Hopkins Academy is the public middle and senior high school for the town of Hadley, Massachusetts.FoundingThe school was founded in 1664 with an endowment from Edward Hopkins, an English colonist who was Governor of the Connecticut Colony and a wealthy Connecticut merchant. Hopkins died in 1657 and in his will he set up a trust naming John Davenport, Theophilus Eaton, John Cullick and William Goodwin as trustees. Goodwin, who helped to settle Hadley, used part of Hopkins' trust to set up a fund for the then Hopkins Donation School. 300 Pounds were to be disposed of from Mr. Hopkins Estate and ordered to Hadley for erecting and maintaining a school there. The management thereof for the said schoole was appointed for year end viz; the Rev Jonathan Russell, Mr. Samuel Smith, Mr. Peter Tilton and Capt Aaron Cooke and finding in the records at Springfield, September 24th 1674. The Hadley townspeople donated land to help build up the trust to pay for educational costs. The Hopkins Trust is the oldest charitable fund to be in continuous use in the United States. Edward Hopkins played a pivotal role in establishing and operating other prominent institutions within the United States, including Harvard University. As a result, Hopkins Academy is "related" to many well-known schools, including Yale, Amherst College, and the Hopkins School of New Haven, Connecticut.
