Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1892, volume 3).djvu/287

Rh Amherst conferred the degree of D. D. on him in 1854. He published a " Manual of Church Polity " (Auburn, 1878), and " Liturgv and Book of Com- mon Prayer " (New York, 1883).

HOPKINS, Stephen, signer of the Declaration of Independence, b. in Providence, R. I., 7 March, 1707 ; d. there, 13 July, 1785. He was brought up as a farmer, and inherited an es- tate in Scituate. He was a mem- ber of the assem- bly in 1732-'3 and 1735-8, and in 1736 was ap- pointed a justice of the peace and one of the jus- tices of the court of common pleas. He was the first town - clerk of Scituate. During his whole life he was eimployed as a land-surveyor. In 1741 he was again chosen to represent the town of Scituate in the assembly, and was elected speaker. In 1742 he sold his farm and removed to Providence, where he made a survey of the streets and lots, and afterward began business as a merchant and ship-builder. The same year he was sent to the assembly from Provi- dence, and was again chosen speaker. In 1751 he was elected for the fourteenth time to the general assembly, and later in the year appointed chief justice of the superior court. He was a delegate from Rhode Island to the convention that met at Albany in 1754 for the purposes of concerting a plan of military and political union of the colonies and arranging an alliance with the Indians, in view of the impending war with France. He was one of the committee that drafted a plan of co- lonial union, which was accepted by the conven- tion, but objected to in the various colonies and in Great Britain. In 1755 Mr. Hopkins was elected governor of the colony, and held that office, with the exception of two years, when he was defeated by his political rival, Samuel Ward, until 1764. After Ward had occupied the governor's chair for two years, Hopkins was again elected in 1 767 ; but in October of that year he renounced further can- didature for the sake of uniting the contending factions and putting an end to a party strife that distracted the colony. While he was governor, Hopkins had a controversy with William Pitt, prime minister of England, in relation to the con- traband trade with the French colonies. He was one of the earliest and most strenuous champions of colonial rights against the encroachments of the English parliament. In 1765 he wrote a pam- phlet entitled "The Grievances of the American Colonies Candidly Examined,'" which was printed by order of the' general assembly, and reissued in London the next year. In 1765 he was elected chairman of a committee appointed at a special town-meeting held in Providence to draft instruc- tions to the general assembly on the stamp-act. The resolutions reported and adopted were nearly identical with those that Patrick Henry introduced into the house of burgesses of Virginia. In 1770 he was again elected to the general assembly. He was appointed a member of the committee on cor- respondence the following year, and was succes- sively re-elected to the assembly till 1775. While holding a seat in the assembly, and afterward in the Continental congress, he filled the office of chief justice of Rhode Island as well, being ap- pointed for the second time to that station in 1770. In 1773 he emancipated his slaves, and in 1774 brought forward a bill in the assembly which prohibited the importation of negroes into the colony. He was elected, with Samuel Ward, to represent Rhode Island in the general congress in August, 1774, and was appointed on the first two committees'. In the beginning of the Revolution he was one of the committee of safety of the town of Providence, and in May, 1775, was elected to the 2d congress. In the 3d congress he had Will- iam Ellery as his colleague. The signature of Hopkins to the Declaration of Independence is written with a trembling hand for the reason that he had suffered for several years from a paralytic affection which prevented him from writing ex- cept by guiding the right hand with the left, though in early life he had been famed for the elegance of his penmanship. He was a delegate from Rhode Island to the commission that was appointed by the New England states to consult on the defence of their borders and the promotion of the common cause, and presided over the meet- ings in Providence in 1776 and in Springfield, Mass., in 1777. He was not a member of the con- gress in 1777, but in the following year was a dele- gate for the last time. Mr. Hopkins was a pow- erful and lucid speaker, and used his influence in congross in favor of decisive measures. He wor- shipped with the Friends, but professed religious views so latitudinarian that he was called by his enemies an infidel. His knowledge of the busi- ness of shipping made him particularly useful in congress as a member of the naval committee in devising plans for fitting out armed vessels and furnishing the colonies with a naval armament, and in framing regulations for the navy. He was also a member of the committee that drafted the articles of confederation for the government of the states. In 1777 he was an active member of the general assembly of Rhode Island. He was a founder of the town library of Providence in 1750, which was burned in 1758, but re-established through his instrumentality. Besides the work al- ready mentioned, he was the author of a " History of the Planting and Growth of Providence." which appeared in the Providence " Gazette " in 1765. See " Stephen Hopkins, a Rhode Island Statesman," by William E. Foster (Providence, 1884).

HOPKINS, Theodore Weld, clergyman, b. in Cincinnati, Ohio, 5 Jan., 1841. His father, who had left Lane seminary on anti-slavery grounds, settled in Oberlin, Ohio, in 1848. The son was graduated at Yale in 1864, taught a musical school near Providence, R. I., for a year, was assistant in the Central high-school in CleVeland for four years, and then studied theology in the seminary at Rochester, N. Y., where he was graduated in 1873. He was at once called to the chair of church his- tory in the Congregational theological seminary at Chicago, 111. This post he resigned in 1880, with the intention of devoting himself to literary work, but in 1881 he accepted the pastorate of the Cen- tral Presbyterian church in Rochester, N. Y. He is the author of an historical essay on " The Doc- trine of Inspiration" (printed privately) and has contributed numerous articles to reviews. HOPKINS, William Fenn, educator, b. in Connecticut in 1802; d. in Jamaica, W. I., 13 July, 1859. He was graduated at the U. S. military academy in 1825, assigned to the artillery, and