The Hopkins Family of Maryland

Connections to the William Hopkins Family

I had heard since I was a boy that we were related somehow to Johns Hopkins, the wealthy merchant of Baltimore. When I began working on our family's history, I regarded that as a myth, as wishful thinking. But after ignoring the family story for a long time, I decided to ask my father what he knew about it. Here is what he told me:

My grandfather started looking into the possibility of a connection, but had to give it up because of his financial and other handicaps. If I remember rightly, he got off to a late start, and the litigation, etc. was too far along to try to pursue it further. (January 26, 1998)

Following that exchange, I looked up Johns Hopkins in a biographical dictionary. It gave a brief account of his life and ancestry. I didn't see anything in it to give me hope of finding a connection, so I dropped the matter.

Recently, on a trip to Haddonfield, New Jersey, I bought a copy of Harriet Gotchel Monshaw's book Elizabeth French Gill 1794-1854, First Mistress of Greenfield Hall. In it she gives the details of a connection between the Hopkinses of Haddonfield and the Hopkinses of Maryland.

This connection is through the marriage of Mary Rebecca Gill, daughter of William Hopkins Gill and Sarah Mickle (Hopkins) Gill to Johns Hopkins, son of Gerard T. Hopkins and Elizabeth (Coates) Hopkins on December 30, 1885. This Johns Hopkins was the first cousin, twice removed, of the famous Johns Hopkins of Baltimore. Sarah Hopkins was the daughter of William Estaugh and Ann (Morgan) Hopkins, and the great-great-great-grandaughter of William Hopkins of Southwark.

A second connection is one I found in MacKenzie's Colonial Families of the United States of America, Vol. II, p 358. He lists a marriage in October 1866 between Joseph Schofield Hopkins, son of Joseph Janney Hopkins and Elizabeth (Schofield) Hopkins, and Annette Hicks Hopkins, daughter of John Estaigh Hopkins and Antoinette (Hicks) Hopkins of Haddonfield, New Jersey. Joseph Janney Hopkins was the older brother of Johns Hopkins, the Baltimore merchant and financier.

Origins of Maryland Hopkinses

Strangely enough, considering the prominence of the family, there are varying opinions about the background of the Maryland Hopkinses. Johns' obituary in the Sun (see below) said that they are descended from "six brothers who emigrated from England to America, two of whom made their homes in New England and four in Maryland." No reference was made in the obituary to the source of that information. The sketch of Johns Hopkins in the Dictionary of American Biograph, Vol. V, pp. 213-14, says that his first known Hopkins ancestor in America was William, who was living in Anne Arundel County, Maryland in 1657. Burke's American Families with British Ancestry, p 2479, says that the Maryland Hopkinses began with Gerard Hopkins, who was born in Coventry, Warwichshire, England, settled in Anne Arundel County, Maryland, married Thomsin, and died in 1692.

Since my Hopkins ancestor was said to have come from Northamptonshire, which is adjacent to Warwickshire, I think what Burke says is very interesting. Besides the information above, he also says that Hopkinses were prominent in Coventry, representing that city in Parliament since the time of Richard II. It may well be that my Hopkins family was related to the Hopkinses of Warwickshire. Further research is needed.

Early Maryland Hopkinses

Gust Skordas' Early Settlers of Maryland says that there were Hopkinses in Maryland as early as 1650:

1650	Robert	1652	Robert	1652	Thomas	1658	Garrett
1658	William	1659	Thomas	1660	Prudence	1662	Henry
1662	Thomas	1663	Dennis	1664	Joseph, Mr.	1665	Ann
1665	Peter	1665	William	1667	Thomas	1668	Elizabeth
1669	John	1669	William	1673	Richard	1673	Robert
1679	Robert	1679	Robert, Jr.	1679	Sarah	1680	Hannah
1680	Hannah	1680	Nathan	1680	Samuel	1680	Samuel, Jr.
1680	Temperance

There were several Hopkinses on the Eastern Shore, some of them in the Third Haven Monthly Meeting:

George Hopkins, son of Robert and Sarah, was born at Anamessex, Somerset County, on 17 Jun 1673
Sarah Hopkins, daughter of Robert and Sarah, was born at Anamessex, Somerset County, on 12 Apr 1675
George Hopkins, son of Robert of Somerset County, cattle mark 22 Jan 1677
Alice Hopkins, daughter of Robert and Sarah, was born at Anamessex, Somerset County, on 12 Apr 1678
Stephen Hopkins, son of Robert and Jane of Somerset County, was born 31 Jul 1692
Sarah Hopkins, daughter of Robert and Jane of Somerset County, was born 15 Apr 1695
Philip Hopkins, Kent County, 10 May 1697, cattle mark
William Hopkins married Dorthy Willis on 31 Mar 1700
James Hopkins, son of James of Third Haven, was born in 1702
Rebecca Hopkins, daughter of Thomas of St. Michael's River, born 5? Oct 1702
Philip Hopkins married Johanna Piner 24 Mar 1705 in St. Paul's Parish, Kent County
Ann Hopkins, wife to Philip, died 28 Sep 1705 in Shrewsbury Parish, Kent County
Joseph Hopkins buried 29 Mar 1714 in St. Paul's Parish, Kent County
Dennis Hopkins married Sarah Edmondson 28 Jun 1720 at St. Peter's Parish, Talbot County
Anne Hopkins, daughter of William of Third Haven, born 22 Nov 1702
Richard Hopkins married Sarah Resho 12 Sep 1723 at St. Peter's Parish, Talbor County

Note: The foregoing were taken from F. Edward Wright, Maryland Eastern Shore Vital Records, Book 1, 1648-1725, Second Edition.

Related Families

As an aside, I found, while doing research on the Maryland Hopkinses in the Quaker records, that one of the Hopkins sons married one of the daughters of Isaiah and Hannah (Pancoast) Boone. Philip Hopkins of Anne Arundel County married Mary Boone on 3rd mo 21st day 1787 at the Sandy Spring meetinghouse (West River Meeting Records from Maryland Genealogical Society Bulletin, Vol 14, No 3, August 1973, p 8).

Another family that intermarried with both the Boones and the Hopkinses was the Janney family. They were largely in Virginia, belonging to the Fairfax and Alexandria Monthly Meetings. Two examples: George Janney married Susanna Boone, daughter of Isaiah and Hannah (Pancoast) on 31 Oct 1834, and Hannah Janney married Samuel Hopkins, father of Johns Hopkins the Baltimore merchant, in 1792.

Sources

Here are some references to further information about Johns Hopkins and the Maryland Hopkinses:

A brief article about Johns Hopkins written by Kathryn A. Jacob, formerly University Archivist, Johns Hopkins University. The article includes a portrait of Johns and pictures of his home.
A short biographical sketch of Johns Hopkins from the Johns Hopkins University Archives.
Johns Hopkins' obituary from the Baltimore Sun.
A short biography written by his cousin:
Helen Hopkins Thom, Johns Hopkins: A Silhouette. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins Press, 1929.
Caroline Jones Franz, "Johns Hopkins," American Heritage, 27 (February 1976), pp. 31-33, 98-102.
Harriet Gotchel Monshaw, Elizabeth French Gill 1794-1854, First Mistress of Greenfield Hall. Haddonfield, NJ: The Historical Society of Haddonfield, 1998.
Sir John Bernard Burke, American Families with British Ancestry. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., 1977.
Dumas Malone, ed., Dictionary of American Biography, Vol. V Hibben-Larkin. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1932-1961.
George Norbury MacKenzie, Colonial Families of the United States of America, Vol II. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company, 1966 (series originally published 1907-1920).
F. Edward Wright, Maryland Eastern Shore Vital Records, Book 1, 1648-1725, Second Edition. Westminster, MD: Family Line Publications, 1982, 1993.

This file was last updated on 8/7/2020.

Haddonfield Hopkinses