Benjamin James Hopkinson

Awarded part of the compensation for Bachelors Adventure Enterprise and Plantation John Cove and Craig Miln in British Guiana in his own right and awarded the compensation for East Hog, also in British Guiana as committee of his brother John Thomas Hopkinson, a lunatic.

1. Benjamin James Hopkinson son of Benjamin of Tobago West Indies arm [i.e. gentleman]  is shown as matriculating from Oriel College 21/10/1802 aged 17; 'Adm. Fell.-Com. (age 19) at TRINITY, Feb. 8, 1804; from Oriel College, Oxford, whence he had matric. Oct. 21, 1802, age 17. Of Demerara, West Indies. [S. of Benjamin, of Tobago, W. Indies.] Doubtful if resided. (Father's name mentioned in Caribbeana, III. 115.)'

2. Benjamin James Hopkinson and his brother John Thomas were baptised at St Andrew Undershaft 14/7/1798. Benjamin James Hopkinson was described as son of Benjamin Hopkinson by Johanna born at Tobago in November 1785. The brother's father Benjamin Hopkinson (together with his brother John (q.v.)) went to the West Indies from near Halifax, and died at Blagdon Court near Bath in 1801.

3. John Thomas Hopkinson was shown at his baptism as son of Benjamin Hopkinson by Johanna born Demerara 14/02/1787.  John Thomas Hopkinson is shown as born abt 1791 in foreign parts, aged 50 at Much Hadham in the 1841 census; and as aged 84 [i.e., born about 1785] in what appears to be his death certified at Bishops Stortford in 1869.

4. Benjamin James Hopkinson's mother was a woman of colour whom Benjamin James Hopkinson returned to visit in British Guiana in 1821 when he set out to spend three years running his estates there. On this voyage, he sailed with John Castelfranc Chevely (q.v.) who observed him closely and took him originally as a gentleman of French extraction.

5. Call for creditors of the late Benjamin James Hopkinson dated 28/12/1839 by Nicol Martin, John White and Solomon Swetnain[?], executors.

Nothing further of Benjamin James Hopkinson in Britain, including marriage, death, probate or census records has yet been found.

T71/885 British Guiana claim nos. 568A&B (Bachelors Adventure and Enterprise), 572 (Plant John Cove and Craig Miln) and 616 (East Hog) (which gives him erroneously as Benjamin Thomas Hopkinson.

1. Ancestry.com, Oxford University Alumni, 1500-1886 [database online]; Ancestry.com, Cambridge University Alumni, 1261-1900 [database online].

2. Ancestry.com, London, England, Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1538-1812 [database online]..

3. Ancestry.com, London, England, Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1538-1812 [database online]; 1841 census online; FreeUKGen, England and Wales Free BMD Database, Deaths, 1837-1983 [database online].

4. Autobiography of John Castelfranc Chevely, Vol. II (unpublished MS in the hands of C.C. Thornburn).

5. London Gazette Issue 19842 p. 864 (31/03/1840).

We are grateful for the help of C. C. Thornburn and Fay Whitehead with this entry.