In 1900, Charles Pope presented an English "pedigree" for William Hooper of Beverly, Massachusetts Bay Colony.1 The foundation of this is his death record, which calls him the son of Francis and Julian Hooper of Coker, England.2 Pope refers to the East Coker, Somerset, parish records when arranging Hooper family groups going back into the 16th century. Those parish records confirm that the family originated there, but Pope, who says he did the research himself, missed important entries in those records and was confused in his conclusions. Those conclusions have been used by most researchers since he published his book.
     Pope thought there was only one Francis Hooper of his generation in East Coker. Baptism and burial records show there were two. One married Elizabeth and had three children between 1638 and about 1644. In January of 1645, Elizabeth, widow and relict of Francis, lately deceased, had their son John baptized. This clearly wasn't the father of William of Massachusetts Bay. The other Francis was. He married Julian Holway in 1642 and had four children between 1643 and 1646. Their second son named William was baptized in 1644 and settled in Beverly.
     Going on the theory of only one Francis, Pope found a baptism record in East Coker in 1611 of Francis, son of Francis and "Elizabeth" and assumed he was the one who married Julian Holway. The Francis, Sr., was undoubtedly the one baptized in 1577 and married Mary Abbot in 1603. Pope says Francis, Jr.'s, wife was Elizabeth based on baptism records before and after 1611 that name her as the mother of his children. This is incorrect. The parish records don't name mothers in their baptism records until much later, and it may be that he confused this couple with the younger Francis and Elizabeth mentioned above. One of the many parish entries Pope missed was another Francis baptized in 1621, son of Edward. This makes it most likely that Francis (1611) was the one who married Elizabeth about 1636 and died about 1644, and it was Francis (1621) who married Julian Holway in 1642.
     Edward, the father of Francis (1621), married Ursula "Budgin," otherwise spelled "Buggin," in 1616. Francis (1577) had a brother Edward baptized in 1579. I don't find any other Edward Hoopers in or near East Coker in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. While it wasn't common for men to wait until age 37 to marry, it seems Edward did. I find no marriage for him previous to this or any records of children of Edward being baptized before 1621. For this reason he was undoubtedly the Edward buried in 1641 in East Coker. The last record of a child of Edward's being baptized was in July 1632. Ursula, named as the wife of Edward, was buried in 1633. John, son of Edward, was buried in May 1640. While I feel he must be another son of Edward and Ursula, I find no baptism for him. He may have been born between Edward and Ursula's marriage and the birth of son Francis, 1616-1621. There is a small chance the baptism fell in one of the places the parish records are unreadable. There is a space among his siblings for his birth to have been in 1623 and 1627 as well.
     That takes us to John and Agnes (Williams) Hooper, parents of Francis and Edward and the earliest identifiable generation given by Pope. They were married in 1568, putting their births before available parish records in East Coker. They don't appear in the indexes for neighboring parishes, some of which also post-date their births. John was the only male Hooper of his generation in East Coker. He wrote a will in 1605 and names his surviving children, all of whom have baptism records in East Coker. John names his wife Agnes, confirming that she was very likely Agnes Williams and that she was their mother (again, no mother was named in the baptism records). There were a few other Hooper families in that area of Somerset, but no evidence connects them. It should also be noted that the parish clerk sometimes used "Hoop" instead of "Hooper," but evidence shows this can't be a different family. This appears in Massachusetts Bay records as well.
     In Massachusetts Bay, Francis Hooper, captain of a fishing shallop owned by Moses Maverick & Co., was likely Francis (1621). He appears in two court cases in 1662 and 1665. Massachusetts may not have been his primary residence, but it's plausible that he brought William over from England while still a teenager and arranged for him to be in service to Osmund Traske of Beverly, who also came from East Coker.3 Traske wasn't a seaman, but William eventually became a fisher, maybe sailing with his father. I didn't find a record of Francis's death or burial, but the Julian Hooper buried in East Coker in 1694 was surely Julian (Holway) Hooper. No other Julian was found as an alternative. William had a brother John and a sister Mary who are unaccounted for after their baptisms.
     The East Coker parish register images are available at ancestry.com.4 The index there and at Find My Past (findmypast.co.uk) are incomplete and occasionally incorrect. The 16th and 17th century handwriting is sometimes hard to read without experience (which contributed to the indexing mistakes) and in places, page wear has made some entries illegible. The images are compressed somewhat for the database, causing some blur, but it's unlikely that seeing the original register would help much. Nevertheless, the Hooper ancestors of William of Beverly and their wives back to John can be revised from Pope's work. Below is a summary of this and what is known of the extended family based on the parish records, including those missed, or apparently so, by Pope.

