Family Timeline

mid-1600s - Gerard Hopkins I arrived in the Province of Maryland and settled in Anne Arundel County at the head of the West River on a tract of land known as Peak. He married Thomson Baxter and they had three daughters and one son, Gerard II. At his death in 1691, Gerard the First owned enslaved Africans and white indentured servants. He was not a Quaker.

1683 - Gerard Hopkins II, Johns Hopkins' great grandfather, was born in Anne Arundel County. In 1700, Gerard the Second married Margaret Johns (hence the use of the first name Johns for male descendants) and together they had seven sons, Including Johns Hopkins the Elder, and three daughters. Gerard and Margaret Hopkins joined the Society of Friends and acquired considerable land throughout colonial Maryland. 

1714 - Gerard Hopkins II and Samuel Galloway purchased a tract of land called White's Hall at the head of the South River.

1720 - Johns Hopkins (aka Johns Hopkins the Elder), Johns Hopkins' grandfather, was born in Anne Arundel county to Gerard and Margaret Hopkins. Johns the Elder was married three times: first to Mary Gillis, next to Mary Crockett, and finally to Elizabeth Thomas, with whom he had six sons and five daughters. 

1759 - Samuel Hopkins, Johns Hopkins' father, was born in Anne Arundel County, the first child of Johns the Elder and Elizabeth Hopkins. His younger brother, Gerard T. Hopkins, who would play a significant role in Johns Hopkins' early adult life in Baltimore, was born in 1769.

1778 - Johns Hopkins the Elder filed a Deed of Manumission giving freedom outright to nine enslaved people and converting 33 others to various terms of continued bondage.

1784 - Johns Hopkins the Elder died at the age of 63. View his will and his estate inventory here. Johns the Elder left his "dwelling house" and part of the land known as White's Hall to his first son, Samuel, along with "a negro boy named John."

1789 - The Maryland Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery, and the Relief of Free Negroes, and Others, Unlawfully Held in Bondage is founded in Baltimore. Samuel Hopkins is a founding member and Gerard T. Hopkins is a founding office of the Society. 

1792 - Samuel Hopkins married Hannah Janney from Loudon county, Virginia. They had 11 children over 17 years. View their marriage contract here.

1793 - Joseph Janney Hopkins, the first child of Samuel and Hannah Hopkins and Johns Hopkins' older brother, was born at White's Hall.

1795 - Johns Hopkins, the future businessman and philanthropist, and the second child of Samuel and Hannah Hopkins, was born at White's Hall. He is said to have attended the Anne Arundel Free School near Davidsonville, Maryland.

1804 - Elizabeth (Thomas) Hopkins, Johns Hopkins' grandmother, died at the age of 67.  

1812 - Johns Hopkins moved to Baltimore to live with and work for his uncle Gerard T. Hopkins, who was an established grocer and a prominent member of the Baltimore Yearly Meeting. The Hopkins residence was located at 78 West Pratt Street. While living in his uncle home, Johns falls in love with his cousin Elizabeth Hopkins (1802-1890). They are prohibited from marrying by the Society of Friends, and both remain unmarried the rest of their lives.

1813 - Johns Hopkins joined the Baltimore Monthly Meeting for the Western District of the Society of Friends.

1814 - Samuel Hopkins, Johns Hopkins' father, died at the age of 55 without a will. Hannah Hopkins, his widow, and Joseph J. Hopkins, his eldest son, inherited the White's Hall plantation.

1819 - Johns Hopkins started his first business, Hopkins & Moore, with Benjamin P. Moore. The partnership lasted five years.

1824 - Johns Hopkins partnered with two of his younger brothers, Samuel Jr. and Mahlon, to establish Hopkins Brothers mercantile firm in Baltimore. Their store was located at 5 West Pratt Street (later 6 W. Pratt).

1826 - Johns Hopkins was disowned by the Baltimore Meeting, along with his brother Mahlon, for “trading in distilled spirituous liquors” in defiance of Quaker rules. Two years later, the Society of Friends split into two rival factions, with most of the Hopkins family joining the Orthodox division. 

