Accomplishments Of Stephen Hopkins

Stephen Hopkins was born on March 7, 1707 in Scituate (then a part of Providence), Rhode Island. Hopkins was the second oldest signer of the constitution, behind Benjamin Franklin. (1) Growing up Hopkins was supposedly self-educated. Hopkins gained his success purely by his own efforts. Scituate was an agricultural community and Hopkins earned his living farming. Hopkins married at the age of 19. In 1731 when Scituate separated from Providence, Hopkins decided to join politics. Over the next 12 years Hopkins was: moderator of the first town meeting, town clerk, president of the town council, justice of the peace, justice and clerk of the Providence County court of common pleas, legislator, and speaker of the house. (2) In 1742 Hopkins moved

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. (2) Hopkins was a man of many interests, including humanitarianism, education, and science, and used his talents in many fields. In about 1754 he helped set up a public subscription library in Providence. He acted as first chancellor of Rhode Island College (later Brown University), which was founded in 1764 at Warren, and 6 years later he was instrumental in the relocating of Rhode Island college to Providence. He was also a member in the Philosophical Society of Newport. Strongly opposing slavery, in 1774 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. (2) He served on the committees that prepared the Articles of Confederation and that created the Continental Navy and appointed Esek Hopkins (Stephens Brother) as its commander in chief. Ill health compelled Stephen to retire in September 1776, a month after he signed the Declaration.

He was also portrayed as health and what I assume to be in his mid-50s possibly. But I haven’t been able to find any stitch of evidence to support the films portrayal of him. In fact I found things completely different then what the films says. One website said “Stephen Hopkins voted to approve the Declaration of Independence on July 4 and signed the engrossed copy on August 2. He suffered from the “shaking palsy” which caused his signature on the Declaration to appear unsteady, and he used his left hand to steady his right. He stated at the signing, “My hand trembles, but my heart does not.” Hopkins’ palsy affliction was of long standing, causing him to rely upon a clerk to write for him in his businesses and public life.”(3) This snippet of information clearly states that Hopkins had a disease that caused him to live a life in which he needed assistance to do every day things. He couldn’t even write his name without shaking, there’s no possible way he could be in good health with a disease like that. Another false claim is that Hopkins wasn’t anywhere close to his mid-50s in 1776. Every article I’ve seen says he died in 1781 at the age of 78. Yes 78 that means in 1776 he would have been 73…that’s close to two decades older then what has portrayed as. And lastly Hopkins may or may not have been a drunk I’m