Gaspee Virtual Archives
Governor (and Chief Justice) Stephen Hopkins (1707-1785)
The Gaspee Days Committee at www.gaspee.COM
is a civic-minded nonprofit organization that operates many community
events
in and around Pawtuxet Village, including the famous Gaspee Days Parade
each June. These events are all designed to commemorate the burning of
the hated British revenue schooner, HMS Gaspee, by Rhode Island
patriots in 1772 as America's 'First Blow for Freedom'®. Our
historical research center, the Gaspee Virtual Archives at www.gaspee.ORG
, has presented these research notes as an attempt to gather further
information
on one who has been suspected of being associated with the the burning
of the Gaspee. Please e-mail your comments or further questions
to webmaster@gaspee.org.
This web page presents research notes on Stephen Hopkins only.
Evidence
to indict Stephen Hopkins:
Chief
Justice of the Rhode Island Superior Court Stephen Hopkins
greatly contributed to the destruction by others of the HMS Gaspee
by advising Deputy Governor
Darius Sessions in March of 1772 that the actions of the
commander of the vessel were probably illegal. In Staples,
The
Documentary History of the Destruction of the Gaspee,
p3:
...I
have
consulted with the Chief Justice thereon, who is of opinion, that no
commander
of any vessel has any right to use any authority in the Body of the
Colony
without previously applying to the Governor and showing his warrant for
so doing and also being sworn to a due exercise of his office—and this
he informs me has been the common custom in this Colony.
Stephen Hopkins was alarmed about the British reaction
to the burning of the Gaspee,
and he and other leading men of the Colony sought advice from the
Revolutionary leader, Samuel Adams. Found in The
Writings of Samuel Adams, Vol II and Vol III, edited by H. A.
Cushing c1904 - 1908.
To
Samuel Adams:
Providence
Dec 25, 1772
We doubt not you have before this heard of the difficulties this
Colony labors under, on account of the destruction of the Gaspee, they
being such as becomes the attention of the Colonies in general (though
immediately to be executed on this only). As they affect in the
tenderest point the liberties, lives, and properties of all America, we
are induced to address you upon the occasion, whom we consider as a
principal in the assertion and defence of those rightful and natural
blessings; and in order to give you the most authentic intelligence
into these matters, we shall recite the most material paragraphs of a
letter from the Earl of Dartmouth to the Governor of this Province,
dated Whitehall, Sept. 4th, 1772. [Then follows the extract from the
Secretary's letter.] You will consider how natural it is for those who
are oppressed, and in the greatest danger of being totally crushed, to
look around every way for assistance and advice. This has occasioned
the present troubles we give you. We therefore ask that you would
seriously consider of this whole matter, and consult such of your
friends and acquaintance as you may think fit upon it, and give us your
opinion in what manner this Colony had best behave in this critical
situation, and how the shock that is coming upon us may be best evaded
or sustained. We beg you, answer as soon as may be, especially before
the 11th of January, the time of the sitting of the General Assembly.
Darius
Sessions
Stephen Hopkins
John Cole
Moses Brown
Richard
Deasy, writing in his introduction to the 1990 re-publication
of Staples, The
Documentary History of the Destruction
of the Gaspee
(p. xxviii) feels that witnesses
Hitchcock
and Cole apparently
collaborated
on their testimony concerning events in Sabin Tavern the night of the
raid.
One day before, Brown, Cole, and Hitchcock had told Hopkins that they
intended
to refuse to appear before the commissioners, presumably on the advice
they had received earlier from Sam Adams. Adams had challenged
the
jurisdiction of the commissioners, but Hopkins obviously convinced them
to move away from this kind of direct challenge and to submit written
depositions
instead. Misrepresentation, intimidation, and evasion are all
evident
here in this first session.
Sessions,
Hopkins, et
al
also determined to influence how
the
Gaspee commissioners were to interpret their special powers. Staples,
p49
Thursday,
January 7,
1773.
Stephen
Hopkins, Esq., Chief
Justice of said Colony, also appeared
before
the commissioners and assured them he was ready and willing to aid and
assist the commissioners in the exercise of the power and authority
with
which they are invested for discovering the persons who destroyed the
Gaspee
schooner, &c. The commissioners then requested Mr. Hopkins to give
them in writing a full and particular account of all the proceedings
had
and done by him for discovering and bringing to justice the persons who
committed the aforesaid offence, and also what knowledge or information
he had obtained of the assembling, arming, and leading on the persons
who
perpetrated the same, which he also promised to do without loss of
time.
