15 Facts About Edward Hopkins

Edward Hopkins was an English colonist and politician and 2nd Governor of the Connecticut Colony.

Edward Hopkins returned to England in the 1650s, where he was politically active in the administration of Oliver Cromwell as a Lord Commissioner of the Admiralty and member of Parliament.

Edward Hopkins remained in England despite being elected Governor of Connecticut in 1655, and died in London in 1657.

Edward Hopkins was born in 1600 in Shrewsbury, Shropshire to Edward Hopkins and Katharine Lello Hopkins.

Edward Hopkins's grandfather was Chancellor David Yale of Chester, and her nephews were Capt.

Edward Hopkins became involved in efforts to establish a colony on the shore of Long Island Sound that were under the aegis of the Lord Say and Sele and Baron Brooke.

Edward Hopkins was in charge of the supplies for HMS Abigail, a fireship, and developed a life-long friendship with John Winthrop Jr.

Edward Hopkins survived an assassination attempt in 1646 by a Native American tribe, made because Connecticut protected the chief of their rival tribe.

Edward Hopkins advocated the New England Confederation, serving as one of its commissioners.

Edward Hopkins had considerable wealth in England, and in Connecticut he invested in land, owned a mill, had an early monopoly on the fur trade, developed the cotton industry, and owned a ship that traded goods to other colonial and English markets.

Edward Hopkins returned to England several times during his rotating stints as Governor.

Edward Hopkins oversaw the printing of the New Haven Colony's first laws, and served in the English Parliament during Cromwell's reign.

Edward Hopkins was elected Connecticut's Governor a final time in 1655 as an attempt by Connecticut residents to draw back their well-respected Governor.

Edward Hopkins did not return and the lieutenant Governor Thomas Welles served out Hopkins' final term.

Money from Edward Hopkins' estate funded the creation of Edward Hopkins School in New Haven, Connecticut, the wish of John Davenport, founder of the New Haven colony.