A Sword, a Family Crest, a 300 year mystery

[Auntyjan]

While tracing the history of my ancestors John Hopkinson and Ellen Oldham, I came across an intriguing reference to a sword and a family crest. This reference was in a letter written in 1959 from New Zealand in which the writer, Alice, a granddaughter of the above gave a lot of very interesting information about the family.
I have been tracing the origins of this family for some time. John and Ellen lived at North Edge house, Ashover in Derbyshire, where all of their fifteen children were born. By cross checking birth records with 1841 and 1851 census data, I have found that John's parents were John Hopkinson and Mary Gregory who were married on Jan 1 1793 at Ashover All Saints. This John died in 1834 at the age of 65, which would suggest a birth year of 1769. There are two John Hopkinsons born in Ashover around that time
John Hopkinson 1769, son of William and Anne and
John Hopkinson 1770 , son of Thomas and Sarah
Now the names William and Anne carry into the families of John and Mary as well as John and Ellen (the next generation), while the names Thomas and Sarah do not appear in either the first or second generations, so I think it's pretty certain that John was the child of William and Anne. But who were William's parents?

[Auntyjan]

The mystery continued: there are so many Hopkinson families in Ashover, it turns out there are not one but at least three possible William Hopkinsons.
William born 1730 to William and Sarah.
William born 1735 to John and Alice.
William born 1739 to Paul and Mary.
I have found the website by John Mills, In the Valley of my Ancestors, to be very useful in studying the Hopkinsons of Ashover.
How I wish there was census data to check. However the information in Alice Warder's letter may provide a clue.

[Auntyjan]

The Hopkinson Crest
Alice wrote that the family crest was given to John Hopkinson born 1829, the eldest son of John and Ellen, who was a lawyer at Grey's Inn. The crest was passed on to his son Arthur who had a tea plantation in Ceylon. On his death his wife Clare brought the small son back to England.
Now I have found a son for Arthur and Clare, Reginald Stuart Hopkinson born in Ceylon.(now Sri Lanka) His army records list his next of kin as his mother Clare.
Alice also claimed that "Captain Hopkinson was great grandfather. His sword became property of my father Stephen."
Historical records show there was indeed a Captain Hopkinson living in Ashover at one time. But he died in 1730, so would have to have been a greatx4 grandfather of Alice. Alice had the information about the sword and the crest passed down to her in the family. Even though she might not have known the dates, I think the existence of the sword of Captain Hopkinson and a family crest give a clue to the origin of our family. If only we could find some proof!

[notanotherminer]

By cross checking birth records with 1841 and 1851 census data, I have found that John's parents were John Hopkinson and Mary Gregory who were married on Jan 1 1793 at Ashover All Saints. This John died in 1834 at the age of 65,

Do you have a baptism for John Hopkinson who married Ellen Oldham which connects for definite to John and Mary Hopkinson? If so do you have the names of any siblings? This would add further possible common naming patterns. If you can view the original marriage entries it might also be useful so that you can see who the witnesses were. Occupations are often a clue as these often passed from father to son.

After that if you are reasonably sure that William was the father of John, the first thing you should be looking for is his marriage to Ann and see if you can find clues there.

[Auntyjan]

Who was Captain Hopkinson?
Information about Ashover in The History of Derbyshire by Stephen Glover makes mention of Captain William Hopkinson of Bonsall and Wirksworth who married Frances Dakeyne in 1697. She was the sole heir of Arthur Dakeyne and Frances Wolley, from whom she inherited the Stubbing Edge estate. Records show that William Hopkinson and Frances had the following children:
Dakeyne Hopkinson b. 21st June 1698 died 13 June 1713
Frances Hopkinson b. 25th Nov 1701
Dorothy Hopkinson b. 25th May 1704 and
William Hopkinson b. 23rd Aug 1707 chr. 2 Sep 1707
Now it would be very tempting to put all this together and say that William born 1707 must have married Sarah, then their son William born 1730 must be the one who married Anne and had a son John in 1769. This fits the story of the sword and the family crest...but the problem is there are two missing links...one back to the family of Captain Hopkinson...there is no proof that his son born in 1707 married Sarah...and there is a missing link going forward to our known Hopkinsons...there is no proof that William, (the father of John) was the son of William and Sarah, because two other families also had sons called William. What would be really wonderful, would be if some super sleuth would come along and find some historical evidence linking our known Hopkinsons with Captain William. Because I would like to have proof, rather than saying...and we might be related to....

