Ezekiel Hopkins

son of the Curat of Sandford, a Chappel of ease to Crediton, in Devonshire, was born there, became a Choirister of Magd. Coll. 1649. aged 16 years or thereabouts, Usher of the School adjoyning when Bach. of Arts, Chaplain of the said Coll. when Master, and would have been elected Fellow, had his County been elegible, in all which time he lived and was educated under Presbyterian and Independent discipline. About the time of his Majesties restauration he became Assistant to Dr. Will. Spurstow Minister of Hackney near London, with whom he continued till the Act of Conformity was published; in which time being noted for his fluent and ready preaching, some of the parishioners of S. Mattew Fridaystreet in London would have chosen him to be their Rector, but Mr. Henr. Hurst another Candidate carried that place away from him by a majority. Afterwards the parishioners of Allhallows, or else of S. Edmund, in Lombardstreet did elect him to be their Preacher, but the Bishop of London would not admit him because he was a popular preacher among the Fanaticks. Afterwards he went to the City of Exeter, where he became Minister of S. Maries Church there, and much approved and applauded for his elegant and dexterous preaching by Seth Bishop of that City. At length John Lord Roberts hearing him accidentally preach to his very great delight, he did afterwards freely offer to him the place of Chaplain when he went in the quality of Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, an. 1669. Which Office he very freely accepting, went accordingly with him, and in the latter end of that year, or in the beginning of the next, he was by that Lord made Dean of Raphoe. Soon after the said Lord being recalled into England, he recommended his Chaplain to his Successor, who also taking especial notice of, confer’d on, him the Bishoprick of Raphoe, an. 1671, so that by vertue of Letters Pat. dat. 27. of Oct. the same year, he was Consecrated thereunto 29. of the same month. In the latter end of Octob. 1681 he was translated to London Derry in the place of Dr. Mich. Ward deceased; where continuing till the Forces in Ireland under the Earl of Tirconnel stood up in the defence of K. Jam. 2. against K. William 3, he retired into England in 1688, and in Sept. 1689 he was by the parishioners of S. Mary Aldermanbury in London elected to be their Minister, upon the removal of Dr. Stratford to the See of Chester. He hath written,

Several Sermons, as (1) The Vanity of the World, on Eccles. 1.2. Lond. 1661. oct. (2) Serm. at the funeral of Algernon Grevill Esq. second brother to the right hon. Rob. Lord Brook who departed this life Jul. 21. at Magd. Coll. in Oxon, and was buried at Warwick on the 6. of Aug. 1662, on Ecles. 9.5. Lond. 1663. qu. (3) Sermon preached at Ch. Ch. in Dublin Jan. 31. an 1669. on 1. Pet. 2.13.14. Dubl. 1671. qu. All which were reprinted at Lond. 1685. oct. (4) Serm. on John. 7.19. (5) Serm. on Gal. 3.10.—These two last were printed at the end of the Exposition f [•] llowing.

An Exposition on the 10 Commandments. Lond. 1692. qu. Published in the beginning of Aug. 1691. with his picture before it, by the care of Dr. Edw. Wetenhall Bishop of Cork and Ross, author of the Epistle before it, dated at Peckham place, 3. Jul. 1671. This Bishop Hopkins died on the 19. day of June in sixteen hundred and ninety,1690. and was buried on the 24. of the said month in the Church of S. Mary Aldermanbury before mention’d. He had an elder brother named John, Bach. of Arts of Wadham Coll, who died before he took the degree of Master, and a younger called James, Bach. of Arts of Corp. Ch. Coll. who dying also before he was Master of Arts, in Octob. or thereabouts, an. 1663 was buried at Hackney near London. They were all three comly and ingenious persons, and beloved of their Contemporaries in their respective Colleges.