Hooper’s Family Heritage: North Carolina History

The University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill houses a treasure trove of C. S. Lewis material purchased from alumnus Walter Hooper in 1980. (Hooper included a bootleg copy of the Lewis Family Papers.) After Lindskoog used the Hooper collection in Light in the Shadowlands, Hooper got the library to close down access to most of the collection. It is unclear how he acquired such influence; perhaps his family ties helped.

There are actually two valuable collections of Hooper papers in the University library, and the earlier collection pertains to William Hooper (1742-1790), a signer of the Declaration of Independence. He was survived by a nephew, Archibald Maclaine Hooper (1775-1853), who was survived by George De Berniere Hooper (1809-1892), a tutor and professor at the University. George De Berniere Hooper married his cousin Mary Elizabeth Hooper, a daughter of William Hooper, another professor at the University. One of George and Mary Hooper’s sons was also named Archibald Maclaine Hooper. Here the University’s public record of the distinguished Hooper family stops.

Another Archibald Hooper was born on 26 November 1889, and his sons have all attended that very university where William Hooper and George De Berniere Hooper taught and where the historic William Hooper papers reside. One of Archibald’s sons is Walter Hooper.