Christopher Hopper (Methodist)

Hopper was born in 1722 at Ryton, Durham in the north of England.^[1] He entered the Wesleyan itinerancy in 1748.^[1]

Hopper became a member of the society at Low Spen, near Newcastle, after Wesley's visit there in July 1743.^[1] He had been a schoolmaster before becoming an itinerant.^[1] Hopper was Wesley's travelling companion in England, Wales and Scotland (being the first Methodist itinerant venturing north of the border).^[1] Hopper was an itinerant for forty-seven years and regularly corresponded with Wesley.^[1] Wesley appointed him 'Lord President of the North' in 1768 giving him jurisdiction over the Methodist Societies from Cumberland to Lincolnshire.^[1]

Hopper wrote "The plain man's epistle to every child of Adam" in 1766.^[2]

Hopper was one of the veteran preachers named in Wesley's Deed of Declaration.^[1]

Hopper retired to Bolton in 1792, where he built a house next to the chapel, continuing to preach there.^[1] Hopper died at Bolton on 5 March 1802.^[1]

• A Dictionary of Methodism in Britain and Ireland DMBI online