Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Hopkins, William (fl.1674)
HOPKINS, WILLIAM (fl. 1674), stenographer, was a writing-master and professional teacher of shorthand in London, where he published a little work, beautifully engraved by John Drapentier, entitled ‘The Flying Pen-Man, or the Art of Short-Writing by a more easie, exact, compendious, and speedy way,’ London [1670], 12mo; 2nd edition, 1674, with the author's portrait prefixed. From the address to the reader it appears that it was a main part of his design to ‘accommodate our merchants, and others English in the parts beyond the seas, with this Succinct, Secret, and Litle Pocket Consort, that there, in spite of Misguided Zeal, the Doctrine which is only necessary (but forbidden to be read in our Native Language on the other side of the water) may be read secretly and at pleasure, with safetie because Secret.’ Hopkins's scheme of stenography is founded partly on the Cartwright-Rich method, and partly on earlier systems.
[Westby-Gibson's Bibliography of Shorthand, p. 97; Granger's Biog. Hist. of England, 1824, v. 346; Journalist, 29 April 1887, p. 44; Levy's Hist. of Shorthand, p. 55; Lewis's Hist. of Shorthand, p. 82; Rockwell's Literature of Shorthand, 1855, p. 95.]