Samuel Hopkins

author

Samuel Hopkins

1693–1755

An early New England minister, he is remembered not only for preaching in West Springfield but also for writing about Native American missions and helping introduce maple sugar to a wider public.

1 Audiobook

An Address to the People of New-England Representing the very great importance of attaching the Indians to their interest, not only by treating them justly and kindly, but by using proper endeavours to settle Christianity among them

An Address to the People of New-England Representing the very great importance of attaching the Indians to their interest, not only by treating them justly and kindly, but by using proper endeavours to settle Christianity among them

by Samuel Hopkins

About the author

Born in Waterbury, Connecticut, in 1693, Samuel Hopkins studied at Yale and graduated in 1718. He became the second pastor of the First Congregational Church in West Springfield, Massachusetts, serving there for much of his adult life.

Hopkins also had close ties to the Edwards family through his marriage to Esther Edwards, a sister of Jonathan Edwards. Beyond parish life, he wrote Historical Memoirs Relating to the Housatunnuk Indians, a work that looked at missionary efforts among the Housatonic people and preserved material connected with the ministry of John Sergeant.

He is also credited in historical records with publicizing the Native method of making maple sugar in the early 1750s. That mix of local ministry, colonial religious history, and practical observation gives his work a small but distinctive place in early American writing.