John Hopkins
John Hopkins was a significant figure in the history of English liturgy, born around 1520 in Wednesbury, Staffordshire, England. He is best known for his contributions to the Elizabethan repertoire of metrical psalms, having supplied sixty-one English verse renditions, making him the largest contributor to this body of work. His involvement with the Church of England during its formative years is notable, particularly through his association with printer Edmund Whitchurch. Hopkins was likely active in London in the late 1540s and may have served as a schoolmaster in the 1550s. There is some uncertainty regarding his clerical career; however, records suggest he may have held positions in parishes such as Great Waldingfield and Chilton in Suffolk. His psalms remained popular in English churches until the late seventeenth century, highlighting his lasting impact on worship practices. The mention of a will from 1570 indicates he had a family, although it is not definitively linked to him. Overall, Hopkins played a crucial role in the evolution of liturgical music in England.
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John Hopkins
Songwriter
- Born: c. 1520
- Birthplace: Wednesbury, Staffordshire, England
- Died: October 1, 1570
- Place of death: England
Biography
The psalmist John Hopkins was born in 1520 or 1521 in Wednesbury, Staffordshire, England. Because the name was a common one it is uncertain whether or not he was the “John Hopkyns” who was ordained a deacon in 1551 and a priest in 1552, or whether he was the John Hopkins who obtained a degree from Oxford in 1555. We can be certain, however, that he was in London during the late 1540’s, when he was acquainted with Edmund Whitchurch, the printer responsible for the Book of Common Prayer that was then being compiled for use in the newly constituted Church of England. Whitchurch appears to have commissioned Hopkins to fill the gaps in a book of psalms rendered into English verse by Thomas Sternhold. Hopkins obliged, supplying numbers 30, 33, 42, 52, 79, 82 and 146.
There is some evidence that Hopkins the psalmist was working as a schoolmaster in the 1550’s; if he was John Hopkins the clergyman, he went on to the parish of Great Waldingfield in Suffolk in 1561, to which he added the living of the neighboring parish of Chilton in 1563. At any rate, by 1562 the psalmist had added fifty-four more versions of the psalms to the seven he had contributed to Sternhold’s volume. The total of sixty-one made him the largest single contributor to the Elizabethan repertoire of metrical psalms, which were sung in English churches until the end of the seventeenth century, thus securing his place in liturgical history. There is a will on record of a John Hopkins who died in 1570, which mentions a wife, Anne, and a son; if there was more than one John Hopkins among the three fragmentary biographical threads traced above, there is no certainty that this was the will of the psalmist, but the usual assumption is that it was.