BAPTIZED: May 11,1606/Hursley, Hampshire, England
DIED: October 1677/Eastham, Plymouth Colony

When Constance Hopkins was seven years old, she lost her mother while her father Stephen was away in Jamestown, Virginia. At 14, her life was further altered when she made the Mayflower voyage along with her father, stepmother Elizabeth, 12-year-old brother Giles, and two-year-old half-sister Damaris. A brother, Oceanus, was born at sea.

By 1627 Constance had married Nicholas Snow. According to William Bradford, Constance and Nicholas eventually had 12 children, although genealogists have only been able to document nine. (Their oldest daughter was named Mary, perhaps in honor of Constance’s mother.) In 1644 Constance and her family were among the first to settle Eastham on Cape Cod; her brother Giles later followed.

A probate inventory taken following Nicholas’s 1676 death includes a “spining wheele” and yards of “hom[e]made” fabric, perhaps attesting to Constance’s skill as a cloth producer. She herself died the following year, at the age of 71.

The Pilgrim Society displays an artifact that is believed to have belonged to Constance Hopkins Snow and descended through her family. It is a beaver hat, made in England, c.1615-1640. Beaver fur, imported into England from the colonies, was processed into felt to make fashionable and durable hats. Steeple crowned hats like this rare example were popular for both men and women in the early 17th century. They were typically worn with a decorative band.