HOPTON FAMILY HISTORY
PART TWO
The Early Hoptons
Many an English
family lays claim to being descended from William the Conqueror, but the Hopton
family can make a better claim than most.
How many other families can claim a castle of their own? A Norman
castle at that! Better than that -
we Hoptons can boast more than mere family legend to support the claim of a
connection with the Conqueror; there is also corroborating evidence in the form
of an ancient manuscript.
The castle in
question is
Even though little
more than a ruin, enough of the battered keep remains to enable a visitor to
classify the castle as
A curious rhyme
records the granting of the manor of Hopton castle to the family. It is quoted in
Hopton,
Co. Salop.
To the heyrs male of the
Hopton family, lawfully begotten.
To me and to myne, to thee
and to thine,
While the water runs and the
Sun doth shine,
For lack of Heyrs to the King
againe,
I, William, King, the third
of my reign,
Give to the Norman Hunter,
To me that art both Line and
Deare,
The Hoppe and the Hoptune,
And all the bounds up and
downe,
Under the Earth to Hell,
Above the Earth to Heaven,
From me and from mine,
To thee and to thine,
As good and as faire,
As ever they myne were,
So witness that is Sooth,
I bit the white wax with my
Tooth,
Before Jugg, Marode and
Margery,
And my third son, Henry,
For one Bow and one Broad
Arrow,
when I
come to hunt upon Yarrow.
It sounds
intriguing doesn't it! If the rhyme is
authentic, the expression "To me that are both
Line and Deare" seems to suggest that the Hoptons are indeed related to
the Conqueror. Yet the wording is
English, whereas William would surely have used Norman French. It was to resolve this problem that I set
myself to find out about
John Stow Chronicler
and Antiquary 1525
to 1605
From 1560 onwards his time was mainly spent in the
collection of books and literary documents,
in the transcription of ancient manuscripts and the like, all
dealing with English history, archaeology and literature.'
In 1565
Clearly
Notwithstanding
the supposed link with the Conqueror, the pedigree of the Hopton family has not
been traced back farther than Sir Walter Hopton of
The Shropshire
Hoptons are believed to have left that county in the sixteenth century, one
branch of the family settling in Canon Frome in Herefordshire, and another -
described as a 'junior' branch - in Gloucestershire. The Canon Frome branch was a distinguished
family, boasting Members of Parliament, Judges and Senior
clergy among their numbers. They could
trace their descent from the knights of
'Junior branch' or not, unlike their
Herefordshire kinfolk, at least the Hoptons who settled in
* * *
But first, can we
link the Hoptons of Hopton Castle to the Hoptons who first appear in Gloucestershire a
hundred years after the ownership of the castle passed out of the family? Unfortunately there is no proof but there are a few pointers that
add some degree of weight to the theory of continuity.
(1) The following figures, extracted from
Baptismal Registers, chart how the number of Hoptons baptised in
Hopton Baptisms in
before 1700 138
1700 to 1830 37
Hopton Baptisms in Herefordshire
before 1700 8
1700 to 1830 70
Hopton Baptisms in Gloucestershire
before 1700
77
1700 to 1830 174
(2) As late as the eighteenth
century, Bigland's History of
Gloucestershire refers to several members of the Hoptons of Berkeley as
belonging to ‘the junior branch of the Hopton family of
(3) The Coat of Arms as described in Burke's
Landed Gentry and that featured on several Hopton tombs in
(4) When viewed in an overall national
context, the geographical distance between
(5) Frances Hopton of
No conclusive facts here maybe, but
interesting pointers.
· * *
Perhaps now is a
good point at which to introduce various family trees that different family
historians have compiled. I offer four
for comparison with that of our own branch.
I believe that each of these is in some way related to our own and that
somewhere there must be a tie in with our earliest proven ancestor - Daniel
(c.1684).
A point to observe is that they all originate in
Bisley towards the end of the sixteenth century. (More particularly in
Chalford which formed part of the Bisley parish at that time.) They are the very earliest Hoptons that I can
trace in Gloucestershire, and it is reasonable to assume that they came to the
county about that time - quite likely from
There is strong circumstantial evidence that links
those named in Tree ‘C’ with our
Daniel of circa 1684 (although I cannot prove
any such link). The most telling factor
is the isolated and tiny (even today!) hamlet of Moreton Valence, where William
of Eastington left land when he died in 1688 - as did our Daniel over half a
century later. I do not believe that
there could have been two unrelated
families of the same name with connections in such a small and lonely
location.
The names of Daniel’s sons also suggest a link -
Richard, Daniel, Samuel, William - these all abound in
the Eastington family (Tree C).
If I am right about a connection; how does Daniel of
circa 1684 slot in with Tree ‘C’? I have
a theory - it is no more - that the
Richard baptised at Eastington in 1661 could be the father. He married Hannah Knowles in 1683 and the
only child traced to the couple is Mary baptised at Whitminster (Wheatenhurst)
in 1688. (Richard died in 1690,
apparently before he could produce any more children.) A five year gap before a first child was
unusual at that time. Could there have
been an earlier child? The fact that we
cannot trace a baptismal entry is annoying but not necessarily
significant. The registers of that time
are haphazard; not all have survived and many of those that have are
illegible.
Another pointer is that the custom was to name one’s
first son after ones’ own father. Daniel
named his first son Richard. Was this
after his own father?
If my theory is correct, the two who left land in Moreton Valence would
have been the nephew and uncle. (i.e. Daniel would have been the son of William’s older
brother.)
A link between our
proven ancestors and Tree ‘C’ would connect us right back to the sixteenth
century and the
To summarise:
From Patrick there is a proven link to Daniel (1684)
From Daniel there is a link through property at
Moreton Valence and family names to Branch ‘C’
From Branch ‘C’ there is a link through Chalford
origins and will attestation to Branch ‘A’
From Branch ‘A’ there is a link through Frances
Hopton’s will to the Canon Frome branch.
Both ‘A’ and Canon Frome branches claim descent
from the Hoptons of Hopton Castle. (Substantiated by Bigland’s History
and Armorial records.)
‘To me that art both Line and
Deare,
The
Hoppe and the Hoptune,’ (
Q.E.D.
(Well - almost!)
So is our claim of
descent from William the Conqueror that far fetched after all?
* * *
[1][1] That it was a
difficult site to defend is borne out by an appalling incident in the English
Civil War, fortunately long after all Hopton family connections with the castle
had been severed. In 1644 a small
Parliamentary garrison holding the castle surrendered to a vastly superior
Royalist force. The commander of the
defeated force was made to watch as his thirty three men were bound, hacked to
death in cold blood and their bodies thrown in the moat. Was it my imagination or did I sense
something of an uneasy air about this place even today? A lingering legacy of the massacre perhaps!
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