BAPTIZED: April 30, 1581/Upper Clatford, Hampshire, England
DIED: Between June 6 and July 17, 1644/Plymouth

Stephen Hopkins was the only Mayflower passenger with previous experience in North America. In 1609, he traveled as a minister’s clerk aboard the Sea Venture, bound for Jamestown, Virginia. Shipwrecked on Bermuda, Hopkins and others organized a mutiny against the sitting governor, on the grounds his authority was invalid outside of Virginia. Hopkins was sentenced to death but reprieved when he expressed remorse. Eventually the group made it to the English colonial settlement at Jamestown only to suffer dire conditions.

After his wife Mary died back in England, Hopkins returned home. He married second wife Elizabeth Fisher in 1617. Three years later, they embarked aboard the Mayflower with two children by Hopkins’ first marriage (Giles and Constanta or Constance), his daughter with wife Elizabeth (Damaris), and two servants, Edward Doten and Edward Leister. During the voyage, Elizabeth Hopkins gave birth to a son, Oceanus.

Hopkins likely played a role in a debate about governance held aboard the Mayflower at Cape Cod, and he signed the resulting compact. An experienced colonizer, Hopkins was a part of the exploration team to find a place to settle.

At Plymouth, he hosted Samoset, the first Native American to meet with the Pilgrims. Hopkins was also part of the first ambassadorial visit to the Massasoit Ousamequin in the summer of 1621.

By the 1630s, Hopkins was running an alehouse or “ordinary” in Plymouth and selling a range of goods. A prominent figure, he was elected assistant governor from 1633 to 1636. He also ran afoul of the law on several occasions.

In June 1636, he was fined for assaulting John Tisdale and breaking the law, “wch he ought after a speciall manner to have kept.” Hopkins appeared in court to answer to other legal infractions, including “suffering men to drink in his house upon the Lords day” and for charging high prices, “to the oppressing and impoverishing of the colony.”

Despite legal issues, Hopkins prospered and left a considerable estate to his surviving children and grandchildren on his death at age 63.
Hopkins died between June 6, 1644, when his will was made, and July 17, 1644, when the inventory of his estate was taken.

In his will, he asked to be buried next to his wife Elizabeth, who had died earlier. They are likely interred together on Plymouth’s Burial Hill.