Stephen Hopkins
Stephen Hopkins was born at Scituate, Rhode Island, on the 7th of March 1707. He was the son of William Hopkins a cattle farmer whose father, Thomas Hopkins, was one of the pioneers of that province. Although there were limited school advantages, Mr. Hopkins acquired a thorough knowledge of mathematics at an early age and became an expert surveyor. At the age of nineteen he was wed to Sarah Scott whose paternal great grandfather was the first Quaker who settled in Providence. She died the mother of seven children. In 1755 he married the widow Anna Smith a pious member of the Society of Friends.In 1731 Hopkins was appointed Town Clerk and Clerk of the Court and Proprietaries of the county. The next year he was elected to the General Assembly where he continued for six consecutive years. In 1735 he was elected to the Town Council and for six years was President of that body. In 1736 he was appointed a Justice of the Peace and a Judge of the Common Pleas Court. In 1739 he was elevated to the seat of Chief Justice of that branch of the judiciary. During the intervals of these public duties he spent much of his time in surveying. He regulated the streets of his native town and those of Providence and made a projected map of each.
In 1741 Hopkins was again elected to the assembly. The next year he removed to Providence where he was elected to the same body and became Speaker of the House. In 1744 he filled the same station and was appointed a Justice of the Peace for that town. In 1751 he was appointed Chief Justice of the Superior Court and for the fourteenth time elected to the assembly. In 1754 he was a delegate to the Colonial Congress held at Albany, N. Y. for the purpose of effecting a treaty with the Five Nations of Indians in order to gain their aid or neutrality in the French war. A system of union was then and there drawn up by the delegates similar to the Articles of Confederation that governed the Continental Congress which was vetoed by England.
1754-1763. The French and Indian Wars
In 1755 the Earl of Loudoun in command of the English forces requisitioned for troops upon several colonies and on Rhode Island for four hundred and fifty men to stop the raids of the French and Indians upon the frontier settlements. Mr. Hopkins rendered efficient aid in this service and had the pleasure of seeing the complement promptly made up.Stephen Hopkins was elected Chief Magistrate in the colony in 1756 and a company of volunteers was raised, with Hopkins in command.
In 1775 he was appointed Chief Justice of his Colony-was a member of her Assembly and member of Congress. In 1778, he was a member of Congress for the last time. He died on July 13, 1785.