‘Mayflower’ Mutiny & Other Musings on Stephen Hopkins (part 1)

Introduction: In this article, Melissa Davenport Berry focuses on historian Edward Rowe Snow writing about his Mayflower ancestor, Stephen Hopkins. Melissa is a genealogist who has a blog, AnceStory Archives, and a Facebook group, New England Family Genealogy and History.

Today I continue with the extraordinary adventures of Stephen Hopkins (1581-1644), who made quite a splash in the chronicles of early American history.

To recap: Hopkins’s exploits began in 1609 when he sailed on board the Sea Venture, which was shipwrecked in Bermuda on its way to Jamestown, Virginia. While waiting for new transportation, the marooned crew set up a small settlement on the uninhabited island.

Hopkins organized a mutiny to overthrow the governor and was found guilty – but escaped the rope and sailed to Virginia in 1610. To read the full skinny, check out my two previous articles (see links at the end of this article).

After a brief stint in Virginia, Hopkins returned to England. Next, he sailed on the Mayflower in 1620 with his family: 2^nd wife Elizabeth and children Constance, Giles, and Damari. A little addition named Oceanus was born on board the Mayflower, but he died in 1627.

Hopkins is suspected of creating hints of mutiny on the Mayflower voyage as well. Despite his rebellious rumblings, he complied and signed the Mayflower Compact and became an important figure in the new colony.

No one does the Hopkins musings better than descendant Edward Rowe Snow (1902-1982), historian, author, and famous “Flying Santa.” Here is more dish from Snow and GenealogyBank’s Historical Newspaper Archives.

Snow addressed the potential mutiny on the Mayflower in the Patriot Ledger newspaper. It was part of a series in which he published several chapters from his story “Mayflower, Plymouth Rock, and the Pilgrims.”

Here is a snippet from Snow’s article, describing 11 November 1620 – when the Pilgrims dropped anchor near land (what is now called Provincetown):

A short time later the Pilgrim anchor rattled down in that great harbor of Cape Cod, and the Pilgrims realized that they had reached the New World.

Mutiny, however, was the first subject on the agenda. Several of the company had been heard muttering that “when they came ashore, they would use their own libertie, for none had power to command them.”

Evidently my own ancestor, Stephen Hopkins, was one of those who was causing Bradford trouble at this time. Years before, when in a tropical hurricane in 1609 a ship had been wrecked at Bermuda, Stephen Hopkins alone of the passengers had been spared hanging because of his rebellious spirit.

…His two servants, Edward Leister and Edward Dotey, were also always getting into trouble, and together with Hopkins, they formed a serious block to a harmonious plan for getting ashore.

Therefore, for this and several other reasons, the leaders decided to draw up a plan, or compact, now known as the Mayflower Compact, in the cabin of the Mayflower, to bind the entire group together in a united declaration of principle.

In his column “Sea and Shore Gleanings” published in 1975, Snow again recalled the purported mutiny of his ancestor but asserted there was no real evidence of an actual insurgence.

Snow wrote:

There will always be the question of whether or not an actual mutiny was brewing aboard the “Mayflower.” I must admit my own ancestor, Stephen Hopkins, back in 1609 at Bermuda, was accused of piratical mutiny after the “Sea Venture” was shipwrecked at Bermuda.

He was the only one who had been in the New World before of all the passengers on the “Mayflower.” There are many who like to say that Hopkins was interested in mutinous acts while aboard the “Mayflower,” but facts simply do not bear this out.

However, Snow does not doubt that the Hopkins who created the mutinous drama in Bermuda still possessed a cheeky nature and may have stirred up some trouble, but not actual mutiny.

Snow insisted that the Hopkins aboard the Mayflower was more mature and confident than the young man shipwrecked in Bermuda – this Hopkins was experienced in New World exploration, and a man of the world by his own right. Plus, he had proven successful in business affairs as a tanner and merchant.

These qualities earned Hopkins a ticket on the Mayflower. He was recruited by the Company of Merchant Adventurers of London to provide governance for Plymouth Colony and to assist with its ventures.

Snow wrote:

Hopkins had been a lowly clerk on the “Sea Venture.” Now he was a master with servants of his own. It is true that my ancestor was more democratically inclined than any of the other prominent Pilgrims, and he had no blind respect for authority such as other Pilgrim elders showed in later years.

…Nevertheless, with the Bermuda example behind them, the company needed every able-bodied man it could muster for the overwhelming task ahead.

And so it was that after the Mayflower Compact was drawn up, the entire Pilgrim company was called together to hear it read in the captain’s cabin.

Indeed, ever since John Quincy Adams, in 1802, salvaged it from oblivion, the Mayflower Compact has been praised as a real freedom charter. It was an extraordinary document for its day.

Records reveal Hopkins was a member of the first expedition that left the ship to find a place for landing. Later, he was in the first party that went ashore at Plymouth Rock, and he was the first white man of the colony to entertain an Indian overnight.

Hopkins went with Gov. Edward Winslow and Squantum on a diplomatic mission to Chief Massasoit to conclude a treaty. He was the first Council of Governor’s Assistants after the incorporation of Plymouth – a position to which he was chosen for three years in succession (1632-1635).

While Hopkins held a venerable place in Plymouth Colony he would not be totally tamed – this tiger still had his stripes! Stay tuned for his trail of saucy scandal.

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Note on the header image: from the Plymouth Tercentenary Pageant: Stephen Hopkins, his wife Elizabeth, and their children – including infant son Oceanus, the only child born during the Mayflower’s journey across the Atlantic. Photo taken in August 1921 in Plymouth, Massachusetts, by Edward P. McLaughlin. Credit: in the collection of the Plymouth Public Library. Courtesy of Digital Commonwealth.

Related Articles:

• Stephen Hopkins & the Wreck of the ‘Sea Venture’
• Stephen Hopkins & the Wreck of the ‘Sea Venture’ (part 2)