V. WHO WERE AMEY HOPKINS' PARENTS?
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Stephen Albro, the son of Lydia Spencer and the third John Albro in descent from John Albro I of Portsmouth, had as his second wife Amey Hopkins (LDS IGI batch A170710 source 170710.) There have been many women named Amey/Amy/Amie Hopkins. The LDS FGR that lists the marriage of Amey Hopkins to Stephen Albro on September 4, 1791, lists her date of birth as abt 1764 (so it is a guess) and her place of birth as West Greenwich, Kent Co., RI, but that is based on the fact that the marriage occurred there. This FGR 52 does not name her parents.
In our initial attempts to identify Amey's parents we had found birth listings (IGI) for five "Amey Hopkins" that are close to the right date: (1) 3 Jan 1776 in Providence, Providence Co., RI, to Asa Hopkins and Comfort Briggs; (2) 15 Jan 1751 also in Providence, to Eseh Hopkins and Desire Burroughs; (3) 26 Jan 1751 in Providence, to Esek Hopkins and Desire; (4) 1777 in Scituate, Providence Co., RI, to Hanan Hopkins and Rhoda; and (5) 22 July 1761 in Scituate, Providence, RI to Zebedee Hopkins and Anna Seamans 53 . None born in West Greenwich, unfortunately.
The two in 1751, actually the same person (the later "birth" date may be a christening) would make her 40 years old at her marriage in 1791, questionable for someone who subsequently had at least five children. This Amey Hopkins would have been 51 years old when Joab was born; not impossible but unlikely. The will of Esek Hopkins 54 , dated 1 Sep 1801, indicates that his daughter Amey (b.1751) was still living, and married to John Dorance Esq. Although Esek's wife isn't named, he does list a daughter Desire. Stephen Albro had not died by then. Since Amey Hopkins Albro filed for a widow's pension in Ontario Co., NY, she could not have been divorced from Stephen 38 . Several LDS records 55 claim that the Amey Hopkins born in Providence on January 15, 1751 married Dr. John Clarke (b.abt 1747 in New Jersey) on August 9, 1777 in Providence. Judge John Dorance, whom she married in Oct 1797, was her second husband 56 . No children are known from this marriage. Amey could not have married Stephen Albro in 1791, had Joab, Stephen's son, in 1802, and married John Dorance in 1797.
The ones born in 1776 or 1777 would have only been 14 or 15 years old in 1791, while Stephen Albro would have been at least 31 and a widower. Again not impossible, but highly unlikely. If they had their parents' permission to marry, the parents' names would have been listed.
We were thus left with the Amey Hopkins b.1661 by default, as she is not listed as buried in Rhode Island, is right age-wise, and disappears from Rhode Island records (Stephen and Amey moved to New York State.) The birth of "Amie Hopkins" to Zebedee and Anne Hopkins 22 July 1761 in Scituate Twp., Providence, RI is taken from Vital Records of Rhode Island 70 , as is also the marriage of Zebedee Hopkins to Anne Seamans on 11 Dec 1757 in Scituate Twp., Providence, RI. None of Stephen & Amey's children were named Zebedee or Anne, so that support is lacking.
There is a claim in the form of FamilySearch Pedigree Resource Files 57 , that the Amy Hopkins who was the daughter of Zebedee and Anna (Seamans) Hopkins married Ezekiel Hopkins abt 1782, Of, Scituate Twp., Providence, RI (IGI film 2034598.) Ezekiel was b.abt 1759 of, Scituate, Providence, RI (IGI film 178031 p.95 ref.2797.) This would be "Ezekiel Jr.", son of Ezekiel and Elizabeth Hopkins. We have found no primary or secondary evidence to support this Amy-Ezekiel claim. None of the four wills of various Ezekiel Hopkins' in the R.I. Genealogical Register name the wife.
However, this Amie Hopkins is also claimed to have married Esek Smith (b.16 Oct 1758 to Joseph and Abigail Smith, d.22 Jun 1840) in Scituate, Providence, RI on 14 Feb 1780 or 1 Feb 1781, having children Zilpha and Lydia, 1781 and 1784 respectively 60 . This has been read as "Annie Hopkins" in LDS IGI film 170660 p.636 ref.14511 and batch A170710 source 170710. Esek's death is not listed in the RI Historical Cemeteries Transcription Project, and there is no will abstract for Joseph Smith in the R.I. Genealogical Register. However, Zebedee Hopkins' will supports this claim 61 , mentioning his wife Anna, daughter "Amy Smith dec wife of Esek Smith", the will being dated 3 June 1796. The Amey Hopkins who married Stephen Albro outlived him, and would have been alive after 1796; this greatly weakens if not eliminates the case for her being the daughter of this Zebedee Hopkins.