Of
course, Hopkins never did comply with this request, at least not
that we have documented. Natalie Robinson
states in Revolutionary
Fire: The Gaspee
Incident
that:
As a result of this review, and of interviews with Governor
Wanton, Lieutenant Governor Sessions, and Chief Justice Hopkins, the
Commissioners agreed to interpret their powers quite narrowly. They
assured the Rhode Island officials that they would not themselves
arrest anyone or deliver anyone to Admiral Montagu, but would leave
that task to the regular judicial officials in the colony. ... By
acknowledging local judicial authority, the Commissioners calmed some
of the Rhode Islanders' worst fears.
Adding
insult
to injury, Chief Justice Stephen Hopkins issued a warrant for the
arrest of Lieutenant Dudingston in October of 1773 based on the lawsuit
that Jacob Greene & Co. filed against the commander of the Gaspee
for the seizure of their sloop Fortune
the previous March.
Hopkins
demonstrated a reluctance to find suspects indictable for
trial, which would have greatly aided the British cause. In
pursuance of Article 3 of their instructions, the commissioners
turned
over evidence that they had collected to the deputy governor and to the
Rhode Island Superior Court (Staples, p95):
The honorable the commissioners, appointed by royal
commission, for examining into the attacking and destroying his
Majesty's armed schooner the Gaspee, commanded by Lieutenant
Dudingston, and wounding the said Lieutenant, having laid before us,
Justices of the Superior Court of Judicature, Court of Assize, &c.,
within and throughout the Colony of Rhode Island, two examinations of
Aaron Briggs, two examinations of Patrick Earle, the examination of
Peter May, the examination of William Dickinson, the deposition of
Samuel Tompkins, Samuel Thurston, and of Somerset and Jack, indented
servants, for our advisement thereon:
It appeareth unto us from our consideration had thereupon,
that no particular person or persons are made mention of as being
concerned in that atrocious crime, except in the examination of Aaron
Briggs, a negro, and of Peter May, one of the Gaspee's people. The
confession of the said Aaron upon his first examination was made in
consequence of illegal threats from Capt. Linzee of hanging him (the
said Aaron) at the yard arm if he would not discover who the persons
were that destroyed the Gaspee; and besides, most of the circumstances
and facts related in both of his examinations are contradictions
repugnant to each other, and many of them impossible in their nature.
It is evident from the depositions of Tompkins, Thurston, and
Aaron's two fellow servants, that he was at home the whole of that
night on which the Gaspee was attacked; especially as there was no boat
on that part of the island in which he could possibly pass the bay in
the manner by him described. In short, another circumstance which
renders the said Aaron's testimony extremely suspicious, is Capt.
Linzee's absolutely refusing to deliver him up to be examined by one of
the Justices of the said Superior Court when legally demanded.
Peter May, in his deposition, mentions one person only, by
the name of Greene, whom he says, he saw before on board the Gaspee;
but the family of Greene being very numerous in this colony, and the
said Peter not giving the Christian name or describing him in such a
manner as he could be found out, it is impossible for us to know at
present the person referred to. Upon the whole, we are all of opinion
that the several matters and things contained in said depositions do
not induce a probable suspicion, that persons mentioned therein, or
either or any of them, are guilty of the crime aforesaid. It is,
however, the fixed determination of the Superior Court to exert every
legal effort in detecting and bringing to condign punishment the
persons concerned in destroying the schooner Gaspee.
And if the honorable commissioners are of a
different sentiment we should be glad to receive their opinion for our
better information.
S. HOPKINS, Chief Justice.
J. HELME, M. BOWLER, J. C. BENNET, Assistant Justices
For
dereliction of his duty to
his King, and by obstructing the Gaspee Commission of Inquiry while
Chief Justice of Rhode Island, we recognize Stephen Hopkins as an
unindicted co-conspiritor in the Gaspee Affair.
In recognition of the 300th anniversary of the birth of Stephen
Hopkins, The TriCentennial Commission
has established a website complimenting much of the information
presented below at http://StephenHopkins.org.
Left:
The
new portrait of Stephen Hopkins by
John Hagen, 1999, Brown University Portrait Collection. Note that the
pose of the face is exactly the same as Trumbull's portrait on the
right. Stephen Hopkins is not known to have ever actually sat for
a portrait.
Right: Portrait detail as depicted in "Declaration of
Independence" by
John Trumbull (1819),
Independence National Historical
Park. Since
Hopkins had long-since died, Trumbull based his portrait of Hopkins on
his nephew who was said to have looked just like Stephen Hopkins.
