Stephen Hopkins (March 7, 1707 – July 13, 1785) was a Founding Father of the United States. He served as governor of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, chief justice of the Rhode Island Supreme Court, and was a signer of both the Continental Association and Declaration of Independence. Hopkins was from a prominent Rhode Island family. His grandfather, William Hopkins, was an influential colonial politician, while his great-grandfather Thomas Hopkins was among the original settlers of Providence Plantations. Thomas sailed from England in 1635 alongside his cousin, Benedict Arnold, who later became the first governor of the Rhode Island colony under the Royal Charter of 1663.
As a child, Hopkins was a voracious reader, becoming a serious student of the sciences, mathematics, and literature. He became a surveyor and astronomer and was involved in taking measurements during the 1769 transit of Venus across the Sun. He began his public service at age 23 as a justice of the peace in the newly established town of Scituate, Rhode Island. He soon became a justice of the Inferior Court of Common Pleas, while also serving at times as the speaker of the House of Deputies and president of the Scituate Town Council. While active in civic affairs, he also was part owner of an iron foundry and was a successful merchant who was portrayed in John Greenwood's 1750s satirical painting Sea Captains Carousing in Surinam. In May 1747, Hopkins was appointed as a justice of the Rhode Island Supreme Court, serving until May 1749.Manual - the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations (1891), p. 208-13. He became the third chief justice of this body in May 1751, serving until May 1755. In 1755, he was elected to his first term as governor of the colony, and he served in this capacity for 9 out of the next 15 years.
One of the most contentious political issues of his day was the use of paper money versus hard currency. His bitter political rival Samuel Ward championed hard currency, whereas Hopkins advocated the use of paper money. The rivalry between the two men became so heated that Hopkins sued Ward for £40,000, but he lost the case and had to pay costs. By the mid-1760s, the contention between the two men became a serious distraction to the government of the colony, and they attempted to placate each other—initially without success. Ultimately, both agreed to not run for office in 1768, and Josias Lyndon was elected governor of the colony as a compromise candidate.
In 1770, Hopkins once again became chief justice of the Rhode Island Supreme Court, and he became a principal player in the colony's handling of the 1772 Gaspee Affair, when a group of irate Rhode Island citizens boarded a British revenue vessel and burned it to the waterline. In 1774, he was given an additional important responsibility as one of Rhode Island's two delegates to the First Continental Congress, his former rival Samuel Ward being the other. Hopkins had become well known in the Thirteen Colonies ten years earlier when he published a pamphlet entitled The Rights of Colonies Examined which was critical of British Parliament and its taxation policies.
Hopkins signed the Declaration of Independence in the summer of 1776 with worsening palsy in his hands. He signed it by holding his right hand with his left and saying, "My hand trembles, but my heart does not." He served in the Continental Congress until September 1776, when failing health forced him to resign. He was a strong backer of the College of the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations (later named Brown University) and became the institution's first chancellor. He died in Providence in 1785 at age 78 and is buried in the North Burial Ground there. Hopkins has been called Rhode Island's greatest statesman. In 1774, Hopkins owned six or seven slaves, making him among the top five percent of slaveholders in Providence at the time.
Ancestry and early life
Hopkins was born in Providence in the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, the second of nine children of William and Ruth (Wilkinson) Hopkins. His grandfather William Hopkins was very prominent in colonial affairs, having served for more than 40 years as a deputy from Providence, speaker of the House of Deputies, and major. His grandmother Abigail Whipple Hopkins was a daughter of Providence settler John Whipple, sister of wealthy Providence merchant Joseph Whipple, and aunt to Deputy Governor Joseph Whipple Jr. His great-grandfather was Thomas Hopkins, one of the earliest settlers of Providence Plantations. Thomas Hopkins was orphaned and raised by his uncle William Arnold, and he sailed to New England in 1635 with his Arnold relatives, including his cousin Benedict Arnold, who became the first governor of the colony under the Royal Charter of 1663.
The early part of Hopkins's life was spent in the wooded northern part of Providence known as Chopmist Hill, an area that became Scituate, Rhode Island. There were no schools in this area at the time, but the books belonging to the family were supplemented by a small circulating collection and provided him with reading material, which he consumed voraciously. Historian Irving Richman refers to Hopkins as "a close and severe student, filling up all the spare hours of his life with reading." John Sanderson writes, "He attached himself in early youth to the study of books and men." Hopkins gained skills in surveying from his grandfather Samuel Wilkinson. He used his surveying skills to revise the streets and create a map of Scituate, and later he did the same for Providence. His father gave him of land when he was 19 because of his responsibility as a youth, and his grandfather Hopkins gave him an additional .
