BIRTH: 1580 • Middlesex, London, England, United Kingdom
DEATH: 1647 • Providence, Providence, Rhode Island, USA
FATHER:
MOTHER:
SPOUSE: Stephen Hopkins (1581-1644)
Elizabeth Fisher was born in 1580 in London, London, England. She married Stephen Hopkins on February 19, 1617, in Middlesex, England. They had seven children in 14 years. She died in 1647 in Providence, Rhode Island, at the age of 67.
Her story
Born around 1580, likely in London, England, Elizabeth Fisher lived in a time of religious upheaval and transatlantic ambition. Little is known of her early life, but she entered history through her marriage to Stephen Hopkins, a man already marked by adventure and controversy.
They married on 19 February 1617 at St. Mary Matfellon Church in Whitechapel, London. Stephen was a widower with three children—Giles, Constance, and a third child who likely died young. Elizabeth became their stepmother and soon mothered children of her own.
In 1620, Elizabeth boarded the Mayflower with her husband and stepchildren, pregnant with her first child by Stephen. During the voyage, she gave birth to Oceanus Hopkins, the only child born at sea. She was one of just four adult women who survived the colony’s first winter and helped prepare the First Thanksgiving in 1621.
Over the next decade, Elizabeth gave birth to at least six more children, Damaris Hopkins (b. c.1618, d. c.1628), Caleb Hopkins (b. c.1623, d. before 1651), Deborah Hopkins (b. c.1626, married Andrew Ring), Damaris Hopkins (II) (b. c.1628, married Jacob Cooke), Ruth Hopkins (b. c.1630), and Elizabeth Hopkins (b. c.1632).
Elizabeth’s life in Plymouth was one of endurance and quiet strength. She raised a large family in a harsh environment, supported her husband’s civic and diplomatic roles, and helped establish a stable household in the colony’s formative years.
She likely died before June 1644, as she was not named in Stephen Hopkins’s will dated that month. Her burial place is unknown, but she was almost certainly interred in Burial Hill, the colony’s earliest cemetery.
Elizabeth Fisher Hopkins’s legacy lives on through her children and their descendants, many of whom married into other Mayflower families. Her survival, resilience, and role in shaping early Plymouth make her one of the colony’s foundational women.
Legacy of Elizabeth Fisher
Married
Married Stephen Hopkins (1581-1644) on February 19, 1617, at Saint Mary, Whitechapel: Whitechapel High Street, Tower Hamlets, Tower Hamlets, Middlesex, England
Children
- Damaris Hopkins (1618-1628)
- Oceanus Hopkins (1620-1621)
- Caleb Hopkins (1623-1651)
- Deborah Hopkins (1626-1669)
- Damaris Hopkins (1628-1666)
- Ruth Hopkins (1630-?) may have died before 1659
- Unnamed daughter born in Plymouth died in infancy
- Elizabeth Hopkins (1632-1666)
Documents
- Birth Records
- None
- Marriage records
- London, England, Church of England Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1538-1812 > Name: Eliza Fisher; Gender: Female; Record Type: Marriage; Marriage Date: 19 Feb 1617; Marriage Place: Saint Mary, Whitechapel: Whitechapel High Street, Tower Hamlets, Tower Hamlets, Middlesex, England; Spouse: Stephen Hopkins; Register Type: Parish Register; Reference Number: 17947932; Additional Reference Number: 183584
- U.S., New England Marriages Prior to 1700 > Name: Elizabeth Hopkins; Maiden Name: Fisher; Gender: Female; Marriage Date: 19 Feb 1617; Death Year: 1651; Spouse: Stephen Hopkins
- U.S. and International Marriage Records, 1560-1900; Name: Stephen Hopkins; Gender: Male; Birth Place: EN; Birth Year: 1581; Spouse Name: Elizabeth Fisher; Marriage Year: 1617; Number Pages: 1
- The New England Historical & Genealogical Register, 1847-2011 > Name: Elizabeth Fisher; Event Type: Marriage; Marriage Date: Feb 1617; Spouse Name: Stephen Hopkins; Page number: 46; Volume Number: 102
- Death records
- U.S., New England Marriages Prior to 1700 > Name: Elizabeth Hopkins; Maiden Name: Fisher; Death Year: 1651
- Other Records
- The Passengers of the Mayflower in 1620 [Plymouth Colony] > Mrs. Hopkins
- Lists of Passengers and the Ships Which Brought Them – 1620 > Mayflower > Mrs. Hopkins
- Genealogies of Mayflower Families, Vol. II > Stephen Hopkins of the Mayflower and Some of His Descendants
- Colonial Families of the USA, 1607-1775 > Colonial Families of the United States of America, Volume V > List of Mayflower Passengers > Elizabeth Hopkins
- Mayflower Births and Deaths, Vol. 1 and 2 > Volume 2 > Stephen Hopkins > children of Stephen and Elizabeth Hopkins
- U.S. and Canada, Passenger and Immigration Lists Index, 1500s-1900s > Name: Elizabeth Hopkins; Arrival Year: 1620; Arrival Place: Plymouth, Massachusetts; Primary Immigrant: Hopkins, Stephen; Family Members: Wife Elizabeth; Daughter Oceanus; Daughter Damaris; Son Giles; Daughter Constance; Source Publication Code: 2404; Annotation: Complete list of passengers on the Mayflower, all named with details of what happened to them. For other references to the Mayflower, see the index.; Source Bibliography: GEBLER, ERNEST. The Plymouth Adventure: a Chronicle Novel of the Voyage of the Mayflower. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1950, pp. 372-377.
Relation of Elizabeth Fisher to Steven Barry Staggs: 11th great-grandmother
Page last updated November 8, 2025
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