[Auntyjan]

There is a marriage for William Hopkinson and Anne Berdow in 1762 in Ashover.
Going back to John Hopkinson and Mary Gregory, their children were:
William born 1796 (this has been calculated from census data, his birth record is elusive)
Elizabeth chr. June 4th 1797
Mary chr April 28th 1799
Ann chr June 24th 1801
Dorothy chr Oct 16th 1803
Jane chr Aug 27th 1806 b. July 1806
John chr July 10th 1808 born June 21st 1808
I am absolutely certain of the connection to this family as census records of 1841 and 1851 show various family members staying with William in Chesterfield. (in one of those you have to click on the original to see the details) Elizabeth married John (jun) Bunting. Ann married Samuel Furniss. In John Mills' records this family shows up in lists of Hopkinsons as "of Chesterfield"
Burial of Mary wife of John of Chesterfield Feb 1810 age 38 yrs
Burial of Jane daughter of John of Chesterfield 1811 age 4 yrs
Burial of Dorothy daughter of John of Chesterfield 1811 age 8 yrs
John of Chesterfield buried June 13th 1834 aged 65 yrs
William of Chesterfield buried May 1st 1851 aged 56 yrs
There is also a George of Chesterfield buried Dec 31st 1830 aged 73 yrs..not sure if he is related or not.
The Hopkinsons were Quakers according to a living relative who recalls a visit from a Quaker relative in the 1940's.

[Neil Wilson]

I have found that John's parents were John Hopkinson and Mary Gregory who were married on Jan 1 1793 at Ashover All Saints. This John died in 1834 at the age of 65, which would suggest a birth year of 1769. There are two John Hopkinsons born in Ashover around that time
John Hopkinson 1769, son of William and Anne and
John Hopkinson 1770 , son of Thomas and Sarah

I think I am missing something here, John born 1769 but his parents married 1793? Surely this would be John's own wedding?

Also, there is another John born to John and Sarah on 11/02/1739 (taken from parish transcripts)

[notanotherminer]

Auntyjan, I'm afraid you're going a little too fast for me. In your post 5 it seems that you are coming forward in time from this Captain Hopkinson which is confusing. You really do need to confirm the parents of John Hopkinson d.1834 and go back one generation at a time using baptism and marriage records.

[Ken_R]

Hi.

I think you may already have most of the information but have you seen the page on British History Online that relates to Captain William Hopkinson?

Use "Captain William Hopkinson" in the Search field.

Also see FootNote #57

Something else that might be of interest is the Derbyshire Wills.

http://
willsdb.gukutils.org.uk/DBY/WillsH.html

There is an entry for a William Hopkinson in 1855 (Will Proved in 1772) that, almost on it's own, is a Family Tree. However, as to whether it is the correct Family is another matter.................

Interestingly, there does not seem to be a Will for a William Hopkinson for the year you quoted, 1730.

[Coromandel]

Have you tried looking for wills? They might fill in some of the family connections. Before 1858, probate was dealt with by ecclesiastical courts. The top-level courts with jurisdiction in Derbyshire would have been:

(i) the Archbishop of Canterbury's court (Prerogative Court of Canterbury or PCC). Indexes to PCC wills are freely searchable on TNA's Document's Online site and wills can be downloaded for £3.50 each.
(ii) the diocesan court at Lichfield. There's an index to wills proved at this court 1650-1730 here:

http://www.
staffsnameindexes.org.uk/StartPage.aspx?Mode=Details&Index=C

I see that there are some Hopkinsons from Ashover on the list. There are details on the site of how to order copies of wills, and how to find out about post-1730 wills.

Don't be put off by the name of the site (Staffordshire Name Indexes): there are lots of Derbyshire people there.

There may have been lower level courts with jurisdiction over Ashover too: there's a very useful book by Jeremy Gibson & Else Churchill called Probate Jurisdictions: where to look for wills that tells you where wills are held, what indexes have been published, etc.