The Hooper family in the East Coker parish register (unless otherwise noted):

1. John Hooper
b. roughly 1540
bur. "2" April 1605 (parish register, conflicts with supposed will date5)
prob. m. Agnes Williams, 6 November 1568
b. abt. 1545 (based on her marriage year and when her last child was born)
prob. bur. 19 March 1635/36

children (baptisms name father as John):

    i. John, bap. 9 July 1570, bur. 12 May 1592
    ii. Alce/Alice, bap. 7 June 1572
    iii. Gills/Giles, bap. 8 November 1574
2. iv. Francis, bap. 16 May 1577
3. v. Edward, bap. 26 June 1579
    vi. Johane/Joan, bap. 30 January 1583
    vii. William, bap. 30 November 1586, d. by 28 May 1605
    viii. Anthony, bap. 20 January 1590; maybe the one of Haselbury Plucknet who m. Mary Greene, 8 March 1626/27, Crewkerne, Somerset; ch. Anthony bap. 12 June 1630, East Coker

2. Francis Hooper
bap. 16 May 1577
m. Mary Abbot, 26 December 1604

children (baptisms name father as Francis):

    i. Sarah, bap. January 1606/07, EC, bur. 20 March 1606/07
    no children in 1608-09, record faded beyond reading in large parts of 1610
4. ii. Francis, bap. 7? June 1611
    iii. Benjamin, bap. 21 May 1614

4. Francis Hooper
bap. 7? June 1611
d. prob. late 1644
m. Elizabeth (Bishop?, 26 April 1637, Trent, Dorset), prob. bur. 28 June 1653

children (baptisms name father as Francis):

    i. Susanne/Susannah, bap. 2 April 1638, m. George Elford, 5 November 1661
    ii. Elizabeth, bap. 8 August 1641, bur. 26 February 1644/45 (and referred to as a daughter of Elizabeth)
    iii. John, bap. 8 January 1644/45 (and referred to as a son of Elizabeth, widow, relict of Francis Hooper lately deceased)

3. Edward Hooper
bap. 26 June 1579
m. Ursula Budgin/Buggin, 19 October 1616
bur. 18 January 1632/33 (referred to as wife of Edward)

(Ursula Buggin bap. Barwick, Somerset, 27 April 1595, daughter of Michael; Michael Buggin m. Margery Giles (not Gilet), 15 February 1589/90, Barwick; Michael bur. 10 July 1631, Barwick)

children (baptisms name father as Edward):

5. i. Francis, bap. 20 November 1621
    ii. Anna, bap. June 1625 (day obscured, 18 or 28)
    iii. Mary, bap. 9 March 1629, bur. 14 July 1631 (burial refers to father Edward)
    iv. Agnes, bap. 16 July 1632, bur. 20 July 1632 (burial refers to father Edward)
    v. John?, bur. 9 May 1640 (burial refers to father Edward, no baptism found)

5. Francis Hooper
bap. 20 November 1621
m. Julian Holway, 21 November 1642
Julian (referred to as a widow), bur. 31 April 1694

children (baptisms name father as Francis):

    i. William, bap. 11 March 1642/43, bur. 22 March 1642/43
    ii. John, bap. 11 March 1642/43
6. iii. William, bap. 4 September 1644
    iv. Mary, bap. October 1646

1. Hooper Genealogy, comp. by Charles Henry Pope, Thomas Hooper (Boston, 1908), 185, etc.
2. The earliest version of his death record I've found is in "Massachusetts, U.S., Town and Vital Records, 1620-1988," ancestry.com database online, "Beverly, Family Vital Records,", image 117 of transcribed mss page 100. It's been transcribed and referred to in publications many times since.
3. Records and Files of the Quarterly Courts of Essex County, Massachusetts [hereafter ECQC], vol. 3 (Essex Institute: Salem, 1913), 221, 289.
4."Somerset, England, Church of England Baptisms, Marriages, and Burials, 1531-1812," ancestry.com database online (Ancestry.com Operations, Inc.: Provo, UT, 2016).
5. from Pope: will supposedly 5 Apr 1605, but given the parish record, this may be Pope's mistake; proved 28 May 1605.