More recent
scholarship suggests that
this figure not to be
Stephen Hopkins (or his nephew) at all, and is actually Pennsylvania's
John Dickinson. Both Hopkins and Dickinson were Quakers that wore the
same traditional broad brimmed hat while in public.
Stephen Hopkins (1707–1785) was an American
political leader from Rhode Island who signed the Declaration of
Independence. He
served as the Chief Justice and Governor of colonial Rhode Island and
was a Delegate to both the Colonial Congress in Albany in 1754 and to
the Continental Congress from 1774 to 1776. He was described by
Rev. Ezra Stiles, subsequently the President of Yale University, as "a
man of penetrating astuitious Genius, full of Subtlety, deep Cunning,
intriguing and enterprising."
Stephen Hopkins was born on March 7, 1707 in
Cranston, Rhode Island, the son of William and Ruth (Wilkinson)
Hopkins. He was descended from the Thomas Hopkins that emigrated to
Plymouth Plantation in 1635, and he was raised in his mother's Quaker
religion. His great-granduncle was
Benedict Arnold, the first governor of
Rhode Island (not to be confused with the much later Benedict Arnold
the traitor). He grew up in the small
agricultural community of Scituate to the West of Providence, RI. He
was reared to be a farmer, and had inherited his father's estate in
Scituate, although he was chiefly employed as a land surveyor. He was
later
instrumental in establishing Rhode Island's present-day
boundaries.
Hopkins attained success purely by his own
efforts.
He had little formal education, was taught by his fiesty mother and
in the public schools, and he was an avid reader of
Greek, Roman and British history. In 1726 he
married at the age of nineteen to a fellow quaker, Sarah Scott
(c1707-1753), and
fathered
seven children; five sons and two daughters. At least one of his
daughters and one son died in their childhood. After his first wife
died, Stephen Hopkins remarried in 1755 to Ann Smith (1717-1782), her
second marriage also.
His second son, Captain John Hopkins (1728 - 1753) died in Spain of the
smallpox, and Sylvanus Hopkins (1734-1753 was killed by Indians at Nova
Scotia. His youngest son, Capt. George Hopkins (1739 - 1775) is
noted to have also died at sea.
When Scituate Township separated
from Providence in 1731, he plunged into politics. During the next
decade, he
held the following elective or appointive offices: moderator of the
first town meeting of Scituate, town clerk, president of the town
council, town solicitor, justice
of the peace, justice and clerk of the Providence County Court of
Common Pleas (in 1733, he became Chief Justice of that court),
Representative
from Scituate to the General Assembly of Rhode Island (1732-1752), and
Speaker of the House (1738-1744 and 1749). He travelled a
considerable distance as the General Assembly met in Newport, some 30
miles South of Scituate and Providence.
In
1742, he sold of his father's estate in Scituate, and moved to
Providence, where he made a survey of the streets and lots. Under his
leadership Providence paved the streets, built bridges, wharves and
storehouses, and grew rapidly into an economic power. According
to Providence
Preservation Society Guide to The Providence Waterfront: Three
Centuries of Commerce, (p5., 1983),
together with Joseph Brown, he helped design the Brick Market House in
1772 as a centerpoint to Colonial Providence.
Left:
Stephen
Hopkins House, currently at Benefit and Hopkins Street, Providence.
This
house had apparently originally stood on South Main Street until
1927. George Washington slept here--twice. The museum is
currently owned and operated by The National Society of The
Colonial Dames of America. Click
image to enlarge..
In
1743, Stephen Hopkins purchased a home from John Field, supposed to
have been built in
1707. To the structure, Hopkins attached his own two-story house,
built with a single ground floor room on either side of a central
hallway and two chimneys (one for each main floor room with chamber
above). He installed a fine staircase with stocky balusters set
in a heavy, molded closed string course, and good paneling and
trim. He
resided in this home until his death in 1785. Now a museum, it is one
of the oldest buildings in Providence still extant, and can be visited
at the corner of Hopkins and Benefit Street. George Washington is said
to have slept at this house on April 5-6, 1776. Visit
museum website
Along
with his equally famous brother Esek, he bought a store in Providence
that led to a successful and profitable career in a mercatile and
ship-building partnership. Per Chapin, Howard M., Rhode Island Privateers in King
George's war : 1739-1748 (Providence: Rhode Island
Historical Society :, 1926, 246 pgs), p177., we
find Stephen Hopkins' name in a partnership with that of John Mawney
(1718) as owners of the Rhode Island privateerining ship Reprisal,
in 1745 during King George's War. For three decades, he built up
his business and would probably have acquired a fortune had he not at
the same time supported a variety of civic enterprises and broadened
his political activities. In 1765 he copartnered with the famous Brown Brothers
(Nicholas, Joseph, John and Moses) in establishing the Hope
Furnace that created essential cannon for use during the Revolutionary
War. His eldest son Rufus Hopkins (1727-1813) was employed in
managing the Hope Furnace for almost 40 years.
