In Memoriam – General Francis Hopkins – Obit MDCCCXXI – Aged 49 Years

General Francis Hopkins (10 November 1770 – 5 May 1821) gave the land for this cemetery, known as the Hopkins-Belleville Cemetery. It’s located behind Crescent Baptist Church. Born an only child to South Carolina parents in Bluffton with Loyalist ties, Hopkins and his wife Rebecca Sayre (March 1776 – 3 August 1850) moved to Georgia at the urging of Thomas Spalding, who sold the family several plantations along the coast. They first resided at Chatelet Plantation on Sapelo Island, better known today as Chocolate. He would eventually own five plantations and over 150 slaves.

Hopkins entered the Georgia Militia as a Lieutenant in McIntosh County. He was commissioned a Captain, then a Major of the McIntosh County Battalion during the War of 1812. In 1817 he was commissioned Brigadier-General, 1st Brigade of the 1st Division, in command of the militia in the counties of Wayne, Camden, Glynn, Liberty, McIntosh, Bryan, Chatham and Effingham.

General Hopkins served eight terms as McIntosh County’s representative in the state legislature and spent two years as a state senator. He was a justice of the McIntosh Inferior Court from 1813 until his death.

The enclosed burial plot of his family is the most interesting feature of the cemetery. To access the site, you walk up a set of steps and then down a set of steps to get inside the enclosure.

The smaller enclosure within the walls is likely the earliest feature; the bricks are beginning to collapse.