John Hopkinson (1610 – 28 February 1680) was an English antiquarian.

Biography

Hopkinson was the son of George Hopkinson of Lofthouse, near

Leeds Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by populati ...

, by his second wife, Judith, daughter of John Langley of Horbury, was born at Lofthouse in 1610. He states that he was a member of

Lincoln's Inn The Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn is one of the four Inns of Court in London to which barristers of England and Wales belong and where they are called to the Bar. (The other three are Middle Temple, Inner Temple and Gray's Inn.) Lincoln ...

, and for some part of the reign of

Charles I Charles I may refer to: Kings and emperors * Charlemagne (742–814), numbered Charles I in the lists of Holy Roman Emperors and French kings * Charles I of Anjou (1226–1285), also king of Albania, Jerusalem, Naples and Sicily * Charles I of ...

he was clerk of the peace for the county of York. Thoresby, in his ‘Diary,’ infers that he had been Norroy king-of-arms, meaning really deputy to that officer. When Sir William Dugdale made a visitation of the county of York in 1665–6, Hopkinson accompanied him as his secretary. In spare moments he employed himself in transcribing old deeds connected with Yorkshire families, and also in drawing out the pedigrees of the Yorkshire gentry. In this way he slowly accumulated a very extensive antiquarian miscellany in manuscript, which has been largely used by local historians and genealogists. Hopkinson was well enough known and respected to have special letters of protection granted to him and his father during the civil war by both the Marquis of Newcastle and Fairfax. He died 28 February 1680, and was buried at Rothwell, near Leeds, where there is a monument to his memory in the chancel of the church. Hopkinson's collections, which comprised at least eighty volumes, passed on his death to his sister Jane, who had married Richard Richardson. About half came by descent into the possession of Frances Mary Richardson Currer . v.of North Bierley and Eshton in Yorkshire, and from her passed to her relative, Sir Matthew Wilson. These have been catalogued by the Historical Manuscripts Commission. The other portion were in the possession of J. G. F. Smyth of Heath, near Wakefield, who is also descended from Richard Richardson and Jane Hopkinson. Many copies of Hopkinson's various collections have been made, especially of the genealogies of the West Riding families. One is in the

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...

, Harl. 4630. Another, much enlarged and corrected by Thomas Wilson, F.S.A., is in the

Leeds Library The Leeds Library is the oldest surviving subscription library of its type in the UK. It was founded in 1768, following an advertisement placed in the ''Leeds Intelligencer'' earlier that year. The first secretary was Joseph Priestley. In 1779 ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hopkinson, John 1610 births 1680 deaths English antiquarians 17th-century antiquarians