Right: Detail inset from Sea Captains Carousing in Surinam (c1752-1758) by John
Greenwood
(1727-1792) courtesy St. Louis Art Museum. Left
to right at table: Nicholas Cooke,
Esek Hopkins, Stephen Hopkins (asleep), and
Joseph Wanton. Click to view entire image. There is some
controversy as to whether this man in red was actually Stephen Hopkins,
as per the said tradition of the original owners of the painting, the
Jenckes family. Brown University professor Robert Kenney believed that
this man must have been Esek and Stephen's other brother, William,
since Stephen was at the time running for
re-election as Governor, and tied up in court in
Worcester MA while suing his arch rival Samuel Ward for slander.
Below: Stephen's brother,
Esek Hopkins, by Martin
Johnson Heade, Brown University Portrait Collection
Stephen
Hopkins is one of the subjects of an early American painting (1755) by
John Greenwood entitled "Sea Captains Carousing in Surinam",
the original of "Dogs Playing Poker" genre. Surinam (Suriname)
was a Dutch colony on the North coast of South America known for its
slave plantations. It was a predominant trading destination for Rhode
Island merchants during the 18th century who exchanged lumber, horses,
rum, and African slaves for sugar, coffee, and cocoa in what is known
as the Triangular Trade. While we have not discovered any direct
dealings Stephen Hopkins had in the slave trade, he certainly fits with
the profiles of those that did. Charles Rappleye in Sons of Providence (p57) indicates
that Stephen Hopkins did indeed own slaves, something not unusual for
upperclass families in Providence at the time. Esek Hopkins was a
mariner who often sailed for the Brown family, and commanded the
disasterous slave trading voyage of the Sally in 1764, during which most of
his cargo of 140 African slaves died. Details of the
voyage of the Sally, as well
as original source documents, and more information about Rhode Island's
involvement in slavery are found at Brown University's
Steering Committee on Slavery and Justice. Esek Hopkins later
went on to become the first commanding officer of the infant US Navy (see more at
JohnBHopkins.htm)
In
1751, Stephen Hopkins was chosen Chief Justice of the Superior Court,
in which office he continued until 1754 (there was no such thing as
a Supreme Court at
the time).
He
helped set up a public subscription library in
Providence
in the 1750s
and he himself cataloged its
first collection.
He helped found the influential newspaper Providence
Gazette and Country Journal in 1762.
At
the Albany Congress (1754), he cultivated a friendship with Benjamin
Franklin and assisted him in lobbying a plan of colonial union, and
arranging for an alliance with the Indians, in view of the impending
war with France. Hopkins wrote A True
Representation of the Plan Formed at Albany (1755) in hope of
converting the opposition in Rhode Island. While
the plan was approved by the Albany Congress, the individual colonies
eventually rejected the idea. During
the ensuing French & Indian war, Governor Hopkins was
very active in promoting
the enlistment of volunteers for the service; Hopkins raised a
volunteer
corps, and was placed at its head; but its services were not needed,
and it was disbanded.
He acted as first chancellor of Rhode
Island College (later
Brown University), founded in 1764 at Warren, and 6 years later he and
the Brown brothers were
instrumental in relocating it to Providence, and served as chancellor
until
1785. He also held membership in
the Philosophical Society of Newport.
About
this time, Hopkins took over leadership of the colony's radical
faction, supported by Providence merchants. For more than a decade, it
bitterly fought for political supremacy in Rhode Island with a
conservative group in Newport, led by Samuel Ward, a political enemy of
Hopkins.
In 1756, Hopkins was elected Governor of the colony and he held
that office during nine terms (at the time a term as Governor
lasted only a year) on and off (1755-1756,
1758-1761, 1763-1764, and 1767), as he and Samuel Ward played musical
chairs with the Governorship.
These annual battles for the Governor's office took on a farcical air,
with Hopkins supporters John and Moses Brown buying up votes; the Ward
camp did likewise. His sea trading companion Joseph Wanton helped the
Hopkins faction in the Newport area. He served as Deputy Governor
during Hopkins' last two terms, later becoming Governor himself.
