Edward Hopkins

Edward Hopkins
2nd Governor of the Colony of Connecticut
In office 1640 – 1655 (7 separate terms)
Member of Parliament for Dartmouth
In office 1656–1657
Personal details
Born	1600 Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England
Died	March 1657 London
Religion	Puritanism

Edward Hopkins (1600 – March 1657) was an English colonist and politician and 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. 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, the schools ofCambridge, Massachusetts, and other institutions.

As a side effect of the early administration of the trust, the town of Hopkinton, Massachusetts is named for him.

Edward Hopkins was born in 1600 in Shrewsbury, Shropshire to Edward Hopkins and Katharine Lello Hopkins. Educated at Shrewsbury grammar school, he went to London, where he became a successful merchant engaging in trade with the Near East. He may have benefited from connections with his uncle, Sir Henry Lello, who served for a time as English ambassador to the Ottoman Empire.

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