#fun fact about the Mayflower group:

[malapertmarquess]

I learned some things about my ancestors today

So it's an established part of my Family Lore that we had ancestors on the Mayflower; the woman we're descended from, Constance Hopkins Snow, shares a name with my aunt who gleefully discovered the lineage, and she's been novelised by another of her descendants (I have read the book, and it's unexciting but cute). It's fun family history!

I was on Wikipedia this morning and decided to look Constance up on a whim (she emigrated with her father, stepmother, and multiple siblings; a half-brother was born at sea and named Oceanus; within seven years of the Mayflower's landing she had a husband and twelve children). Then I saw that her father Stephen has a Wiki page.

My goodness, why had no-one told me about this guy?

From what I could glean on Wikipedia, Stephen Hopkins had a pretty fascinating life:

In 1609, he left his wife and children in England and sailed for the Jamestown settlement in Virginia aboard the Sea Venture as a minster's clerk. The ship, which also carried the new Jamestown governor and a bunch of indentured settlers, was blown off-course and wrecked off Bermuda. The wreck was very newsworthy back in England - this will be important.

Many of the settlers thought that, actually, Bermuda's quite a nice place to live, and didn't want to patch up the ship and carry on the Jamestown. Hopkins encouraged this dissent, arguing that because the ship had wrecked and not delivered the settlers safely to their intended location, they were not bound to their end of the contract.

The governor disagreed, and had Hopkins convicted of mutiny. Hopkins was, however, pardoned at the eleventh hour because so many people spoke up for him. After this he wisely kept his head down and was hauled up to Jamestown.

The settlement at Jamestown was... not going well. The white colonists were not interested in adapting their practices or cooperating with the local indigenous population in any way, and were struggling to survive. Hopkins stayed for a few years, but I got the sense that he didn't muck like the way things were being done.

He returned to England when he got word of his first wife's death to care for his three children (including Constance). While there, he remarried.

When the opportunity came up to return to the Americas as part of a new settlement separate from Jamestown, Hopkins took it, and so he and his family booked themselves onto the Mayflower in 1620.

The new settlement was contracted to be part of the colony of Virginia, but the weather once again intervened and the ship landed in Massachusetts. Many of the settlers signed a compact agreeing that, as they had not actually arrived in Virginia, they could ignore their contract and arrange their own governance. Hopkins was, entirely unsurprisingly, one of the signatories.

As the settlers established themselves in their new Plymouth colony, Hopkins seems to have been instrumental in their success. He had knowledge and experience from his time in Jamestown that served the group well, particularly his desire and ability to encourage positive relations with the nearby Native American tribe.

He also set up an alehouse or some such, and was charged with a number of infractions such as allowing drinking on Sundays, playing games, and charging too much. (Unsurprising, given how many of his neighbours were Puritans!)

And, one final beautiful gem: remember how the Sea Venture wreck back in 1609 was big in the news? Well, it's widely believed that Shakespeare used the story as inspiration for his play The Tempest. And in this play, a character named Stephano attempts a mutiny on the island. It may just be that this Stephano is based on the real Stephen Hopkins, and while we'll never know for sure, I like that it's possible.

[sunnyrealist]

🎁 Happy birthday to my OC, Kate Mayflower! 🎁

🌻 Kate Camellia Mayflower was born on May 19th, 1875! 🌻

Some fun facts about Kate's birthday and how she celebrates birthdays:

I picked my late grandmother's birthday as a tribute.

Kate meets Sebastian Sallow on the night of her 24th birthday in 1899. 💛💚

Kate and her close friends (a big group, all from Hufflepuff! 🦡) always made a huge deal out of birthdays when they attended Hogwarts. After graduating, she and her friends made a pact to continue to celebrate birthdays together so that they could always stay close, even as adults. Birthdays are pretty special to Kate because she has guaranteed, regular opportunities to catch up with friends. Their birthday hangout is Diagon Alley (it's a central location for all!), always ending with drinks in the Leaky Cauldron. 🍻

Kate's favorite cake is vanilla with thick, fudgy chocolate frosting. Growing up, the Mayflower family's cook prepared it just the way she liked it, and even served homemade ice cream (Kate's favorite food) as an accompaniment. She would always receive a cake from her family each year when she was at Hogwarts, too!

Sebastian's birthday is on October 31st (Halloween). Every year, he and Kate chaperone the Hallowe'en Ball at Hogwarts (required of staff members). He always gets the final say on their couples costume since, after all, it is his birthday (some examples: Hades and Persephone, the Sun and the Moon, princess and knight, etc.). They always end the night with a homemade spice cake (it's what Sebastian's mother used to bake for the twins each year).

Character art was created by the wonderful @giselsann-opencommissions!

Does your MC or OC have any special birthday traditions? Please share in the comments!