Stephen Hopkins

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Stephen Hopkins (March 7, 1707 – July 13, 1785) was governor of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, a Chief Justice of the Rhode Island Supreme Court, and a signer of the Declaration of Independence.

He was a member of a wealthy Rhode Island family, the grandson of William Hopkins, who served in the colony for 40 years as Deputy, Assistant, Speaker of the House of Deputies, and Major.

Thomas Hopkins, the great grandfather of Providence Plantation, sailed from England in 1635 with his cousin Benedict Arnold, who became the first governor of Rhode Island colony under the Royal Charter of 1663. Stephen Hopkins, as an infant, was a voracious reader, transforming into a serious reader of science, mathematics, and literature.

He was a surveyor and astronomer who was involved in measuring during the Venus transit through the sun in 1769.

In the newly established town of Scituate, Rhode Island, he began his public service at age 23 as a justice of the peace.

He became a justice of the Inferior Court of Common Pleas, as well as serving as Speaker of the House of Deputies and President of the Scituate Town Council at various times.

Ancestry and early life

Hopkins was born in Providence, Rhode Island, and Providence Plantations, the second and third of William and Ruth Hopkins' two children. (Wilkinson) Hopkins was born in Providence, Rhode Island. William Hopkins, his grandfather, was a leader in colonial affairs, having served for more than 40 years as a deputy, speaker of the House of Deputies, and major. Abigail Whipple Hopkins, a grandson of Providence Plantations, and aunt to Deputy Governor Joseph Whipple Jr. Thomas Hopkins was orphaned and raised by his uncle William Arnold, and he and his descendants, including his cousin Benedict Arnold, became the first governor of the colony under the Royal Charter of 1663.

Hopkins' youth spent time in the northwest part of Providence, nicknamed Chompist Hill, an area that has since been incorporated into Scituate, Rhode Island. There were no schools in this area at the time, but the books belonged to the family were supplemented by a tiny circulating collection that sent him reading material, which he devoured avidly. "A close and arduous student, filling up all the spare hours of his life with reading," Historian Irving Richman says of Hopkins. "He devoted himself to the study of books and men," John Sanderson writes in his book "in the beginning." Hopkins learned surveying from his grandfather, Samuel Wilkinson. He used his surveying skills to revise the streets and produce a Scituate map, and later did the same for Providence. As a child, his father donated 70 acres (28 ha) of land, and grandfather Hopkins gave him an additional 90 acres (36 ha).

Hopkins was interested in astronomy and other scientific pursuits as well as being involved in the discovery of Venus' transit across the sun's face in 1769. Joseph Brown had assembled a complete set of the required equipment, including a reflecting telescope, a micrometer, and a sextant, as well as a sextant, and an observatory was installed on a hill in Providence (later referred to as "Transit Street" in honor of the occasion). Brown was supported by a group that included Hopkins, Benjamin West, and others who were also interested in science. The observations helped them to find 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. In 1768, he was elected to the revived American Philosophical Society.

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