Approaching the problem from the other end, R.I. Vital Records, New Series 62 , has "HOPKINS, Amey, of Joseph AND Stephen Albro m 4 Sep 1791. (WG 2-86)". This identifies her father as Joseph Hopkins. There are five Joseph Hopkins from Rhode Island whose wills are abstracted in the R.I. Genealogical Register - wills written in 1735 (E. Greenwich), 1740 (Scituate), 1791 (Foster), 1815 with a codicil written in 1819 (West Greenwich) and 1817 (West Greenwich.) None of them mention a daughter Amy/Amie/Amey/Amelia or Amanda. The first two clearly died too soon to have had a daughter of appropriate age to marry Stephen Albro. From other LDS records, it could be the Joseph Hopkins b.Abt 1735 Of Warwick, Kent, RI, m. Zilpha Gorton (b.11 Feb 1737 in Warwick) on 1 July 1759 (WG 1-131), or the Joseph Hopkins b.1736 < e. Greenwich, RI > , m. Mary Austin (b.24 Aug 1736, Of Coventry, Kent, RI) on 22 July 1759, d.1793 in E. Greenwich, Kent, RI 63 . None of these LDS records list a child Amy (any variation.) Registration records available at http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~ahopkins/colonial1.htm indicate that there were two Joseph Hopkins in West Greenwich in 1782, one listed as Joseph Hopkins, Jr. The case for the Joseph Hopkins / Mary Austin parentage is weakened by the lack of a known association with West Greenwich, and the facts that they have a recorded child, Thomas Hopkins, b.1763, and that they died in Rhode Island. Thus there is no obvious reason why a daughter Amey born around 1761 should have been unrecorded. The Joseph / Zilpha parentage remains possible since they have a recorded daughter Mary born in 1760, after which they disappear from the Rhode Island records.
There was indeed an Amy Hopkins, daughter of Joseph Hopkins and Martha Weeks, christened 7 Jan 1776, but in Egerton, Kent, England 64 (mix-up of Egerton, Kent with E. Greenwich, Kent, RI??). Again, she would have been about 15 in 1791 and unlikely to marry a 31-year-old widower at that age.
So the conclusion is, there is no convincing evidence that any of the Amy/Amey/Amie Hopkins discussed here correspond to the one who married Stephen Albro in 1791. The search continues.
Gloria Silverman has found evidence that Joseph Hopkins and Mary Austin were married in West Greenwich, so there is no longer any good reason to rule them out as potential parents for Amey. We simply lack positive evidence in support of that possibility.
38 Personal communication from Mary Carr, Rochester, NY; Estate of Stephen Albro.
52 AFN: LDQH-V8, submitted by Christopher Gleason Clark, Santa Barbara, CA, and D. Jason Hatch, Bountiful, UT.
53 LDS IGI film 457845; film 456861; film 170588 p.324 ref 1461; batch C500011 source 0908559 IT 1 printout 0541499 (taken from Edwin M Snow's "Alphabetical Index of the Births, Marriages and Deaths Recorded in Providence"); batch 5017703 source 1553766 sheet 23; film 170682 p.718 ref.19817; film 170588 p.342 ref.1918; film 170718 p.478 ref.17795; film 471933 p.95 ref.58625; FPR pin#510475; FPR pin#462857; film 184236 p.76 ref.1684; film 452039 ref.21493; and batch C501971 source 0022256 V.2 (taken from Arnold's Vital Records of RI.)
54 R.I. Genealogical Register, Vol.4, No.1, p.12.
55 LDS IGI films 184236 p.76 ref.1684, 458669, and 453856 p.1 ref.61237
56 "Genealogy of One Line of the Hopkins Family, Descended from Thomas Hopkins in Providence", J.A. & R.A. Reid, Printers, Providence, RI, 1881, p.37.
57 Pedigree Resource Files pin#462857 and 510475, recid=60462857.
58 R.I. Genealogical Register, Vol.1, No.3, p.133.
59 R.I. Genealogical Register, Vol.4 No.1, Abstracts Glocester Wills, p.65.
60 Whipple gedcom, www.whipple.org. and source "Genealogies of Rhode Island Families from Rhode Island Periodicals", Baltimore, Genealogical Publ. Co., 1983, 2:81. See also LDS IGI films 537293; 471933 p.94 ref.57778; and batch A537339 source 537339 (marriage 14 Feb 1780), and batch M501971 source 0022256 V.2, Arnold's Vital Records of RI, (marriage 1 Feb 1781.)
61 R.I. Genealogical Register, Vol.2, No.4, p.227.
62 R.I. Vital Records, New Series, Vol.7, Greenwich, RI Marriages from Probate, Grave & Death Records 1680-1860, p.175.
63 LDS PRF CD#3 submitted by Richard Davis, Aurora, CO; LDS FGR for AFN:X9BW-Q4 and LDS FGR for AFN:1TK1-NVG.
64 LDS IGI film 1985378.
70 "Vital Records of Rhode Island, 1636-1850: a family register for the people" by James Newell Arnold (1844-1927).
Note: The Hopkins COA is as described on www.coatsofarms.addr.com/name_h.htm
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Copyright © 2000 Phillip W. Albro, Cary, NC; last revised November 26, 2000. All rights reserved.