Overall, the Hopkins faction helped wrestle supremacy within the Colony
by Providence (Plantations) over Newport
(Rhode
Island).
While
he was Governor, Hopkins had a disagreement with William Pitt, Prime
Minister
of England, regarding illegal molasses trade with the French colonies.
Hopkins
was one of the earliest and most vigorous champions of colonial rights,
and in 1764 took aim, writing under the pseudonym "P", in the Providence Gazette with an essay
entitled "Essay on the Trade of the Northern Colonies."
Per Carroll's Rhode Island:
Three Cernturies of Democracy, p234:
The General Assembly, in July
[1764], appointed
Governor Hopkins, Daniel
Jencks
and Nicholas Brown a "committee of correspondence" to "confer and
consult
with any committee or committees that are or shall be appointed by any
of the British colonies upon the continent of North America, and to
agree
with them upon such measures as shall appear to them necessary and
proper
to procure a repeal of the . . . sugar act . . . and also the act
. . . for levying several duties in the colony, or in procuring the
duties
in the last mentioned act to be lessened; also to prevent the levying a
stamp duty upon the North American colonies and, generally, for the
prevention
of all such taxes, duties or impositions that may be proposed to be
assessed
upon the colonists which may be inconsistent with their rights and
privileges
as British subjects." In October, Governor Hopkins, Nicholas
Tillinghast,
Joseph Lippitt, Joshua Babcock, Daniel Jencks, John Cole and Nicholas
Brown
were appointed a committee "to prepare an address to his majesty for a
redress of our grievances in respect to the duties, impositions, etc.,
already laid and proposed to be laid on this colony."
Left:
Hopkins' famous pamplet
In
1764 Stephen Hopkins penned The Rights of Colonies Examined published first in the Providence Gazette, and which in
1765 by the order of the General Assembly was
reprinted
as a pamplet, and reissued in London in 1766 as The Grievances of the American Colonies
Candidly Examined.
This famous work
criticized parliamentary taxation (the Stamp Act) and recommended
colonial home rule, and established Hopkins as one of the
earliest of the patriot leaders. In
1765 he was
elected chairman of the committee appointed by a town meeting in
Providence to draft instructions to the General Assembly on The Stamp
Act. The resolutions that were adopted were nearly identical to
those
Patrick Henry introduced into the House of Burgesses of Virginia.
Iin
1770 Hopkins was appointed to a Providence Committee ofIinspection,
basically a group that attempted to enforce the agreements of
nonimportation of British goods among area merchants. When the
British revenue schooner HMS Gaspee
was attacked and burned by compatriots of Hopkins in 1772, he gave immediate sage advice to help limit Royal
reprisals over the raid, and later so much as declared that Rhode
Island courts would not cooperate with the Gaspee investigatory
commission, by refusing to hand over any citizen so indicted to the
British Admiralty stating,
"Then, for the purpose of transportation for trial, I will neither
apprehend any person by my own order, nor suffer any executive officer
in the Colony to do it." (Bartlett, RI
Colonial Record, VII:60.). He and Deputy Governor Darius
Sessions were also able to convince the Commission of Inquiry to limit
their powers so as to not usurp the local courts within the Colony. As
Chief Justice of the Superior Court, Stephen
Hopkins demonstrated a particular reluctance to find suspects
indictable for
trial, which would have greatly aided the British cause.
In March of 1773 the Virginia House of Burgess,
largely in response to the threats to American liberties posed by the
Gaspee Affair, created the first permanent intercolonial committee of
correspondence. These resolutions were sent to Rhode Island by
Peyton
Randolph,
Speaker of the Virginia House of Burgesses, and laid before the General
Assembly at the May session. The Assembly adopted resolutions
creating a standing committee of correspondence for Rhode Island,
including Stephen
Hopkins,
Metcalfe Bowler, Moses Brown, John Cole, William Bradford, Henry
Marchant
and Henry Ward.
In
1773
in keeping
with the directives of Quaker leadership of the time, Hopkins
freed
his slaves that he had acquired through marriage. In 1774,
again elected to the General Assembly, he authored a bill enacted by
the Rhode Island legislature that
prohibited the importation of slaves into the colony—one of the
earliest antislavery laws in the United States.
He carried on with his duties in the
legislature and Superior Court while a Member of the Continental
Congress (1774-76). He was elected
along with Samuel Ward (later replaced by William Ellery) to the
Continental Congress
in Philadelphia in August 1774. "to represent the people of this colony
in a general
congress
of representatives from the other colonies, at such time and place as
shall
be agreed upon by the major part of the committees appointed or to be
appointed
by the colonies in general." These were the first
delegates from any colony elected
to the Congress of 1774.
