Hopkins

1647,1649,1651, and 1653. In July 1643 he was
appointed one of the Connecticut commissioners
to go to Boston to "agitate the businesses of the
Combination" which was to become the United
Colonies (The Public Records of the Colony of
Connecticut, vol. 1,1850, pp. 90-91). When that
combination was formed he was elected commis-
sioner in several years. Aside from public af-
fairs, he was engaged in all the pursuits which
under the simple conditions of the day afforded
opportunities for the profitable investment of
colonial capital, such as the fur trade, fishing,
merchandising, and milling. In 1640 he was
given the exclusive right for seven years to trade
at Waranacoe and adjacent places tip the Con-
necticut River (Ibid., I, 57). In the same year he
proposed a plan for importing cotton wool on a
large scale for the benefit of all the towns. This
project he evidently carried out, such towns as
Windsor, Hartford, and others financing their
purchases from him by taxation (Ibid., pp. 59,
75). He maintained relations with the Indians
and was one of the signers of the tri-partite
agreement of 1638 (New-England Historical and
Genealogical Register, October 1892, pp. 355
ft".). For some reason he abandoned the colony
and returned to England. The Connecticut rec-
ords show that he considered returning as early
as 1651 (ante, I, 222), and, although he was
elected governor in 1654 he is entered on the rec-
ords of that election as being absent" (Ibid., p.
256). In December 1652 Cromwell appointed
him a navy commissioner, and in November
1655, an Admiralty Commissioner (Calendar of
State Papers, Domestic Series, 1652-53, 1878,
No. 45, p. 44; Ibid., 1655-56, 1882, No. 107, p.
9). His brother, Henry Hopkins, left him in his
will, dated Dec, 30, 1654, his offices of warden
of the fleet and keeper of the palace of West-
minster. He was also elected to the Parliament
which met in September 1656 as representative
from Dartmouth in Devonshire. He died in the
Parish of St. Olave, London, in March 1657, bis
will being dated Mar. 7 and proved Apr. 30
(New-EnglandHistorical and Genealogical Reg-
ister, July 1884, pp. 315-16)* In it he left, among
other bequests, one of £500 for "public ends" in
New England, which sum, with accumulated in-
terest, was finally awarded to Harvard College
in 1710. The college bought a township with it,
naming it Hopkinton in honor of the donor. He
also left a considerable part of his Connecticut
estate to a board of trustees to be used for the
furtherance of grammar schools or a college in
the colony. This property was used for the gram-
mar schools of Hartford, Hadley, and New
Haven, the last named being founded in 1660

Hopkins

(Records of the Colony or Jurisdiction of New
Haven, 1858, pp. 356, 370 ff.)- His wife, who
was insane for fifty years, long survived him,
and it is not known that they had any children.

[Sources mentioned above; sketch by Gordon Good-
win, in Dick Nat. Eiog.t giving references to sources
for Hopkins' English career; Cotton Mather, Magnalia
Christi Americana (1702), vol. L] J.T.A.

HOPKINS, EDWARD AUGUSTUS (Nov.
29, iS22-June 10, 1891), promoter in South
America, was the son of Melusina (Miiller) and
the Rt Rev, John Henry Hopkins [g.z/.]. He
was born in Pittsburgh, Pa., and educated at
his father's school in Burlington, Vt After leav-
ing his home he became midshipman in the
navy from 1840 to 1845, when he resigned and
accepted appointment as special agent of the
United States to report on the recognition of
Paraguay, but was soon recalled for exceeding
his instructions by promising President Lopez
recognition and mediation in the quarrel immi-
nent between Paraguay and Buenos Aires (Ar-
chives of State Department, "Special Missions,"
Dec. 15, i823-Nov. 13, 1852, p. 235). Support-
ing himself all the while by writing for such pub-
lications as the National Intelligencer and Hunt's
Merchants' Magazine, he visited Paraguay twice,
went to France and England to study the ques-
tion of emigration, and returned to the United
States late in 1851 to devote himself to promot-
ing the United States and Paraguay Navigation
Company under a charter from Rhode Island.
In 1853 he was commissioned consul to Paraguay
and sailed for Asuncion, where he bought a large
tract of land for the company, set up a sawmill,
and began to teach native workmen to cure to-
bacco properly and to make a good grade of
cigars. Soon, however, he fell out of favor with
Lopez, who quickly brought the undertaking to
an end (E. A. Hopkins, Historico-Political Me-
morial upon the Regions of the Rio de la Plata
and Conterminous Countries, to James Buchan-
an, President of the United States, 1858; T. J.
Page, La Plata, the Argentine Con-federation,
and Paraguay, 1859, pp. 270-87). Hopkins con-
tinued to devote his abundant energies to pro-
moting trade between the United States and
South America and to developing modern means
of communication, especially in the Argentine
Confederation. He prepared a report on immi-
gration and public lands in the Argentine and in
the Memorial . . . Sobre el Mejor Modo de
Abrir Relaciones Comer dales entre la Republica
Argentina ylade Bolivia (1871) urged Argen-
tina to adopt measures to develop the vast re-
sources of Bolivia. He established steam navi-
gation on the Parana and built a steam railway

208