Joshua Hoopes, was born about 1640 at Great Moorsholm in the parish of Skelton-in-Cleveland, in Yorkshire, England. He was the son of John Hoopes and Isabel Calvert. Joshua married Ann (we don't know her surname) when he was about 29, on May 15, 1670. Ann was the mother of his four children, Daniel (our ancestor), Mary, who died as an infant of four months, Margaret and Christian. All of their children were probably born at the Hoopes ancestral home at Great Moorsholm and were duly baptized at the Anglican (Church of England) parish church in Skelton-in-Cleveland.

Ann must have died about 1678, leaving three children; the oldest was Daniel, who was about six at the time. Joshua married his second wife, Isabel, spelled Esbile in the parish register, at Sketon-in-Cleveland on May 1, 1679. Her surname was not recorded, as was Joshua's first wife.

Soon after their marriage, Joshua and Isabel joined with the local Society of Friends (Quakers). In 1683 King Charles II reigned in England and all who did not conform to the beliefs of the state church were persecuted. Joshua obtained a certificate from the Monthly Meeting of Friends at Rowsby (now spelled Roxby) in the North Riding of Yorkshire, dated 4 of 3^rd mo. (May) 1683. With that letter of introduction, he decided to immigrate to Pennsylvania, founded by Quaker Willian Penn.

Joshua, along with his little family, sailed for America on the 13^th and last of William Penn's ships, the Providence of Scarborough, arriving at the mouth of the Delaware River on the 10^th (day) of 9^th mo. (November) 1683. The master of the Providence was Robert Hopper, who identified Joshua Hoopes as a "husbandman."

Joshua also carried with him across the Atlantic a letter to William Penn, written by Penn's sister, entrusted by her to Joshua to be delivered into the hands of William Penn on arrival in Philadelphia.

Joshua and Isabel and their children first settled in In Bucks County, Pennsylvania.

Their daughter, Christian, died Feb 15, 1684, a year after their arrival in America. Isabel died in on March 20, 1691, seven years after their arrival in America, and was buried in Bucks County.

Joshua married for the third and last time in 1693, a young widow of George Pownall, named Eleanor, who had children of her own.

Joshua was a man of public affairs and was elected to the Pennsylvania Assembly five times, beginning in 1696.