On November 16, 1807, Samuel Hopkins signed an indenture contract with a woman named Phillis that bound her two sons to work for Samuel Hopkins until they reached the age of twenty one:

"We, the subscribers’ justices of the peace in and for A Arundel County…Do bound out and place as Apprentices with the consent of their mother, Jeremiah and Thomas (Jeremiah aged ten years and three months [&] Thomas aged seven years and six months) unto Samuel Hopkins, planter, until they, the said Jeremiah & Thomas, shall arrive to the age of twenty one years during which time they shall, will, and truly behave, conduct, and demean themselves in every respect as good and faithful apprentices ought to do towards their said Master, and the said Master shall furnish and provide for the said Apprentices good & sufficient meat, drink, clothes, washing, lodging and other requisite necessaries during their Apprenticeship, and also to teach them the art of planting, and when free to give them a suit of clothes."[1]

Who was Phillis? And what happened to her boys Jeremiah and Thomas?

I think it is very likely that the Phillis from the 1807 indenture contract is a woman named Phillis Johnson, who lived as a free Black near White Hall. It is also likely that Phillis was a former slave of Johns Hopkins' grandfather, Johns Hopkins the Elder. 

1800 Phillis lived with two other free individuals, which could be Jeremiah, who was born in August of 1797, and Thomas, who was just born in May of 1800. If Phillis is the woman manumitted by Johns Hopkins the Elder in 1778, and then freed around 1791, she would have been 30 years old in 1800, more than old enough to be living on her own with children. 

And now we have another important clue, a last name that we can attach to at least one of the people formerly enslaved by the Hopkins family - Johnson.

_______________________

[1] See: https://exhibits.library.jhu.edu/omeka-s/s/johnshopkinsbiographicalarchive/item/2862