Charles Gordon Hopkins

He was born in 1822 as the fourth of five children of Edward Martin Hopkins, a London broker, and Ann Manley Hopkins, from an old Devonshire family. His siblings were Ann Eleanor, Manley, Edward Martin and Thomas Marsland Hopkins. His eldest brother Manley supported the family after their father's early death in 1836 while his second older brother Edward Martin Hopkins, worked as a Hudson's Bay Company official and traveled as a private secretary with Governor George Simpson around the world in 1841–42.{{sfn|Hopkins|2015|page=72}} Hopkins was enticed by the tales of Edward's travels and encouraged to go to Hawaii. In December 1843, Simpson wrote to William Richards, an American advisor and envoy of King Kamehameha III, recommending Charles Hopkins as an official in the Hawaiian monarchy which had recently adopted a Western style constitution and government and was in need of foreign councillors.{{sfn|Cracroft|Franklin|Queen Emma|1958|pages=208–209}}

Hopkins arrived in Honolulu in February 1845 on the Hudson's Bay Company packet ship Nepaul.{{sfn|Cracroft|Franklin|Queen Emma|1958|page=208}} He initially served minor posts as a government clerk and a police magistrate while he learned the Hawaiian language.{{cite web|title=Hopkins, Charles Gordon office record|work=state archives digital collections|publisher=state of Hawaii|url=https://digitalcollections.hawaii.gov/greenstone3/sites/localsite/collect/governm1/index/assoc/HASH0153/1ada5890.dir/doc.pdf|access-date=December 30, 2020}}{{sfn|Cracroft|Franklin|Queen Emma|1958|pages=210-211}} He soon became a naturalized subject of the Hawaiian Kingdom.{{sfn|Cracroft|Franklin|Queen Emma|1958|page=207}}

He briefly served as editor pro tempore of The Polynesian, the official newspaper of the government, from December 23, 1848, to May 12, 1849. He later resumed as editor of the Polynesian and director of the government press from July 7, 1855, to October 6, 1860. An advocate of the Native Hawaiian people, he wrote an editorial in 1849 promoting the idea of building a free public hospital for the Hawaiians. This idea may have later influenced the foundation of The Queen's Hospital in 1859.{{sfn|Cracroft|Franklin|Queen Emma|1958|pages=211-215}}

In 1851, Hopkins became a land agent and private secretary to Kamehameha III, who called him "Hopekini", a Hawaiian variant of his surname. During this period, he lived as a member of the royal household on the grounds of one of the royal residences near the Palace, and developed friendships with the king's nephews Alexander Liholiho (Kamehameha IV) and Lot Kapuāiwa (Kamehameha V).{{sfn|Cracroft|Franklin|Queen Emma|1958|pages=211-219}} He was especially close to the future Kamehameha IV and explored Mauna Kea together with him on a vacation in the summer of 1849. They continued their friendship into his reign and Kamehameha IV's marriage to Emma Rooke. The king took counsel with Hopkins in 1859 when he shot and killed his secretary Henry A. Neilson over a rumour that Neilson was having an affair with Queen Emma.{{sfn|Cracroft|Franklin|Queen Emma|1958|pages=217–219}}

File:Queen Emma and party in France.jpg

File:Queen Emma of Hawaii - travel to Europe and the United States (1865-1866).svg

From 1865 to 1866, Hopkins traveled with Queen Dowager Emma (widow of Kamehameha IV who died in 1863) on her trip to Europe and the United States to fundraise for the Anglican mission in Hawaii. He served officially as her aide-de-camp and private secretary and was often referred to as Major Hopkins during their travels.{{sfn|Kanahele|1999|pages=189–226}}{{sfn|Cracroft|Franklin|Queen Emma|1958|pages=177–278}}{{sfn|Kuykendall|1967|pages=201–209}} In England, Queen Emma met with Queen Victoria at Windsor Castle.{{sfn|Kanahele|1999|page=200}} The group also traveled through France and Italy and in Paris, Queen Emma had a private audience with French Emperor Napoleon III{{sfn|Kanahele|1999|page=217}} at Tuileries Palace.{{sfn|Kanahele|1999|pages=189–226}}{{sfn|Korn|1957|pages=7–24}} On their return to Hawaii, they visited the United States and was honored by an official reception by President Andrew Johnson at the White House.{{sfn|Kanahele|1999|pages=189–226}}{{sfn|Kuykendall|1967|pages=201–209}}

