Francis Hopkinson - Signer of the Declaration

Quotes

Below is an excerpt from "A Political Catechism":

Q. What is defensive war?

A. It is to take up arms in opposition to the invasions of usurped power and bravely suffer present hardships and encounter present dangers, to secure the rights of humanity and the blessings of freedom, to generations yet unborn.

Q. Is even defensive war justifiable in a religious view?

A. The foundation of war is laid in the wickedness of mankind . . . . God has given man wit to contrive, power to execute, and freedom of will to direct his conduct. It cannot be but that some, from a depravity of will, will abuse these privileges and exert these powers to the injury of others: and the oppressed would have no safety nor redress but by exerting the same powers in their defence: and it is our duty to set a proper value upon and defend to the utmost our just rights and the blessings of life: otherwise a few miscreants [unprincipled individuals] would tyrannize over the rest of mankind, and make the passive multitude the slaves of their power. Thus it is that defensive is not only justifiable, but an indispensable duty.
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Tibits

Hopkinson wrote Yankee Doodle, which became the Connecticut state song in 1978.

Some historians believe that Hopkinson and not Betsy Ross designed the official "first flag" of the United States. This flag had the traditional 13 red and white stripes and 13 white stars in a circle on a field of blue.

Bio

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Francis Hopkinson (2 October 1737–May 9, 1791), an American author, and one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, was born at Philadelphia in 1737. He studied at the college of Philadelphia, and after graduating in 1763, resolved to prepare himself for the legal profession. After he was admitted to the bar in 1765 he spent two years in England. On his return in 1768 he obtained a lucrative public appointment in the state of New Jersey, which went on to represent in Congress in 1776-1777. In 1779 he was appointed judge of admiralty for Pennsylvania, and in 1790 district judge for that state.

Hopkinson was the author of several songs to which he wrote popular airs, and of various political poems, pamphlets, and jeux d'esprit, which from their humorous satire had a wide circulation, and powerfully assisted in arousing and fostering the spirit of political independence that issued in the American Revolution.

His principal writings are The Pretty Story 1774; The prophecy 1776; The Political Catchism 1777. Among his songs may be mentioned The Treaty, The Battle of the Kegs, and The New Roof, a song for Federal Mechanics; and the best known of his satirical pieces are Typographical Method of conducting a Quarrel, Essay on White Washing, and Modern Learning. His Miscellaneous Essays and Occasional Writings were published at Philadelphia in three volumes in 1792.

He died in Philadelphia.

Stephen Hopkins - Signer of the Declaration

Quotes

After signing the Declaration of Independence:

"My hands tremble, but my heart does not."

In the following quote Stephen Hopkins helps to confirm that the early colonists were loyal to the crown:

"We finally beg leave to assert that the first planters of these colonies were pious Christians; were faithful subjects; who, with a fortitude and perseverance little known and less considered, settled these wild countries by God's goodness and their own amazing labors [and] thereby added a most valuable dependence to the crown of Great-Britain; were ever dutifully subservient to her interests; so taught their children that not one has been disaffected to this day; but all have honestly obeyed every royal command and cheerfully submitted to every constitutional law; . . . have carefully avoided every offensive measure . . . have never been troublesome or expensive to the mother country; have kept due order and supported a regular government; have maintained peace and practiced Christianity; and in all conditions and in every relation have demeaned themselves as loyal, as dutiful, and as faithful subjects ought; and that no kingdom or state hath, or ever had, colonies more quiet, more obedient, or more profitable, than these have ever been."
Stephen Hopkins, The Rights of Colonies Examined (Providence: William Goddard, 1765), pp. 23-24.

Tibits

Bio

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Stephen Hopkins (March 7, 1707 - July 13, 1785) was an American political leader from Rhode Island who signed the Declaration of Independence. He served as the Governor of colonial Rhode Island and was a Delegate to the Colonial Congress in Albany in 1754 and to the Continental Congress from 1774 to 1776.

Stephen was born in Providence, Rhode Island, the only son of William and Ruth (Wilkinson) Hopkins. He grew up on a farm in Scituate, Rhode Island and attended a public school. He moved back to Providence in 1742 and worked as a merchant, ship owner, and surveyor.

Hopkins helped to found a subscription library in 1754, and was a member of the Philosophical Society of Newport. Although largely self educated Hopkins served as chancellor of Rhode Island College (now Brown University) from 1764 to 1785. In 1764 he published a pamphlet "The Rights of the Colonies Examined" whose broad distribution and criticism of taxation and parliament built his reputation as a revolutionary leader. Hopkins had Cerebral Palsy, and was noted to say as he signed the Declaration of Independence "Though my hands shake, my heart does not."

Political Career
Hopkins served in Rhode Island's colonial assembly (1732-1752, 1770-1775) and was its Speaker in 1738 to 1744 and in 1749. He represented Rhode Island at the Albany Congress in 1754. He was elected Governor of Rhode Island nine times (1755-1756, 1758-1761, 1763-1764, and 1767). He led the state's delegation to the Continental Congress until September of 1776, when his health forced him to resign the post.