1827 - The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad is founded in Baltimore by Philip E. Thomas, Johns Hopkins' second cousin, and George Brown. Thomas served as the first president of the new railroad company, which would generate significant wealth for stockholder Johns Hopkins.. 

1830s - Johns Hopkins moved into his first home in Baltimore on Franklin Street, after living for several years at the Beltzhoover Indian Queen Hotel. He contracted cholera in 1832 and nearly died, prompting him to leave the Beltzhoover and purchase his own home. 

1832 - For the sum of $100, Joseph J. Hopkins manumitted Minty and Louisa Wells. Joseph later vouched for Minty and Louisa when each was issued a certificate of freedom (their certificates can be viewed here). 

1833 - Joseph J. Hopkins married Elizabeth Scofield. Together they had four sons. The youngest, Joseph Scofield Hopkins, was the father of Helen Hopkins Thom.

1835 - Samuel Hopkins Jr. launched his own mercantile company with T.R. Matthew, called Matthews & Hopkins, which was located at 10 Bowly's wharf. 

1835 - Gerard Hopkins, Johns Hopkins' younger brother, died after being hit by rock during the Baltimore Bank Riot of 1835. 

1837 - The Panic of '37 triggers a deep and prolonged economic recession in the United States, impacting Hopkins Brothers' business and many other Baltimore companies. 

1839 - Samuel Hopkins Jr. was disowned by the Quakers for having "in his family two colored persons who are slaves."

1840 - Mahlon Hopkins, Johns Hopkins' younger brother, died of a brain hemorrhage. 

1841 - Johns Hopkins purchased the Clifton estate, his summer home in Baltimore county.

1843 - Philip Hopkins, Johns Hopkins' younger brother, died of yellow fever in Havana, Cuba. 

1845 - Joseph J. Hopkins, Johns Hopkins' older brother, died at the age of 52. See his will and estate inventory here. One year later, Hannah Hopkins, Johns Hopkins' mother, died at the age of 72 in Baltimore. 

1847 - Johns Hopkins retired from his mercantile business Hopkins Brothers.

1847 - Johns Hopkins became a director of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company and president of the Merchant's Bank of Baltimore. He served as director of several other institutions including the First National, Mechanics’ Central, National Union, Citizens’ and the Farmers and Planters’ banks.

1848 - Johns Hopkins hired the architect firm of Niernsee & Neilson to renovate the mansion house at his Clifton estate. At the same time, he employed an experienced horticulturalist from Scotland, William Waddell, to redesign the grounds. The bulk of the work is completed by the end of 1851.

1851 - Johns Hopkins purchased a house at 81 Saratoga Street. He lived in this house the rest of his life, spending summers at Clifton.

1855 - Johns Hopkins was elected director of finance of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company. Hopkins used his personal fortune to bail the B&O out of financial trouble in 1857 and again in 1873.

1856 - Johns Hopkins served alongside abolitionists Henry Ward Beecher, Samuel M. Janney, and Calvin Ellis Stowe as a trustee of the Normal School for Colored Girls in Washington, D.C., founded by Myrtilla Miner.

1864 - Slavery is abolished in Maryland upon adoption of the new state constitution.

1867 - Johns Hopkins announced his plan to give his fortune to found a university, hospital and orphanage. The hospital would admit patients "without regard to sex, age, or color."

1873 - In April, prominent Black citizens of Baltimore gathered at the Douglass Institute to celebrate the “free hospital, orphan asylum and college, all of which are to be open to colored people upon equal terms with white citizens.”

1873 - Johns Hopkins died in Baltimore on Christmas Eve. In his Last Will and Testament (see here) he left approximately $7,000,000 to found a university, a hospital and an orphanage for Black children.

1876 - The Johns Hopkins University admitted its first class of students. Daniel Coit Gilman was named the first president. 

1888 - The Johns Hopkins Hospital opened its doors. It was one of the few leading hospitals in Maryland that served African-Americans. 

1893 - The Johns Hopkins School of Medicine opened. 

1929 - Johns Hopkins: A Silhouette, written by Helen Hopkins Thom, was published by JHU Press.