According to “Genealogical and Biographical Annals of Northumberland County” published by JL Floyd, James Hopewell came with his father, John, to Northumberland from New Jersey. That Anna Rebecca’s grandfather James was present in Northumberland by 1821 is clear, there is record of his existence. And he was clearly associated in Northumberland with John Cowden. His appearance there is most certainly closely related to the fact that two daughters of Daniel Hopewell married Northumberland men, came there, as did James’ grandmother at some point.

But who was John Hopewell? Did he exist? Is the JL Floyd story accurate? I do not know for sure. There is basically no documented mention of a John Hopewell, of the age to be the father of James, either in New Jersey or Northumberland records -- other than Floyd. If there was a John Hopewell, then the theory that would explain everything is that when Daniel’s widow came to Northumberland, possibly around 1790 or just after, she brought her young son John with her. He lived long enough to marry and have son James and then died at a very young age. And he made no imprint on history.

John Hopewell is never listed in Census. If he came of age and was ever head of household in New Jersey, the explanation is that the Census for New Jersey for the earliest few decades was lost. The story of his life seems to be that he came to Northumberland at some point, but he never is listed there either. The best explanation is that he came to Northumberland as perhaps a teenager and lived in the James Hepburn household with his mother, then married and had son James at some point and died soon thereafter.

There was a 1793 Census of New Jersey which has survived. His brother Beckett is listed, but not John. This may help prove that John and his mother were already in Northumberland.

Paul William Hopewell also researched all other Burlington County Hopewell’s in this time period and did not think there was another candidate who could have been the father of John, if he existed. Nathaniel had two other sons besides Daniel -- John (probably Daniel’s twin), and Joseph. John was no doubt the man of that name that I had found mention of in early New Jersey records and that initially led me to Daniel and Nathaniel Hopewell. PWH said that this John may have had two sons: Benjamin (who had but one child, a daughter) and yet another John, but this one known to have moved to Kentucky. Joseph died in 1754 and his will made bequests to nephews and cousins but no children. Paul’s conclusion was that the John who had a son James in 1797 could only have been the son of Daniel.

This fits with the early mentions I found of John Hopewell. One was to John Hopewell in the Revolutionary War period and then a John Hopewell in the 1820 Pension List of Kentucky Veterans which lists John Hopewell, private in the New Jersey line. I think this must have been the John, son of John, that PWH says moved to Kentucky.

There was also a record of John Hopewell marrying Deborah Sharp in 1745 — but this also seemed too early since James was born in the 1790’s, per his age as given in Census records. And there was a 1772 will of Samuel Coles mentioning land he had bought from John Hopewell in Evesham Township. It did not say when he actually bought the land, so this too may have been an earlier John Hopewell. These earlier John’s no doubt were Nathaniel’s son of that name.

When I started researching the Hopewell family, I believed the JL Floyd statement that James Hopewell was the son of John and came with him, as a child, from New Jersey. So I went looking for this John Hopewell and I found several mentions of a John Hopewell in New Jersey records. But they all seemed to be earlier records than I would think applicable to a man whose son was born around 1797.

But this search did lead me to the discovery of a whole family of Hopewells in Evesham Township, Burlington County, NJ (near Mount Holly, not far from Philadelphia). The immigrant of this family was clearly Nathaniel Hopewell who was in America by 1722. He had a son Daniel who married in 1754. I felt fairly certain that our James tied in somehow probably to Daniel and almost certainly to Nathaniel.

Another clue was that it was said by Floyd that James worked first in Cowden's store and later as a boatman. Meiser’s ”Northumberland County Burials” lists people chronologically and Sarah (Hopewell) Cowden who died 11 Jun 1836 is the only Hopewell born earlier than James. She was the wife of John Cowden who was an early resident of Northumberland, a merchant, whose merchandise came by boat.

I also searched early Census records looking for John and/or James Hopewell. The problem is that all Census records for New Jersey for 1790-1820 have been lost and cannot be recovered. But they exist for Pennsylvania and John is not to be found. Nor can James be found in 1820 when he was old enough to have been living on his own. One possibility though is that in 1820 John Cowden’s Northumberland household includes extra adults and extra younger males that could quite possibly be the Hopewells, the family of John’s wife Sarah.

But I really felt I needed more evidence to support the contention that John Hopewell existed. That’s when I found the family history of the early Hopewells written by Paul William Hopewell, a 5g-grandson of Nathaniel Hopewell. In doing his research, Paul found an early Hopewell family bible which he copied into his book. He also had discovered the presence of the Hopewells in Northumberland and the Floyd discussion of their origins and as part of his genealogy, he tried to solve the puzzle of John from New Jersey.

What I really liked about the PWH work is that, unlike some authors, he always cited his source documents for facts he was asserting and when he suspected something but couldn’t prove it, he made that clear and gave his reasoning as to why he believed it. It is a terrific piece of work.

Paul focused, like I have, on the 1776 will of Daniel Hopewell in which he referred to the sale of his lands in Virginia and that two sevenths of the proceeds should go to his son Beckett and one seventh each of the proceeds should go to his wife, his three daughters, and his other son. No one but Beckett was named. But the question is: who was the other son? Since Beckett got the largest share, he was clearly the older son.

PWH carefully analyzed the bible entries for Daniel and his wife Mary as it related to their sons. There was a son whose name appeared to be John born in 1758 who died in 1764, a son Nathaniel who died young and son Beckett born in 1768. The bible entries showed no other son still alive in 1776 at the time of the will, but clearly there was another son. While there were later entries in the bible for other Hopewells, the last entry for Daniel’s and Mary’s children was the death of their daughter Rebecca in 1774. Paul reasoned therefore that the other son was John (based on Floyd and the will), and that he was born between 1774 and 1776, and that the bible entries were incomplete in this regard.

