Giles Hopkins was baptized on 30 January 1607/8 in Hursley, Hampshire, England, to parents Stephen Hopkins and his first wife Mary (Kent?). It should be noted that the long-standing Constance Dudley myth was disproven in 1998: the Hopkins family of the Mayflower was not from Wortley, Gloucester as had been previously speculated and published.

Giles came with his family on the Mayflower in 1620, at the age of 12. He volunteered for service in the 1637 Pequot War but was not called. He married Catherine Wheldon in 1639 at Plymouth; the family moved shortly thereafter to Yarmouth, living there for about five years before moving on to settle at Eastham, where he died sometime between 1688 and 1690.