Edward Hopkins

Edward Hopkins (1600 – March 1657) was an English colonist and politician and 2nd Governor of the Connecticut Colony. Active on both sides of the Atlantic, he was a founder of the New Haven and Connecticut colonies, serving seven one-year terms as Governor of Connecticut. He returned to England in the 1650s, where he was politically active in the administration of Oliver Cromwell as a Lord Commissioner of the Admiralty and member of Parliament. He remained in England despite being elected Governor of Connecticut in 1655, and died in London in 1657.

Hopkins' will left substantial assets, in trust, for "Encouragement unto those forreign Plantations for the breeding up of Hopefull youth in the way of Learning both at ye Gramar School& Colledge for the publick Service of the Country in future times [and] for the upholding& promoting of the Kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ in those parts of the earth." However, the inchoate state of American law on trusts kept The Charity of Edward Hopkins (as this trust is now known) mired in litigation for the next 135 years. The eventual resolution of the case made Harvard College the major beneficiary of the trust, along with the Hopkins School of New Haven, Connecticut, and other schools and institutions.

As a side effect of the early administration of the trust, the town of Hopkinton, Massachusetts, was named after him after Harvard College bought 12 500 acres of land there from the Hopkins endowment. The office of Warden would be inherited by his brother Henry Hopkins.

He married the sister of Capt. Thomas Yale, named Ann Yale, (born about 1615, daughter of Thomas Yale Sr. and Ann (Lloyd) Yale of Wales, and step-daughter of Theophilus Eaton) in 1636 or 1637 in Hartford, Connecticut). Her grandfather was Chancellor David Yale of Chester, and her nephews were Capt. Thomas Yale of Wallingford, and Elihu Yale, benefactor of Yale College.

He became involved in efforts to establish a colony on the shore of Long Island Sound that were under the aegis of the Lord Say and Sele and Baron Brooke. Although Hopkins was not apparently a signer of the Saybrook Colony's patent, he was involved in procuring provisions for the colonization effort's inaugural expedition in 1635, headed by Lion Gardiner. He was in charge of the supplies for HMS Abigail, a fireship, and developed a life-long friendship with John Winthrop Jr., son of Governor Winthrop of Massachusetts.

Legacy Money from Hopkins' estate funded the creation of Hopkins School in New Haven, Connecticut, the wish of John Davenport, founder of the New Haven colony. Hopkinton, Massachusetts, named for him, was established on land purchased using funds from his estate.