Surveyor and Revolutionary - Stephen Hopkins
Blog by Emily Pierce, PLS, CFedS
In the US, everybody knows a little bit about the Declaration of Independence. This document was the formal announcement of the split between the Colonies and the British Crown – ultimately creating the United States of America.
Copy of the Declaration of Independence
Of the 56 signers, six of them were surveyors.
I’ve written about one of them already - the lead author of the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson.
Until I started researching the history of the document, I thought George Washington was also one of the signers. I’m sure he would have been, but at the time, he was in New York with his army. But he did get a copy of the Declaration soon after it was signed, sent to him by John Hancock. On the evening of July 9, 1776, he gathered his troops at the parade grounds in Lower Manhattan at 6:00 pm so they could listen to the Declaration of Independence. . . even as thousands of Hessian and British soldiers were landing on Staten Island.
We all know how this story ends, but we don’t know much about the other five surveyors who signed the Declaration of Independence.
Stephen Hopkins, Surveyor and Revolutionary
One of them was Stephen Hopkins of Rhode Island. His signature is by far the shakiest, but it wasn’t
because he was afraid. At the time he signed the Declaration at age 69, he was dealing with palsy and was reported to say “My hand trembles, but my heart does not!”
Hopkins was born in 1707 in Providence and grew up in a nearby small farm town now known as Cranston. His mother was from a prominent Quaker family and, contrary to the existing Quaker disdain for learning, invested in Stephen’s education. Along with his farm chores, his grandfather and uncle taught him Greek, Roman and British history and English poetry, as well as mathematics.
His whole family was involved in civic activities – for example, his great grandfather was appointed as a member of the Newport Town Committee in 1661, and his maternal great-grandfather was a member of the Colonial Assembly in 1659. Hopkins’ cousin, Benedict Arnold, became a Revolutionary War General who subsequently committed treason.
Hopkins was definitely not a traitor. After marrying at age 19, he became a surveyor at age 24, a prominent position that subsequently led to him becoming the Scituate town clerk, then president of the Town Council in 1735. He represented the township at the General Assembly from 1732 to 1741 and became speaker in 1742. By 1774, he and his growing family had moved to Providence, were he continued his public service career that included stints as Justice on the Court of Common Pleas, Justice of the Superior Court, then Chief Justice. In 1755, he was elected Governor of Rhode Island for the first of 9 terms. He was also appointed as Rhode Island’s delegate to the pan-colonial congresses in four consecutive sessions.
Stephen Hopkins’ signature on the Declaration of Independence.
Stephen Hopkins’ house in Providence, Rhode Island
The right place at the right time
His time at the pan-colonial congresses was pivotal. He became friends with Benjamin Franklin as well as others who would become leading revolutionaries. In the years leading up to the Revolutionary War, he authored pamphlets attacking the Sugar Act and the Stamp Act, both of which were punitive taxes levied by the British crown. And in 1768, when John Hancock’s ship was seized by the British and sent to Newport to become part of the Royal Navy, it was burned by an angry mob. When the British ordered those involved to be apprehended and tried, Hopkins, as Chief Justice, refused to do so.
At a meeting of the General Assembly of Rhode Island in 1774, Hopkins introduced a bill to prevent further importation of slaves and freed those slaves which he owned. Since the slave trade was a core economic driver in Rhode Island at the time, this was a notable stance from a leading politician.
Even as he was holding public office, he also went into business with his brother to build and outfit shipping vessels. He also founded the Providence Athenaeum, which is an association for the advancement of learning, an institution first created by the Roman emperor Hadrian in about A.D. 133. He was the first Chancellor of Rhode Island College (now Brown University), helped found the Providence Gazette, and contributed to building a telescope in Providence for observing the transit of Venus.
Stephen Hopkins in the famous painting by John Trumbull
Hopkins was named as one of two Rhode Island residents to the First Continental Congress in 1774, where he made this declaration, concerning the resolution of the differences between the colonies and the British “….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 this question had better retire in time.”
In June of the same year Hopkins was appointed to the 13 member committee (one from each state) to draft the country’s first constitution, The Articles of Confederation. His health failing, he returned to Rhode Island soon thereafter.
Hopkins died on July 13, 1785 and is buried in the North Burying Ground at Providence. An extensive assembly of notable people followed the funeral procession of Hopkins to the cemetery, including court judges, the President, professors and students of the College, citizens of the town and inhabitants of the state.
The Rhode Island legislature dedicated a special monument at his gravesite in his honor, and it provides an elaborate testimony to the life of the patriot.
The more I learn about this country’s early surveyors, the more I am amazed by their incredible contributions to shaping the nation. They not only set boundaries and settled disputes, they were civic leaders, legislators and visionaries.
I’m not a civic leader, but I know the work I do matters. It’s essential to the very foundation of our economy – and it’s the foundation that we all build upon.