A Pilgrim Becomes a Shakespearean Star

In 1609, a fleet of English ships set out to rescue the dying colony of Jamestown, but a hurricane interrupted their journey. The Sea Venture, one of the ships, ran aground on Bermuda's jagged beach after three days of struggling to stay afloat. All the other ships made it to the shores of Virginia, except for one. A smaller ship disappeared into the ocean, carrying all its crew down with it. 

The ship's 150 passengers and crew survived and built two smaller boats to reach Jamestown, where Thomas Gates was to become the new governor. However, Stephen Hopkins, one of the passengers, challenged Gates' authority, triggering a power struggle that lasted for months, with Hopkins nearly executed for mutiny. Eventually, the survivors constructed two seaworthy vessels and made it to Jamestown, surviving over nine months on the isolated island paradise. 

Two years later, Shakespeare's play, “The Tempest”, premiered in London on November 1, 1611. The play's plot involves a shipwreck on an island and a power struggle between the leader and his subjects, including one crewmember named Stephano. The similarities between the play and the real-life story of Stephen Hopkins are not coincidental. After the Sea Venture passengers reached Jamestown, William Strachey wrote a letter detailing their ordeal, including the power struggle between Gates and Hopkins. Shakespeare likely read Strachey's account, leading many scholars to believe that Hopkins inadvertently inspired the character of Stephano in “The Tempest”, creating an unusual connection between Shakespeare and the Pilgrims of Plymouth.

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“Deliver me out of the mire, that I sink not: let me be delivered from them that hate me, and out of the deep waters.”

(Psalm 69:14; 1599 Geneva Bible)

No Beer on the Sabbath

Before sailing to America on the Mayflower, Stephen Hopkins (1581 - 1644) already had a colorful life. He was a minister's assistant at sea, narrowly escaped unjust execution, shipwrecked in Bermuda, stranded months on an island, was an early settler of Jamestown, and was portrayed in one of William Shakespeare’s plays. None of that earned him any legal immunity in the Plymouth courts.

Before his scrapes with the law, Hopkins was an important village leader. He was a colony representative to Native Americans, and served several years on the governor’s council, settling colony disputes and criminal cases. Additionally, he was also a land surveyor, tax assessor, and trade adviser.

But then Hopkins’ relationship with the community began a downward spiral around the time he opened his tavern. While in his mid-fifties, he was charged for assault after fighting a man less than half his age. He was later taken to court for price-gouging, withholding wages, and even serving alcohol on Sundays. 

Attendance at church services was expected for everyone in early New England, and laws were created to protect the reverence of the day. But on October 2, 1637 Hopkins was charged with selling alcohol on the Sabbath, and allowing his customers to play shuffleboard when they should’ve been at church. For this he was ordered to pay forty shillings. Months earlier, Hopkins was also fined for allowing people to drink to excess in his tavern. This infraction broke a law that he himself helped pass just a few years before. 

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"Keep the Sabbath day to sanctify it, as the Lord thy God hath commanded thee."

(Deuteronomy 5:12; 1599 Geneva Bible)

“Woe unto them, that rise up early to follow drunkenness, and to them that continue until night, till the wine do inflame them.”

(Proverbs 5:11; 1599 Geneva Bible)