Constance Hopkins

Constance Hopkins (baptized May 11, 1606 – October 1677), also sometimes listed as Constanta. She was probably born in Hursley, England since her baptism record is there along with older sister and younger brother. Constance was the second daughter of Stephen Hopkins, by his first wife, Mary. Some believe she was named in honor of Constance (Marline) Hopkins. Constance, at the age of fourteen, along with her father and his second wife Elizabeth (Fisher), accompanied by brother Giles, half-sister Damaris as well as two servants by the name of Edward Doty and Edward Lester were passengers on the Mayflower on its journey to the New World in 1620. Along the way her half-brother Oceanus was born, the only child born on the Mayflower journey. Her headstone marker, placed in 1966 by descendants, states in part “Wife of Nicholas Snow, Eastham’s first town clerk 1646 – 1662”.

Constance married Nicholas sometime before the Division of Cattle which occurred May 22, 1627. Nicholas came to Plymouth on board the ship Anne in 1623 and was made a freeman at Plymouth in 1633. The inventory of Nicholas Snow's estate made at his death lists a wide variety of cooper's and carpenter's tools; this may indicate his trade. He was town clerk at Eastham and held several other local government offices.

According to Governor William Bradford, who wrote between March 6 and April 3, 1651:

“Constanta is also married, and hath 12 children all of them living, and one of them married”.

Children of Constance and Nicholas Snow

Josiah Paine, a Town Clerk and historian of Harwich wrote “Nicholas and Constance had a dau. named for her mother who was the first wife of Daniel Doane of Eastham…”

Constance had 72 grandchilden.

Fictional representations

Constance Hopkins is the central character in Patricia Clapp's young adult novel Constance: A Story of Early Plymouth.

References

1. Caleb Johnson, The American Genealogist 73:161-171, “The True English Origins of Stephen Hopkins of the Mayflower”, July 1998. His first wife was not Constance Dudley, though this erroneous name is given by older references with no citations

2. Mayflower Families Through Five Generations, Volume Six, Third Edition, Stephen Hopkins ISBN 0-930270-03-7

External links

See also

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