My 22xGreat Grandfather, Robert de Hougham (1160-1230) was a descendant of Norman knights and fought alongside King Richard the Lionheart during the Third Crusades. On his return from the Holy Land he set about the rebuilding of Hougham church, which he found in a ruinous state...
Charles Whiteley married Phoebe Hopper in 1877 in Maryborough, Victoria. Charles worked in the local Duke Mine in Timor, and it was this occupation which was to lead to his accidental death in 1884.
There is an outer suburb of Melbourne, Australia called ‘Hopper’s Crossing’ – it got its name from one of two Hopper brothers who emigrated from Kent in the 1850s. This is their story…
Jarvist Arnold (1815-1896) was skipper of the lifeboat in the village of Kingsdown on the East Kent coast and became a celebrated hero, due to the lives he and his crew saved from the treacherous seas.
There are monastic records of a landowner named Herlewin le Hoppere living in the village of Ickham in Kent in the 13th century. As the present-day Hopper line has been traced back as far as 16th Century Ickham, it's quite likely that Herlewin is their ancestor...