On May 8, 2019, the Amenia Historical Society was honored by a visit from descendants of Amenia’s notable Justice of the Peace and Revolutionary War hero, Roswell Hopkins, Esq. 

Mr. Martyn Roswell Bettel, with his wife Jaqui, both British citizens on holiday here in the USA, decided to take their daughter Kate and her three children, who now live in the States, on a “Hopkins pilgrimage tour.” 

The Bettels were here in 2013 to learn more about the Hopkins of Amenia and to take the Hopkins tour on their own, by following the migratory trail of their Hopkins ancestors from Cambridge, MA, to Hartford, CT, to Amenia, NY, to Bennington, VT, and then to Hopkinton, NY, in the Adirondacks. 

Ironically, the Hopkins ancestor in Hopkinton married a woman from Wales. After his untimely death, Mrs. Hopkins took their children back to Great Britain, where a Hopkins daughter married a Bettel. This explains why the Bettels live in England. The Hopkinses circled back to England, and now daughter Kate has come full circle again, back to the United States, where her third child was born.

The name Roswell is so important to the Bettel family that all four of their grandsons have the name Roswell as a middle name. They are obviously proud of their Amenia ancestry.

For those who might not know, Stephen Hopkins purchased Lott 32 of the Great Nine Partners Patent, that is, most of central Amenia. Mr. Hopkins generously donated the land for the first burying ground, c. 1750, and for the Red Meeting House, built in 1758. In April of 1762, the first Amenia Precinct meeting was held at the tavern of Roswell Hopkins, Esq., one of Stephen Hopkin’s six sons. The Hopkins were integral to the founding of Amenia and in the fight for American independence from Great Britain.