Constance Hopkins Snow

Biography

Constance Hopkins was baptized at Hursley, in the southern English county of Hampshire, on May 11, 1606. She lost her mother as a child while her father, Stephen Hopkins, was away in Virginia. In 1620 she crossed the Atlantic with him, her stepmother Elizabeth and other members of the household aboard the Mayflower. Her half-brother Oceanus was born during the voyage. Constance was fourteen.

By May 1627 she had married Nicholas Snow. The colony's cattle division names her as Constance Snow beside Nicholas, within a group that also included her father and several Hopkins children. The animals were allocated to their group of thirteen people.

Constance's family later moved from Plymouth to Eastham on Cape Cod, both in present-day Massachusetts. Bradford's account reports that she had twelve children, all living when he made that later assessment, although only nine are securely identified in the museum's reconstruction. The household she established therefore extended well beyond the family in which she had made the Atlantic crossing.

Objects in the Snow estate give a more intimate view of the home. The inventory includes a wool spinning wheel and a linen spinning wheel, wool and yarn, and several lengths of homemade cloth. It lists milking pails, a cheese mold, wooden trays and bedding as well. Pilgrim Hall Museum suggests that cloth production was probably part of Constance's household work.

Nicholas's will made specific provision for her after his death. She could use the cattle, sheep, horses, swine and other movable goods for her support. She retained her portion of the house for life, and land at Pochet and Billingsgate Island could be disposed of if needed for her comfort. Only what remained was to pass under the later provisions for their sons.

Constance also acted in the estate proceedings. Administration was granted to her with Mark and John Snow in March 1676/77. On March 22 she swore before John Freeman to the truth of the inventory, whose stated total was £102, 10 shillings and 9 pence.

She died in October 1677. Pilgrim Hall preserves a beaver-felt hat traditionally associated with her, an object believed to have passed through the family. That association remains a tradition rather than certain proof that she wore it.

The museum-based account dates the family’s move to Eastham to 1644.