Stephen Hopkins
Of all the passengers who sailed to the New World in Mayflower only one, Stephen Hopkins, had been there before. Hopkins had previously survived a shipwreck (the Sea Venture, a ship sent to resupply the colony at Jamestown) in Bermuda, been tried for mutiny there and sentenced to death. He was pardoned and later sailed in one of two boats built for the purpose to Jamestown. He remained in Virginia until 1614, serving with John Smith’s militia company. The events of the wreck of the Sea Venture were later used in the plot of Shakespeare’s The Tempest.
While he was away his wife in England died, and upon learning of her death he returned to England to care for his children. In London he remarried and when Thomas Weston learned of his experience in the Jamestown colony he recruited Hopkins to join the Separatist’s expedition to Virginia. Hopkins’s experience in Virginia included hunting and dealing with the Indians there, and with the original destination of the voyage being Virginia he was thought by the investors and the Separatists to be an invaluable addition to the expedition. He decided to take his wife and children with him.
Unlike the Jamestown settlement, which had no intention of farming in the earliest days of the colony, preferring to obtain necessities such as food by trading with the Indians, the Plymouth colony was an agricultural community from the outset. Initial dealings with the Indians were primarily learning the techniques required to ensure successful crops in the New England soil and short growing season. Hopkins participated in the negotiations with the Wampanoag Indians which led to a mutual defense treaty and satisfactory trade agreements.
Hopkins also knew of the hunting and trapping techniques practiced by the natives and helped develop the fledgling fur industry which was so critical to the colony’s financial success. When not assisting in these endeavors he opened a tavern, the first such establishment in New England, in Plymouth. His tavern was opened in the first year of the colony, and he operated it until his death in 1644. The tavern led him into difficulties with the colony authorities on more than one occasion. He was reported to have violated the Sabbath by serving intoxicating beverages on that day, and was on another occasion fined for his prices being deemed to be excessive.
Hopkins and his wife had a son, the only child born in Mayflower while the ship was transiting the Atlantic. They named him Oceanus in tribute. He died sometime before 1627. He had several other children in England and in Plymouth. His wife in Plymouth who sailed with him in the Mayflower predeceased him and when he died his will requested that he be buried beside her. The whereabouts of their graves is unknown.