Paul Revere relates one interesting snippet upon
meeting Stephen Hopkins for the first time, contained in The Life
and Recollections of John Howland, p198:.
One evening [in 1774], a number
of the gentlemen seated around the fire, were conversing on the
engrossing subject of the day. They generally expressed the opinion
that the next arrival from England would bring news of the repeal of
the obnoxious [Intolerable ]acts then complained of. Governor
Hopkins, who was walking the floor, and had not joined in the
conversation, stopped, and facing the company said, ' Gentlemen, those
of you who indulge this opinion, I think deceive yourselves. Powder and
ball will decide this question. The gun and bayonet alone will finish
the contest in which we are engaged, and any of you who cannot bring
your minds to this mode of adjusting the question, had better retire in
time, as it will not, perhaps, be in your power, after the first blood
shall have been shed.'
In the year 1775 and 1776, he again
represented Rhode
Island in the Continental Congress. When
Rhode Island became the first colony to renounce its allegience to King
George III, in effect declaring its independence on May 4, 1776,
Hopkins wrote,
"I observe that you have avoided giving me a direct answer to my
queries
concerning independence; however the copy of the act of the Assembly,
which
you have sent me, together with our instructions, leave me little room
to doubt what is the opinion of the colony I came from." In
1776, at the age of 69, he had the
honor of signing his name to the Declaration of Independence, which
declared the
colonies to be free, sovereign, and independent states. In these later
years Hopkins had a shaking palsy, what was probably Parkinson's
Disease, and was noted
to have said, as he signed the Declaration of Independence, "My hand
trembles, my heart does not." Hopkins served in the Congress,
distinguishing himself as a
bold orator. "The liberties of America would be a cheap purchase with
the loss of but 100,000 lives," he confessed to a colleague. Fellow
statesman John Adams was impressed with Hopkins. From David
McCullough's John Adams:
p.100:
"Knowing nothing of armed ships,
he (Adams) made himself expert,
and would call his work on the naval committee the pleasantest part of
his labors, in part because it brought him in contact with one of the
singular figures in Congress, Stephen Hopkins of Rhode Island, who was
nearly as old as Franklin and always wore his broad-brimmed Quaker hat
in chamber. Adams found most Quakers to be 'dull as beetles,' but
Hopkins was an exception. A lively, learned man ... he suffered the
loss of three sons at sea, and served in one public office or other
continuously from the time he was twenty-five. The old gentlemen loved
to drink rum and expound on his favorite writers. The experience and
judgment he brought to the business of Congress were of great use, as
Adams wrote, but it was in the after-hours that he 'kept us alive.'
His custom was to drink nothing all day, nor 'til eight o'clock in the
evening, and his beverage was Jamaica spirits and water ... Hopkins
never drank to excess, according to Adams, but all he drank was
promptly converted into wit, sense, knowledge, and good humor."
While at Congress, Hopkins served on the
committees that prepared the
Articles of Confederation. Hopkins' knowledge of the shipping
business made him particularly useful as a
member of the Naval Committee. He persuaded the Congress in 1775 to
outfit 13
armed vessels and to commission them as the Navy of the united
colonies. He also saw to it that Rhode Island received a contract to
out
fit two of these, and
appointed his brother Esek Hopkins as its commander-in-chief. His
wife's cousin, Abraham Whipple, was
commissioned to the rank of Commodore, while Stephen Hopkins' nephew, John B. Hopkins, was commissioned as
Lieutenant.
One vignette retold in the Providence Journal (March 8, 2007,
pB5) depicts the rather humble Quaker values of the Hopkins household:
General
Washington’s first visit was on April 5, 1776. He was on his way to
take command of the Continental Army in Boston. Hopkins himself was in
Philadelphia, at the Continental Congress. His daughter-in-law served
as host. Her family wanted to lend her better china for the occasion.
“What’s good enough for my father,” she is said to have replied, “is
good enough for General Washington.”
Continued ill health compelled Hopkins to retire
in September 1776, a
month after he signed the
Declaration. He declined subsequent reelections to Congress, but sat in
the State legislature from 1777 through 1779, and took part in several
New England political conventions. He withdrew from public service
about 1780. His second wife Ann died in 1782, and Stephen Hopkins
himself died on July 13, 1785 in Providence at the age of 78. It
is said he retained full possession of his faculties to the end, and he
was interred in the Old North Burial Ground of Providence, where both
of his wives had preceded him. "A vast assemblage of persons,
consisting of judges of the courts, the president, professors and
students of the college, together with the citizens of the town, and
inhabitants of the state, followed the remains of this eminent man to
his resting place in the grave". Details of his
funeral procession and eulogy are contained in the 21 and 23July1785
editions of the Providence newspapers.