Hopkins was interested in astronomy and other scientific endeavors, and he was involved in the observation of the transit of Venus across the face of the Sun on June 3, 1769. Joseph Brown had obtained a complete set of the necessary instruments, including a reflecting telescope, a micrometer, and a sextant, and an observatory was erected on a hill in Providence (later named "Transit Street" in honor of the event). Brown was assisted by a group that included Hopkins, Benjamin West, and others who were also interested in science. The observation enabled them to very accurately determine the latitude of Providence to the nearest second of arc, after which the longitude was determined by comparing observations of the Moons of Jupiter with similar observations made in Cambridge, England. He was elected to the revived American Philosophical Society in 1768.Bell, Whitfield J., and Charles Greifenstein, Jr. Patriot-Improvers: Biographical Sketches of Members of the American Philosophical Society. 3 vols. Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 1997, I:481-87.
Political and mercantile pursuits
Hopkins began his public service in 1730 at age 23 when he became a justice of the peace in the newly formed town of Scituate, a position that he held until 1735. He also became the clerk of Scituate in 1731 which he held for 11 years until moving to Providence in 1742. Following his tenure as justice of the peace, he became a justice of the Inferior Court of Common Pleas and General Sessions from 1736 to 1746, serving as the clerk of the court for the last five of those years. Other positions that he held during this time period included president of the Town Council, deputy, and speaker of the House of Deputies. In 1744, he was elected as a deputy from Providence, which he held for seven years, and he was the speaker of the House of Deputies during two of those years.
In 1742, Hopkins sold his farm in Scituate and moved to the settled part of Providence. Here he devoted much energy to commercial interests which helped Providence grow. He became a merchant who built, owned, and outfitted ships, and he was part owner of the privateering vessel Reprisal in 1745, in partnership with John Mawney, sheriff of Providence and son of Colonel Peter Mawney. In the mid-1750s, Boston portraitist John Greenwood was commissioned by a group of sea captains and merchants, including Hopkins, to create a satirical painting. The men were stopped at a major trading port in Suriname on the north coast of South America where Greenwood was living at the time. Greenwood concocted a 22-figure tavern scene, showing himself among the affluent traders, many of whom were caricatured as intoxicated.
One of Hopkins's enterprises later in life was as a manufacturer, and he became a partner with brothers Moses, Nicholas, Joseph, and John Brown in establishing the Hope Furnace. This enterprise was concerned with iron works which made pig iron and cannons for use during the Revolutionary War. Hopkins's son Rufus managed the business for four decades.
Governorships
In 1755, Hopkins was elected to his first term as governor, defeating his predecessor William Greene by a small margin. The year was mostly occupied with legislation and work related to the pending war with France. Braddock's defeat and the occupation of Crown Point led the colony to send forces to Albany. Late in the previous year, Hopkins and his Attorney-General Daniel Updike were delegates from Rhode Island to the Albany Congress, which convened to discuss the common defense of the collective colonies and to hold a conference with the five Indian tribes to secure their assistance in thwarting French encroachment. He and others considered Benjamin Franklin's early plan for uniting the colonies, but the principles of the plan were rejected in both the colonies and Great Britain. As the war with France developed in February 1756, the General Assembly ordered the raising of 500 Rhode Island men for the expedition to Lake George in New York.
After two years in office, Hopkins was defeated by William Greene for the governorship, but Greene died in office in February 1758, and Hopkins once again became governor. The most divisive political issue of the day was the use of hard money, or specie, versus the use of paper money, and Hopkins sided with paper. Another issue was Newport interests versus Providence interests. For several years, Hopkins was locked in a bitter rivalry with Samuel Ward of Westerly, a strong supporter of hard currency and also a champion of Newport, and Hopkins sued Ward for slander, putting damages at £40,000. The case was moved to Massachusetts for a fair trial; the judgment went against Hopkins by default in 1759, and he paid the costs.
For ten years, the two men went back and forth as Governor of the colony, each at the head of a powerful party. Ward led the wealth and conservatism of Newport, Narragansett, and Kent County, while Hopkins represented the growing strength of Providence and Bristol Counties. The two men had been likened to gladiators in an arena, thirsting for each other's life. Hopkins eventually lost to Ward, who was finally elected Governor in 1762.
In 1763, Hopkins won back the governorship, and signs of reason between the two men appeared the following year when Ward wrote to Hopkins proposing that both resign their "pretensions to the chief seat of government." On the same day, without the knowledge of this letter, Hopkins wrote to Ward inviting him to accept the position of deputy governor, which had just been vacated by the death of John Gardner. Neither man accepted the proposal of the other, but the stage had been set for future cooperation.