Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Hopkins, William (1647-1700)
HOPKINS, WILLIAM (1647–1700), divine, born at Evesham, Worcestershire, on 2 Aug. (baptised 28 Aug.) 1647, was the son of George Hopkins (1620–1666), rector of All Saints Church, Evesham, who was ejected from Evesham in 1662 for nonconformity, but afterwards, when at Dumbleton in Gloucestershire, took the Oxford oath to avoid the operation of the Five Mile Act, and wrote ‘Salvation from Sin,’ &c., London, 1655, 8vo, to which Richard Baxter contributed a preface. William Hopkins was sent to the free school of his native town, and on 29 Oct. 1661 became a commoner of Trinity College, Oxford, migrating in 1666 to St. Mary Hall. He graduated M.A. 9 April 1668, D.D. 5 July 1692. On 2 Sept. 1671 he accompanied Henry Coventry as chaplain in his second embassy to Sweden [see Coventry, Henry, 1619–1686], and there began the study of northern antiquities, ‘in which,’ says Hickes, ‘he was a good proficient.’ On Coventry's recommendation he was made a prebendary of Worcester Cathedral on 22 March 1675. On 23 June 1678 the dean and chapter of the cathedral gave him the curacy of Mortlake, Surrey, from which he was preferred in 1686 to the vicarage of Lindridge, Worcestershire. He was also, about 1680, afternoon preacher at St. Lawrence Jewry, London, and on 16 May 1697 was chosen master of St. Oswald's Hospital, Worcester. He gave up his salary as master to form a fund for the benefit of the hospital. In 1686 Hopkins went to live in Worcester. He held his prebend there till his death, from a fever, on 18 May 1700. He was buried in Worcester Cathedral. Hickes, dean of Worcester, who was intimate with Hopkins from about 1680, says he was a modest, benevolent, and learned man, who gave him great assistance while he was dean. He married, first, on 3 Feb. 1678, Averill (d. 1691), daughter of Thomas Martin; secondly, in the autumn of 1699, Elizabeth Whitehorne, widow of Dr. Whitehorne of Tewkesbury.
Hopkins published ‘The Book of Bertram or Ratramnus concerning the Body and Blood of the Lord’ (Latin, with English translation), 1686, 8vo; also 1688, 8vo; and ‘Animadversions on Mr. Johnson's Answer to Jovian’ (i.e. Hickes), 1691, 8vo. ‘Seventeen Sermons’ by him were published by Hickes after his death, with a memoir, London, 1708, 12mo. Hopkins also collected materials for a history of Worcester Cathedral, and helped Bishop Gibson in his editions of the ‘Saxon Chronicle’ and Camden's ‘Britannia.’
[Life of Hickes prefixed to the Seventeen Sermons; Wood's Athenæ Oxon. ed. Bliss, iv. 680–681; Chalmers's Biog. Dict.; Green's Hist. of Worcester, ii. 102, 103.]