Hopkins Connections
to East London and Essex

Surname	Name	Date	Age	Father	Comments
Hopkins	Daniel	26d 5m 1724	0.34	Daniel	Age about 4 months, Occupation of father: Glasier
Hopkins	Daniel	26d 9m 1718	1	Daniel	Occupation of father: Glasier
Hopkins	Daniel	27d 10m 1761	73		buried at Ratcliff 1d 11m 1761
Hopkins	Hannah	18d 10m 1699		John	six days old
Hopkins	Henry	1d 2m 1722	2	Daniel	Occupation of father: Glasier
Hopkins	Isaac	11d 10m 1718	4	Daniel	Occupation of father: Glasier
Hopkins	Jane	28d 6m 1752	2		Buried at Ratcliff 20d 6m
Hopkins	Jane	22d 2m (Apr) 1734	46		wife of Daniel Hopkins
Hopkins	John	22d 10m 1750	31		buried at Ratcliff 24d 10m
Hopkins	Joseph	9d 4m 1756	34		buried at Ratcliff 11d 4m 1756
Hopkins	Josiah, Junr.	24d 3m 1765	35		buried at Ratcliff 25d 3m 1765
Hopkins	Sarah	11d 10m 1718	4	Daniel	Occupation of father: Glasier
Hopkins	Wm	18d 10m 1699		John	six days old

In searching the marriage records of the Ratcliff & Barking Monthly Meeting, I found a marriage on 17 May 1739 between John Belson, son of Edward Belson of Reading, and Phebe Cooper, daughter of Jonathan Cooper, late of Nottingham. The relatives of the couple included Sarah and James Fellows. Sarah Fellows was the daughter of William and Katheryn Hopkins of Southwark, and the wife of Thomas Fellows. Other relations at the marriage were Daniel Belson, Cordelia Cooper, Elizabeth Belson, and Elizabeth Humphrey. The Belsons were related to the Hopkinses through the marriage of William Hopkins, son of William and Katheryn, and Sarah Belson, daughter of Edmund and Sarah (Hoare) Belson.

I found an early will for a William Hoppkyne of Barking, which is about two miles southeast of Wanstead. It was dated 19 Mar 1563/4 and proved 10 Apr 1564. William mentions his children, Thomas, Edward, John, and Stephen, and also Thomasine and John, children of William Hopkyn, who was one of the witnesses to the will.

I also found a will for a William Hopkins of Wanstead, citizen and joiner of London, whose will was probated 29 Dec 1777. His wife's name was Hannah. She and William's friend Joseph Biffin, wine merchant of Leadenhall Street, London, were the executors of William's will. Only one child, Mary, was mentioned in the will. (PROB 11/1037 Collier Quire Number: 489 - 539)

Other Hopkins wills in Essex and Middlesex include:

I haven't found any of William Hopkins the Younger's children in the London area Quaker records, except for one whom I think is William III, who died in Camberwell in 1739. Of Benjamin Hopkins' children, there is little mention after childhood for those who survived it. Mary married Edward Butcher and apparently had no children. Sarah married a man named Simpson, probably not a Quaker. Elizabeth married Joseph Etherington and had no children. Haddon married three times, but died young, a year or two before his two children. This scarcity of information in the records leads me to think that the Hopkinses didn't remain active in the Society of Friends.

Abraham Shapton

Abraham was mentioned in William's will, described as a "cousin." Abraham was mentioned in the earliest records of marriages in Southwark. Judith Shapton was a witness to the birth of one of William's children in 1671.

"A building to be used as a meeting-house at Wanstead, with the ground it stood on was bought in 1673 for £30, of Abraham Shapton." (-from The London Friends' Meetings: … by William Beck and T. Frederick Ball.)

I found this reference to Abraham in the Essex Record Office database:

Repository: Essex Record Office
Level: Category Estate and Family records
Level: Fonds MISCELLANEOUS ESSEX DOCUMENTS
Level: Series D/DC 18/48-57 Manor of Greenstead: copyhold property called Freemans
Level: Item
Reference Code D/DC/23/721
Dates of Creation Michaelmas term, 1667
Scope and Content Final Concords
Abr. Shapton (ptff.), and Jn. Newnham & w. Eliz., George Bacon &w. Frances (deforcs)
A messuage, and 1a. pasture; in Wanstead
--from Essex Record Office

Modified Register for Abraham Shapton

First Generation

1. Abraham Shapton died¹ after 15 May 1705.
Abraham resided in 1663/1666 in St. Saviours Parish, Southwark, Surrey, England. He was employed^2,3 as Cheesemonger near the Meals Market in Southwark in 1669 in St. Saviours Parish, Southwark, Surrey, England.

Abraham married Judeth ---- . Judeth was born⁴ calculated 1632. She died⁵ on 15 Jun 1706 in London, England. (died 15d 4m 1706 age about 74; Lodger at Saml Kings in the Parish of Buttolphs Aldersgate.)

They had the following children:

2  F  i. Judeth Shapton was born⁶ on 13 Jan 1664 in Southwark, Surrey, England.
3  F  ii. Anne Shapton was born⁷ on 11 Nov 1665 in Southwark, Surrey, England.
4  F  iii. Love Shapton was born⁸ on 3 Jun 1666 in Southwark, Surrey, England.
5  F  iv. Elizabeth Shapton died^9,10 on 29 Jul 1669 in St. Saviours Parish, Southwark, Surrey, England.

Appendix A - Sources

1. Will of William Hopkins.
2. FHL #0441400 London & Middlesex QM Burials 1661-1699.
3. FHL #0587999 London and Middlesex Burials, p. 143.
4. FHL #0588013 London & Middlesex QM Burials, p. 206.
5. FHL #0588013 London & Middlesex QM Burials, p. 206.
6. FHL #0811790 Southwark MM Births 1648-1776, p. 9.
7. FHL #0811790 Southwark MM Births 1648-1776, p. 12.
8. FHL #0811790 Southwark MM Births 1648-1776, p. 12.
9. FHL #0441400 London & Middlesex QM Burials 1661-1699.
10. FHL #0587999 London and Middlesex Burials, p. 143.

General Information

In writing about the development of the east end, Peter Ackroyd says that "the extension of the eastern regions was confused and haphazard, governed as it was by ancient statutes of the manors of Stepney and Hackney which provided for only short 'copyholds' of thirty-one years. ... Spitalfields was 'almost completely built over' by the end of the [17th] century." (p. 235) He goes on to say that Spitalfields "acquired a reputation for poverty and overrcrowding. The houses were small and narrow, while the streets themselves were often only fifteen feet wide." (p. 663-4)
(Peter Ackroyd, London: the Biography. New York: Anchor Books, April 2003)

The Victoria History of Essex states that Quakers were meeting in Wanstead as early as 1671, and that William Penn was an early member. The meeting was held in a house in George Lane. By 1692 most of the members had died or moved away, and the meetinghouse was sold to Quaker Joseph Wright in 1716. (A History of the County of Essex, Vol VI, pp. 334-5. Oxford University Press, 1973)

Wanstead was the site of several large homes of the upper classes of London, and had an active Quaker community. William Penn grew up there, and his father died there. (http://www.essexhistory.net/wansteadhistorical.htm)

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Here is a link to Quakers Around Shoreditch, a very interesting site.

This link is to the East of London family history society, which has collected a substantial amount of information about that area.

See also the page about Hopkins connections in Southwark and London.

This file was last updated on 7/12/2019.

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