Joshua Hopkins Family of Alcester 

Joshua Hopkins (1738-98) married Anna Head on 18 March 1766. She died in July 1782. Among their children was

1.  Sarah Hopkins (1771-1804) married Samuel Pearce (1766-99) on 2 February 1791. Among their five children were

a. William Hopkins Pearce (1794-1840) became a BMS missionary in India.

b. Ann Pearce married Jonathan Carey, youngest son of William Carey, and lived in Calcutta.

Joshua Hopkins married Elizabeth Ash (1752-1829) of Pershore on 29 January 1789 at Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire; the witnesses were Caleb Evans of Bristol, Selina Bompas (a member at Broadmead in Bristol where Evans was the minister), Sarah Ash, and Joseph Ash (the latter two both younger siblings of Elizabeth living at that time in Pershore).

1.  John Ash Hopkins, born on 27 July 1791 and entered into the birth record by James Smith at the Baptist chapel in Alcester.

2.  A second child may have been born to Joshua and Eliza Hopkins, for an entry in the Alcester Church Book notes, “Removed by death . . . Eliz. Hopkins March 1794.” This Eliza Hopkins could also have been a daughter from the first marriage of Joshua Hopkins.

Elizabeth Ash Hopkins married William Hemming of Alcester (a member of the Baptist church there along with Eliza) on 11 March 1802 at St. Paul's Church, Portland Square, Bristol, officiated by a Mr. Day (a relation of Susanna Ash, wife of Elizabeth's brother Joseph) and witnessed by Eliza’s younger siblings Sarah, Samuel, and Joseph Ash.  After their marriage, they returned to Alcester, where Eliza lived out the rest of her life, remaining a constant member, along with the remaining members of the Hopkins and Hemming families, in the Baptist congregation at Alcester. She died there on 15 July 1829.