During his two decades in Hawaii, Hopkins served in a number of important government posts including member of the Privy Council of State (1845–1864), member of the House of Nobles, the upper house of the legislature of the kingdom (1859–1867) and member of the bureau of public instruction in 1865. He was appointed a colonel in King Kamehameha V's staff on May 6, 1865. Prior to the death of Kamehameha IV, he was briefly appointed Minister of Finance and served from November 5, 1863, to December 24, 1863, until he was replaced by Charles de Varigny by Kamehameha V and instead appointed the king's chamberlain and secretary. He later served a short term as Minister of the Interior from February 18, 1864, to April 26, 1865, until he was succeeded by Ferdinand William Hutchison. {{sfn|Kuykendall|1953|page=126}}

In 1856, Hopkins helped his eldest brother Manley Hopkins acquire an appointment by Kamehameha IV as the Hawaiian Consul-General in London, a post he held until his death in 1897.{{sfn|Hopkins|2015|page=466}}{{sfn|Mariani|2008|page=23}}{{cite web|title=Hopkins, Manley G K office record|work=state archives digital collections|publisher=state of Hawaii|url=https://digitalcollections.hawaii.gov/greenstone3/sites/localsite/collect/governm1/index/assoc/HASH01f1/52675385.dir/doc.pdf|access-date=December 30, 2020}} One of Manley's sons was the poet Gerard Manley Hopkins.{{sfn|Hopkins|2015|page=466}}{{sfn|Mariani|2008|page=23}}

In his capacity as a royal favorite and agent of the king, Hopkins acquired lands for ranching at Kahuku on the windward side of the island of Oahu from the royal crown lands.{{sfn|Mariani|2008|page=23}}{{sfn|Cracroft|Franklin|Queen Emma|1958|pages=211-212}} The Euro-American community, especially the American Protestant missionaries, disapproved of Hopkins close association with the Hawaiians and his private life.{{sfn|Cracroft|Franklin|Queen Emma|1958|pages=211-213}} Hopkins had a son Charles Louis Kamohoalii Hopkins (1853–1918) out of wedlock with a Hawaiian woman.{{sfn|Mariani|2008|page=23}} The woman and her husband were working as servants and living with Hopkins at the time.{{cite book|author=Hawaii Supreme Court|author-link=Supreme Court of Hawaii|chapter=Charles L. Hopkins vs. Chung Wa et al|title=Reports of Decisions Rendered by the Supreme Court of the Hawaiian Islands|volume=4|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9cgDAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA650|year=1883|publisher=Hawaiian Gazette Company|location=Honolulu|pages=650–664|oclc=20831363}}

On November 17, 1867, Hopkins left Hawaii on a steamer for New York.{{cite news|title=Personal|newspaper=The Pacific Commercial Advertiser|location=Honolulu|date=December 7, 1867|page=1|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/66477630/charles-gordon-hopkins-left-for-new/|access-date=December 30, 2020}} He returned to England by 1868 and spent his latter life in Toulon, in southern France where he died in 1886.{{sfn|Hopkins|2015|page=466}}{{sfn|Mariani|2008|page=23}} All of his private correspondence with his family was lost or destroyed.{{sfn|Cracroft|Franklin|Queen Emma|1958|page=213}}

