Sherburne Hopkins

Sherburne Gillette Hopkins (October 5, 1867 – June 22, 1932) was an American lawyer and influential lobbyist in Washington, D.C. His clients included oil tycoon Henry Clay Pierce, financier and "father of trusts" Charles Ranlett Flint, Guatemalan President Manuel Estrada Cabrera, and Mexican President Francisco I. Madero among others. He specialized in connecting American finance with Latin American revolutionaries. "According to Who's Was Who in America, Hopkins specialized 'in internat. matters and settlements with the Govt. Adviser to several Latin Am. govts.; adviser to provision govt. of Mexico (Madero), 1911; constitutionalist govt. of Mexico, 1913–14; to provision govt. of Mexico (de la Huert[a]), 1920." The most revealing source for Hopkins's activities is his testimony before the U.S. Senate Foreign Affairs Committee. Family background and upbringing Born on October 5, 1867, in Washington D.C., he and his baby sister Jessie (born in 1876) could trace their roots to England. Hopkins' father, Thomas Snell Hopkins, had moved to Washington in the 1860s from Maine where the family homestead remains. Sherburne's ancestor Stephen Hopkins (1583–1644) came to Plymouth, Massachusetts on the Mayflower. Samuel Sherburne, his great grandfather, fought for American independence as a lieutenant in the New Hampshire Militia. Sherburne Hopkins' mother was Caroline Eastman whose family came from England to Massachusetts on the Confidence in 1638. Both sides of Hopkins' family tree count among the oldest families in U.S. history. Hopkins attended school in Washington, D.C., and then the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis. He graduated with a degree in international law from Columbia University in 1890 and joined his father's practice. While establishing himself as a lawyer in his father's practice, Hopkins married Hester Davis in 1891, with whom he had two children, Sherburne Philbrick on December 3, 1891, and Marjorie on August 5, 1894. Their son, Sherburne, later also a lawyer in the family firm, briefly became a social star when he married Margaret Upton, better known as Peggy Hopkins Joyce, a famous stage actress. The law firm now called Hopkins and Hopkins became one of the top lobbying firms for Wall Street in Washington.