His father, Captain Silas Hopkins, was a Loyalist who had been imprisoned for three years and fined £1,000 by American authorities for his loyalty to the Crown.
During the War of 1812, Hopkins served for a short time as a private with an Upper Canada militia unit, the 5th Lincoln Regiment, 2nd Flank Company, employed building a barracks.
"[7] In 1843, he sided with the Tories in opposing the move of the capital from Kingston to Montreal, and also expressed his disapproval when the Reform government resigned in protest over a dispute with the Governor General, Sir Charles Metcalfe.
He decided to run as well, thus splitting the vote and allowing George Chalmers, the Conservative candidate, to win.
[3] When Malcolm Cameron resigned from the Baldwin-Lafontaine government to join them, he was replaced in the Cabinet by Wetenhall, who was obliged to run in a mandatory byelection in 1850.
[7] His pallbearers included a former Prime Minister of Canada, Alexander Mackenzie and Oliver Mowat, the Premier of Ontario, both long-time Liberals.