A sad historical footnote is added by John Howland in Stone,
Edward Martin. The Life and
Recollections of John Howland, Late President of the Rhode Island
Historical Society.
Providence, Geo. H. Whitney, 1857, p47:
He left a large trunk of papers
connected with the transactions of his public life. After his
decease, an unsuccessful attempt was made by Moses Brown to obtain them
for safe keeping, and in the great storm of September, 1815, the tide
swept through the house where they were lodged, and they were carried
off and lost in the multitude of waters.
The town of Hopkinton, Rhode Island was later named
after him. The SS Stephen Hopkins,
a liberty ship named in his honor, was the first US ship to sink a
German surface warship in World War II. In the musical 1776,
which tells the story of the drafting and signing of the Declaration of
Independence, Stephen Hopkins is a main character. He is depicted as a
well meaning but cantankerous drunkard whose force of personality helps
keep the Continental Congress together. Most historians consider that
depiction to be a bad rap: our Stephen Hopkins had converted to
Quakerism, and most likely did not drink at all. Our Stephen
Hopkins is also not to
be confused with others of that name, including one that was an early
settler of the Plymouth Plantation, nor the current day movie director.
From
Quahog.org:
Stephen Hopkins' gravestone inscriptions at the Old North Burial
Ground, Providence, RI:
West side
SACRED
TO THE MEMORY OF
THE
ILLUSTRIOUS
STEPHEN HOPKINS,
OF REVOLUTIONARY FAME,
ATTESTED BY HIS SIGNATURE
TO THE DECLARATION
OF OUR NATIONAL INDEPENDENCE.
GREAT IN COUNCIL,
FROM SAGACITY OF MIND;
MAGNANIMOUS IN SENTIMENT,
FIRM IN PURPOSE,
AND GOOD, AS GREAT,
FROM BENEVOLENCE OF HEART;
HE STOOD IN THE FRONT RANK OF
STATESMEN AND PATRIOTS.
SELF-EDUCATED,
YET AMONG THE MOST LEARNED OF MEN;
HIS VAST TREASURY OF USEFUL KNOWLEDGE,
HIS GREAT RETENTIVE
AND REFLECTIVE POWERS,
COMBINED WITH HIS SOCIAL NATURE,
MADE HIM THE MOST INTERESTING
OF COMPANIONS IN PRIVATE LIFE.
South side
HIS
NAME IS ENGRAVED
ON THE IMMORTAL RECORDS
OF THE REVOLUTION,
AND CAN NEVER DIE:
HIS TITLES TO THAT DISTINCTION
ARE ENGRAVED ON THIS MONUMENT,
REARED BY
THE GRATEFUL ADMIRATION
OF HIS NATIVE STATE,
IN HONOR OF HER FAVORITE SON.
East side
HOPKINS
BORN MARCH 7, 1707
DIED JULY 13, 1785
North side
HERE
lies the man in fateful hour,
Who boldly stemm'd tyrannic pow'r.
And held his hand in that decree,
Which bade America BE FREE!
—Arnold's poems
Sources
consulted:
- Carroll,
Charles. Rhode
Island: Three Centuries of Democracy, 1932
- Chapin,
Howard M., Rhode Island Privateers in
King George's war : 1739-1748
(Providence: Rhode Island Historical Society
:, 1926, 246 pgs)
- ColonialHall.com
website
- Cushing. H. A., ed. The
Writings of Samuel Adams, Vol II and Vol III,. c1904 -
1908.
- The National
Society of The Colonial Dames of America, website
- Goodrich, Rev. Charles A. Lives of the Signers of the
Declaration of Independence by , R.G.H. Huntington, 1841
- McCullough, David. John
Adams: (New York: Simon &
Schuster, 2001)
- National Parks Service website "Signers of the Declaration of
Independence" http://www.cr.nps.gov/history/online_books/declaration/bio21.htm
- Newport Mercury, 23July1785 obituary
- Providence Journal (March
8, 2007, pages B5 and E7) "Happy 300th, Stephen Hopkins"
- Providence Preservation Society guide to The Providence
Waterfront: Three Centuries of Commerce, 1983.
