the benefit of all the towns. This project he evidently carried out; such towns as Windsor, Hartford, and others financing their purchases from him by taxation. He maintained relations with the Indians and was one of the signers of the tripartite agreement of 1638.
For some reason he abandoned the colony and returned to England. The Connecticut records show that he considered returning as early as 1651, and, although he was elected governor in 1654 he is entered on the records of that election as being "absent. " In December 1652 Cromwell appointed him a navy commissioner, and in November 1655, an Admiralty Commissioner. His brother, Henry Hopkins, left him in his will, dated December 30, 1654, his offices of warden of the fleet and keeper of the palace of Westminster. He was also elected to the Parliament which met in September 1656 as representative from Dartmouth in Devonshire. He died in the Parish of St. Olave, London, in March 1657, his will being dated Mar. 7 and proved April 30. In it he left, among other bequests, one of £500 for "public ends" in New England, which sum, with accumulated interest, was finally awarded to Harvard College in 1710. The college bought a township with it, naming it Hopkinton in honor of the donor. He also left a considerable part of his Connecticut estate to a board of trustees to be used for the furtherance of grammar schools or a college in the colony. This property was used for the grammar schools of Hartford, Hadley, and New Haven, the last named being founded in 1660.
Hopkins gave much to the Colony of Connecticut, but he also made money from it. He had considerable wealth in England, and in Connecticut he invested in land, owned a mill, had an early monopoly on the fur trade, developed a cotton industry, and owned a ship that traded goods to other colonial and English markets. Money from Hopkins' estate helped found the creation of Hopkins School in New Haven, Connecticut, and the Hopkins Classical School in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Hopkins was married to Ann Yale. She was insane for fifty years, but long survived him.
