Diplomat lawyer politician representative
Born in Goochland County, Virginia near Goochland Court House to the Episcopal minister Charles Hopkins, Hopkins attended the common schools as a child. He later taught school, studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1834, commencing practice in Lebanon, Virginia.
There, Hopkins served as chairman of the Committee on Post Office and Post Roads from 1843 to 1847. President James Knox Polk appointed Hopkins as Chargé d"affaires to Portugal in 1847. He served as until 1849.
He served as judge of the circuit court of Washington, District of Columbia and other counties and was elected back to the House of Representatives in 1856, serving again from 1857 to 1859.
There, he served as chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs from 1857 to 1859. He was not a candidate for reelection in 1858 and resumed practicing law in Abingdon, Virginia.
Hopkins served in the House of Delegates for a third time from 1859 until his death in Richmond, Virginia on March 1, 1861. He was interred in Sinking Springs Cemetery in Abingdon.
He was a member of the Virginia House of Delegates from 1833 to 1835 and was elected a Jacksonian Democrat and Conservative to the United States House of Representatives in 1834, serving from 1835 to 1847.