- Quahog.org
website
- Rappleye, Charles. Sons of
Providence: The Brown Brothers, the Slave Trade, and the American
Revolution. (Simon & Schuster, 2006)
- Robinson, Natalie. Revolutionary Fire:
The
Gaspee
Incident
- Staples, William R., The Documentary History of the Destruction
of the Gaspee
- Stone, Edward Martin. The Life
and Recollections of John Howland, Late President of the Rhode Island
Historical Society.
Providence, Geo. H. Whitney, 1857.
- The TriCentennial Commission website
- Whipple.org
Website,
Bibliography from the Congressional
Biography of Stephen Hopkins:
- Foster, William Eaton. Stephen Hopkins, a Rhode Island
Statesman. Providence: S. S. Rider, 1884.
- Hopkins, Stephen. The Grievances of the American Colonies
Candidly Examined. London: Reprinted for J. Almon, 1766. New York:
Research Reprints, [1970].
- ———. The Rights of Colonies Examined. Introduced and
edited by Paul Campbell. Providence: Rhode Island Bicentennial
Foundation, 1974.
- ———. A True Representation of the Plan Formed at Albany for
Uniting All the British Northern Colonies, In Order To [sic] Their
Common Safety and Defence [sic]: Containing Abstracts of the
Authorities Given by the Several Governments to Their Commissioners,
and of Several Letters From the Secretaries of State, and Lords
Commissioners for Trade and Plantations Concerning Such an Union:
Together With a Representation of the State of the English and French
Colonies in North-America, and the Said Plan of Union with the Doings
of the Commissioners Thereon: and Some Remarks on the Whole.
[Newport, R.I.: James Franklin, 1755].
- Rhode Island. Governor (1755-1765: Hopkins). The Game Cock
Readies to Strike: Abraham Whipple, Commander of the Schooner Game
Cock, Receives Letters of Marque from Governor Stephen Hopkins, 1759.
With an introduction by Bruce Campbell MacGunnigle. East Greenwich:
Printed for the Society by Print Shops, 1993.
- Stitt, Edward Walmsley. Stephen Hopkins, A Signer from Rhode
Island. [N.p., 1959].
Genealogical
Addendum:
Stephen HOPKINS
Birth: 7 MAR 1707 in Cranston, RI Death: 13 JUL
1785 in Providence, RI
Father: William HOPKINS (1682) son of William Hopkins
(1647) and Abigail WHIPPLE
Mother: Ruth WILKINSON b: 31 JAN 1686, dau of Samuel
WILKINSON & Plain WICKENDEN
Marriage1 1726: Sarah SCOTT (c1707 - 1753) dau of
Silverman
SCOTT c1665 & Jeanna JENCKS
Children: (all born in Scituate, Providence, RI)
- Hon. Rufus HOPKINS (10 FEB
1727-14
APR 1813) Superintendant of Hope Furnace, married Abigail Angell
- Capt. John HOPKINS b: 6 NOV 1728 d
July 20,
1753
in Spain of smallpox, married Mary Gibbs of Boston
- Ruth HOPKINS b: 3 OCT 1731 died as
infant
- Lydia HOPKINS b: 6 JAN 1733 possibly
died
young, may have married Col. Daniel Tillinghast of Newport
- Sylvanus HOPKINS b: 30 NOV 1734- d
1753 killed by Indians
- Simon HOPKINS b: 26 AUG 1736 died at
age 7 on
2
APR 1744
- Capt. George HOPKINS b: 11 JAN 1739 m
Ruth
SMITH (daughter pof his father's second wife),
died 1775 at sea
Marriage2 1755: Ann SMITH b:5OCT1717 in
Providence,
dau of Benjamin SMITH & Mercy ANGELL. Died 26 JAN 1782
Stephen Hopkins' brother John married a Catherine Turpin., and his sister Hope married
a Henry Harris. According
to Whipple.org, Gaspee raid leader Abraham Whipple was the
brother-in-law to Stephen Hopkins. Actually, Abraham Whipple's wife was
Sarah Hopkins, the daughter of John Hopkins, (the brother of Stephen),
so Abe's wife was Steve's cousin.
Back
to Top | Back
to Gaspee Virtual Archives
Originally
Posted
to Gaspee Virtual Archives 8/2002 Last Revised
11/2007
StephenHopkins.htm
Left:
Stephen
Hopkins House, currently at Benefit and Hopkins Street, Providence.
This
house had apparently originally stood on South Main Street until
1927. George Washington slept here--twice. The museum is
currently owned and operated by The National Society of The
Colonial Dames of America. Click
image to enlarge..