Paul also did an extensive analysis to determine if John Hopewell, father of James, might have been a son or descendant of any of Daniel’s brothers and concluded it was not possible.

Paul Hopewell also traced the life of Daniel’s wife, Mary Beckett, after Daniel’s 1776 death. She remarried rather quickly, by December 1776. Her new husband was Jabez Eldridge who died in 1787. It was about then that Paul Hopewell believes that Mary moved to Northumber-land to live with her daughter Mary (Hopewell) Hepburn and in that household in the 1790 Census, he can find a woman and a young male that appear to be extra people. Paul believes the extra people were indeed Mary (Beckett-Hopewell) Eldridge and the ”other son” John Hopewell. I know for a fact that Mary did move to Northumberland, perhaps by 1790 and I also know that her other daughter Sarah ended up was living there too.

But there is one more mystery raised by the bible entries about which Paul provided the background, but missed the obvious question and therefore made no comment.

The Hopewell Family bible has a birth entry that reads as follows: “John Eldridge son to Jabez Eldridge and Mary his wife was born the 29th day of November about 5 o’clock in the afternoon 1776.” This is a huge mystery since Daniel died between April 23, 1776 when he made his will and 23 Oct 1776 when an inventory of his estate was taken. And Mary didn’t marry Jabez until December 1776. Paul pondered this citation extensively and concluded that if it was true, no one would dared to have written it in the family bible and so therefore whoever wrote it got the date wrong and John Eldridge was born sometime later than the date given, perhaps November 1777.

The question that is not posed by Paul Hopewell is this: What then happened to young John Eldridge when Mary (Beckett-Hopewell) Eldridge moved to Northumberland? There was one extra young male in the Cowden household, who Paul suggested was John Hopewell, but shouldn’t there have been two?

And one other piece of data from Paul Hopewell’s work is relevant to this discussion about the identity of John Hopewell. Daniel’s son Beckett had a son James born in 1798.

Taking all of the foregoing into account, I think there are several scenarios that must be considered:

1. John Hopewell was born to Daniel and Mary Hopewell in 1774 or 1775 but omitted from the bible entries. He was the other son in Daniel’s will. He moved to Northumberland with his mother as a teenager in about 1787 or 1788 and took up residence in the Hepburn household. By 1797 he married, had a son James and then disappeared from the records of the time. He never appeared in a Pennsylvania Census (nor does a widow). Most likely he died soon after James’ birth. This scenario does not account for John Eldridge, but he might possibly have died young. Or.....,

2. There never was a John Hopewell. James Hopewell of Northumberland was the son of Beckett Hopewell who we know had a son James in 1798. I am not sure what real evidence there is for the birth date of James Hopewell of Northumberland. I have never found it anywhere except Floyd who says James was born in New Jersey in 1797. Census records only tell us that he was born between 1790 and 1800. Census records for his sons John U and James in 1880 show that these two men both thought their father was born in Pennsylvania, consistent with the scenario that John came to Pennsylvania before the birth of James. Can we believe Floyd about the year if he was wrong about the place? Of course, if James’ sons were right about where James was born, this would rule out Beckett as his father -- that James was definitely born in New Jersey. Or.....,

3. Floyd’s mysterious John Hopewell and the unaccounted-for John Eldridge were the same person. I could argue that John Hopewell was born after his father’s death but then how could Daniel have known that his wife would have a son and not a daughter? I’ve looked at a copy of the bible entry and I can believe that maybe the birth of the son called John Eldridge actually says 1775 not 1776. So why was he named John Eldridge in the bible entry? Perhaps he was so young when his father died and his mother remarried so soon thereafter that Jabez adopted him. Perhaps whoever wrote the bible entry thought he was Jabez and Mary’s son and just didn’t know the facts. Or, maybe, upon her arrival in Pennsylvania Mary identified her son as John Hopewell when he really was John Eldridge. This would of course mean that we aren’t part Hopewell at all, that we are part Eldridge.

So I have pondered all these possibilities and I have adopted the idea that there never was a John Eldridge, that the bible entry referred in fact to John Hopewell and that he was born in 1775 to Daniel and Mary. He was the other son in the will; he moved to Northumberland with his mother. And he died young.

Having said that, I could also easily believe that there never was a John Hopewell, father of James -- that James was in fact the son of Beckett and came as a young adult to live with and work for his uncle, John Cowden. His sons simply got that question wrong when they said where there father had been born -- it was not an especially reliable Census question. Hopefully, someday, one more little nugget of data will emerge to clarify this complex issue.

It comes down to this -- we know on the one hand there was an “other son” -- he did exist but we don’t know his name or if he survived to adulthood and on the other hand we know there was at least one James Hopewell, the son of Beckett -- were there two?

I really have no idea as to the name of John Hopewell’s wife. However, the prominence of the name Rebecca among the Northumberland Hopewells hints that this may have been the name of James’ mother.

James named a daughter Rebecca and he had several grandchildren of that name. Daniel, of course, had a daughter named Rebecca who died young and it was not an uncommon name. But the name just seems to be important to this family so my hunch is that Rebecca was the name of James’ mother.

So, was Rebecca the name of the wife of the mysterious John Hopewell and did she also die young -- or perhaps remarry soon after John’s death? Is that why there is no record of a Rebecca Hopewell of the right age in Northumberland records?

But remember this: Beckett’s wife was also named Rebecca. This fact supports the argument that James was Beckett’s son all along. The name Rebecca just adds to the mystery.

If it turns out that Beckett was the father of our James Hopewell, then not only is he added to our family tree in place of John but Rebecca Porter and her ancestors would be added to our family tree as well. I know, from Paul William Hopewell, that her parents were Joseph Porter and his wife Mary called Polly. I’ve not bothered to research that family further.