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HOPKINS, Richard (?1728-99), of Oving, Bucks.
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Biography Detail
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Constituency
Dates
Family and Education
b. ?1728, 1st s. of Edward Hopkins† of Coventry, Warws. by Anne Maria, da. and coh. of Hugh Chamberlain of Alderton Manor and Hinton Hall, Suff. educ. L. Inn 1739; Queens, Camb. 1746. unm. suc. fa. 1736.
Offices Held
Clerk of the green cloth 1767-77; ld. of Admiralty Apr. 1782-Apr. 1783, Apr. 1784-June 1791, of Treasury June 1791-Feb. 1797.
Biography
Hopkins declined a transfer from the Admiralty to the Treasury board in July 1789 ‘on account of the difficulty of his re-election’. In 1790 he was chosen on the Admiralty interest for Queenborough. There was a contest, but evidently no problem about re-election, for his transfer to the Treasury took place in 1791. He had moved and defended the increase of naval manpower on 3 and 7 Dec. 1790, but no further speeches are known. In 1791 he was listed hostile to the repeal of the Test Act in Scotland. He was placed on the loan committee, 15 Dec. 1795, and voted against the abolition of the slave trade, 15 Mar. 1796.
Returned for Harwich on the Treasury interest in 1796, Hopkins gave Pitt to understand that in exchange for a prebend ‘of at least £400 a year’ for his nephew Northey, he would surrender his place at the Treasury, which was wanted for Sylvester Douglas*. Pitt asked the King for the vacant canonry of Windsor, and though Hopkins wavered the bargain was concluded. Hopkins, who subscribed £5,000 to the loyalty loan for 1797, remained in Parliament until his death, 18 Mar. 1799, aged 71.
Geo. III Corresp. i 544, 686; ii. 1498; PRO 30/8/146, f. 110; 195, f. 145; E. Suff. RO, Tomline mss, Pitt to bp. of Lincoln, 12 Jan. 1797; Glenbervie Diaries, i. 112, 113, 120; Gent. Mag. (1799), i. 262.
