and two months.’ ‘The little Welchman’ (the notice proceeds) ‘[was] lately shown in London. He never weighed more than 17 lbs., but for three years past no more than 12 lbs. The parents have six children left, all of whom differ no way from other children, except one girl of twelve years of age, who weighs only eighteen pounds, and bears upon her most of the marks of old age, and in all respects resembles her brother when at that age.’
[Authorities cited above, and letters from Cadrawd Evans, Llangynwyd.]
HOPKINS, CHARLES (1664?–1700?), poet, elder son of Ezekiel Hopkins [q. v.], bishop of Londonderry, was born about 1664 at Exeter and was taken early to Ireland. He was educated at Trinity College, Dublin, and afterwards at Queens' College, Cambridge, where he graduated B.A. 1688. Returning to Ireland he engaged in military service. He subsequently settled in England, and gained some credit as a writer of poems and plays. His amiability endeared him to his friends, among whom were Dryden, Congreve, Dorset, Southern, and Wycherley. Dryden, in a letter to Mrs. Steward (7 Nov. 1699), described him as ‘a poet who writes good verses without knowing how or why; I mean, he writes naturally well, without art or learning or good sense.’ Giles Jacob (Poetical Register) says that he might have made a fortune in any scene of life, but that he was always more ready to serve others than to look after his own interests. By excess of hard drinking ‘and a too passionate fondness for the fair sex he died a martyr to the cause, in the thirty-sixth year of his age’ (ib.), about the beginning of 1700.
Hopkins is the author of 1. ‘Epistolary Poems; on several Occasions: With several of the Choicest Stories of Ovid's Metamorphoses and Tibullus's Elegies,’ London, 1694, 8vo, dedicated to Anthony Hammond. One of the epistles is addressed to Dorset; another to Walter Moyle. 2. ‘The History of Love. A Poem: in a letter to a Lady,’ London, 1695, 8vo, dedicated to the Duchess of Grafton; translations from Ovid's ‘Metamorphoses’ and ‘Heroides.’ 3. ‘The Art of Love: In two Books dedicated to the ladies,’ London, 8vo, a paraphrase of portions of Ovid's ‘Ars Amatoria.’ 4. ‘Whitehall; or the Court of England: A Poem,’ Dublin, 1698, 4to, dedicated to the Duchess of Ormonde; reprinted in Dryden's ‘Miscellany Poems’ under the title of ‘The Court Prospect.’ Hopkins was also the author of three tragedies, performed at Lincoln's Inn Fields: 5. ‘Pyrrhus, King of Epirus,’ 1695, 4to, to which Congreve contributed a prologue. 6. ‘Boadicea, Queen of Britain,’ 1697, 4to. 7. ‘Friendship Improved, or the Female Warrior,’ 1697, 4to. Before ‘Friendship Improved’ there is a dedicatory epistle, written from Londonderry (to Edward Coke of Norfolk), in which the author refers to his failing health: ‘My Muse is confined at present to a weak and sickly tenement; and the winter season will go near to overbear her, together with her household.’ In Nichols's ‘Collection of Poems’ are preserved some verses written by Hopkins ‘about an hour before his death.’
[Giles Jacob's Poetical Register; Baker's Biographia Dramatica, 1812; Scott's Dryden, 1821, xviii. 163.]
HOPKINS, EDWARD (1600–1657), governor of Connecticut, born at Shrewsbury in 1600, seems to have been the son of Edward or Edmund Hopkins; his mother was Katherine, sister of Sir Henry Lello, knight, of Ashdon, Essex. He became a Turkey merchant in London, ‘of good credit and esteem’ (Hutchinson, Hist. of Massachusetts, i. 82). In 1637 he emigrated to New England, and after making a short stay at Boston, removed to Hartford, Connecticut, where he was chosen assistant in 1639, and governor of the colony the following year, and thereafter in alternate years with John Haynes [q. v.], until he returned to England in 1652. In the expectation of his coming back he was again chosen governor in 1654. He assisted in forming the union of the colonies of New England in 1643. Cromwell appointed him a navy commissioner in December 1652, and an admiralty commissioner on 7 Nov. 1655. His brother, Henry Hopkins, left him, by will dated 30 Dec. 1654 (P. C. C. 41, Aylett), his office of warden of the Fleet and keeper of the palace of Westminster. He represented Dartmouth, Devonshire, in the parliament which assembled on 17 Sept. 1656. He died in March 1657, in the parish of St. Olave, Hart Street, London (Probate Act Book, P. C. C.). By his will, dated 17 March 1657 (P. C. C. 141, Ruthen), he founded three schools in Connecticut, one of which, the Hopkins Grammar School in Newhaven, has had an uninterrupted existence from that time; and he gave 500l. for ‘public ends,’ which was paid to Harvard College, under a decree in chancery, in 1710. With it a township of land was bought from the ‘praying Indians,’ which was called Hopkinton in memory of the donor. What is known as Governor Eaton's ‘Code of Laws’ was printed at London in 1656 under Hopkins's supervision. His widow, Ann, daughter of David or Thomas Yale, died on 17 Dec. 1698, having