His son would serve as deputy-marshal and later marshal of the Hawaiian Kingdom during the reign of King Kalākaua, and in his capacity as marshal, proclaimed the accession of Queen Liliuokalani in 1891. He was elected as a member of the House of Nobles in 1892–93 succeeding Edward C. MacFarlane.{{sfn|Kuykendall|1967|pages=554–555}} He served one terms as police justice of Oahu and was later Hawaiian interpreter for the legislature and circuit courts of the Territory of Hawaii.{{cite news|title=Charles L. Hopkins, Beloved Hawaiian, Answers Last Call|newspaper=The Pacific Commercial Advertiser|location=Honolulu|date=March 13, 1918|pages=1, 3|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/46392479/charles-l-hopkins-obituary/|access-date=December 30, 2020}}{{cite news|title=Manley Hopkins Dead|newspaper=Evening Bulletin|location=Honolulu|date=September 25, 1897|page=1|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/66462155/manley-hopkins-dead/|access-date=December 30, 2020}}{{cite web|title=Hopkins, Charles Lewis office record|work=state archives digital collections|publisher=state of Hawaii|url=https://digitalcollections.hawaii.gov/greenstone3/sites/localsite/collect/governm1/index/assoc/HASH175a/43e06e64.dir/doc.pdf|access-date=December 30, 2020}}

{{Reflist}}

{{refbegin|30em}}

• {{cite book|last1=Cracroft|first1=Sophia|last2=Franklin|first2=Jane|author-link2=Jane Franklin|last3=Queen Emma|author-link3=Queen Emma of Hawaii|editor-last=Korn|editor-first=Alfons L.|title=The Victorian Visitors: An Account of the Hawaiian Kingdom, 1861–1866, Including the Journal Letters of Sophia Cracroft: Extracts from the Journals of Lady Franklin, and Diaries and Letters of Queen Emma of Hawaii|url=https://scholarspace.manoa.hawaii.edu/bitstream/10125/39981/Victorian%20Visitors%20OCR.pdf|year=1958|publisher=University of Hawaii Press|location=Honolulu|hdl=10125/39981|isbn=978-0-87022-421-8|oclc=8989368}}
• {{cite book|last=Hopkins|first=Gerard Manley|title=Gerard Manley Hopkins: Diaries, Journals, and Notebooks|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LCLuCgAAQBAJ|year=2015|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=Oxford|isbn=978-0-19-953400-5|oclc=1014792241}}
• {{cite book|last=Kanahele|first=George S.|author-link=George Kanahele|title=Emma: Hawaii's Remarkable Queen|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WLtlBNRt_V4C|year=1999|publisher=University of Hawaii Press|location=Honolulu|isbn=978-0-8248-2240-8|oclc=40890919}}
• {{cite book|last=Kuykendall|first=Ralph Simpson|author-link=Ralph Simpson Kuykendall|title=The Hawaiian Kingdom, 1854–1874, Twenty Critical Years|url=http://www.ulukau.org/elib/cgi-bin/library?c=kingdom2&l=en|volume=2|year=1953|publisher=University of Hawaii Press|location=Honolulu|isbn=978-0-87022-432-4}}
• {{cite book|last=Kuykendall|first=Ralph Simpson|author-link=Ralph Simpson Kuykendall|title=The Hawaiian Kingdom 1874–1893, The Kalakaua Dynasty|url=http://www.ulukau.org/elib/cgi-bin/library?c=kingdom3&l=en|volume=3|year=1967|publisher=University of Hawaii Press|location=Honolulu|isbn=978-0-87022-433-1|oclc=500374815|access-date=June 15, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150120003313/http://www.ulukau.org/elib/cgi-bin/library?c=kingdom3&l=en|archive-date=January 20, 2015|url-status=live}}
• {{cite journal|last=Korn|first=Alfons L.|title=Queen Emma in France, 1865–1866|url=https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/5014331.pdf|journal=Sixty-Fifth Annual Report of the Hawaiian Historical Society for the Year 1956|location=Honolulu|publisher=Hawaiian Historical Society|year=1957|volume=61|pages=7–24|hdl=10524/62|oclc=722778378}}
• {{cite book|last=Mariani|first=Paul L.|title=Gerard Manley Hopkins: A Life|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mYqQYvSZQjkC&pg=PA23|year=2008|publisher=Viking|location=New York|isbn=978-0-670-02031-7|oclc=213308771}}

{{refend}}

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{{Hawaiian Ministers of Finance}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Hopkins, Charles Gordon}}

Category:1822 births

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Category:British emigrants to the Hawaiian Kingdom

Category:Hawaiian Kingdom military officers

Category:Hawaiian Kingdom chamberlains