While serving in the Rhode Island Assembly in 1774 he introduced the bill that outlawed the import of slaves to the colony. This became one of the first anti-slavery laws in the United States.

Stephen died at his home in Providence on July 13, 1785, and is interred in the North Burial Ground there. The town of Hopkinton, Rhode Island was later named after him. The SS Stephen Hopkins, a liberty ship named in his honor, was the first U.S. ship to sink a German surface warship in World War II

William Hooper - Signer of the Declaration

Quotes

Tibits

Bio

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

William Hooper (June 28, 1742–October 14, 1790), was a signer of the United States Declaration of Independence as a representative of North Carolina.

He was born in Boston, Massachusetts the son of William Hooper who emigrated from Scotland after studying at the University of Edinburgh. William Hooper senior was minister at Trinity Church in Boston and entered his son in the Boston Latin School. William Hooper the younger enrolled in the sophomore class at Harvard College at the age of 15, graduating in 1760. He studied law and settled in Wilmington, North Carolina in 1767. Prior to moving to North Carolina he served an apprenticeship with James Otis. He attended the Continental Congress in 1774, resigning in 1776. During the war his plantation Finian on Masonboro Sound in the Cape Fear area of North Carolina was burned when the British occupied Wilmington. He was appointed a Federal judge in 1789 but served only a year because of ill health. He is buried behind a small Presbyterian church in Hillsborough, North Carolina. His body was moved in 1894 to Guilford Courthouse national military park where it resides with that of William Penn. His last known residence, the Nash-Hooper house, still stands at 118 West Tryon street in Hillsborough, North Carolina. Several members of his family are interred under a monument at the University of North Caronina at Chapel Hill.

Thomas Heyward, Jr. - Signer of the Declaration

Quotes

Tibits

St. Helena's Parish (Episcopal) was established in 1712, and the church was constructed in 1724. Thomas Heyward Jr. was a parishioner.

Bio

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Thomas Heyward, Jr. (July 28, 1746–March 6, 1809), was a signer of the United States Declaration of Independence as a representative of South Carolina.

He was born in South Carolina and educated at home, then traveled to England to study law. He was elected to the Continental Congress in 1775, and returned to South Carolina in 1778 to serve as a judge. In command of a militia force, he was taken prisoner by the British during the siege of Charleston. He continued to serve as a judge after the war, retiring from the bench in 1798.

Joseph Hewes - Signer of the Declaration

Quotes

"It is done! And I will abide by it."

Article titled "Three for independence" from TOM DILLON for the Times-News about the Declaration.

Tibits

Joseph Hewes is one of the only two bachelor signers fo the Declaration (The other was Caesar Rodney).

Bio

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Joseph Hewes (January 23, 1730–November 10, 1779), was a signer of the United States Declaration of Independence as a representative of North Carolina.

He was born in Princeton, New Jersey and attended Princeton College. He founded a profitable shipping business in Wilmington, North Carolina in 1760. He was elected to the Provincial Assembly in 1766: it was dissolved by the royal governor in 1775. Hewes was appointed to the Committee of Correspondence, elected to the Provincial Legislature, and represented North Carolina at the Continental Congress in 1775.

After signing the Declaration of Independence he placed his ships at the service of the Continental Army. He served as the Secretary of the Naval Affairs Committee of Congress until 1779. Hewes died in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania while attending the Congress, and is buried in the Christ Church Cemetery there.

John Hart - Signer of the Declaration

Quotes

"Determined to employ the talents given in procuring, and transmitting inviolate to posterity, the fair inheritance of civil and religious liberty, though bought at the price of life, we will look, for the permanency and stability of our new government, to him who bringeth prices to nothing, and teaches senators wisdom."

Address, October 5, 1776, in, The Papers of William Livingston (Trenton: New Jersey Historical Commission, 1979) Vol. I, p. 161.

Tibits

John Hart is reported to hane been driven from his wife's bedside as she was dying. Their thirteen children fled for their lives. His fields and mill were destroyed. For over a year, he lived as a fugitive, returning home only to find his wife dead and his children vanished. He died only three years after signing the Declaration.

Bio

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

John Hart (about 1713–May 11, 1779), was a signer of the United States Declaration of Independence as a representative of New Jersey.

Personal life
John was born in Stonington, Connecticut, but his parents soon moved to Hopewell Township, New Jersey in what was then Hunterdon County. His father was Edward Hart, who had led a militia unit in the French and Indian War. By 1739 John had acquired his own farm, near Hopewell and that year he married Deborah Scudder. The couple would have 13 children before her death in 1778.

Political career
John was elected a Freeholder of Hunterdon County in 1750. He was first elected to the New Jersey colonial Assembly in 1761 and served there until it was dissolved in 1771. He was appointed to the local Committee of Safety and the Committee of Correspondence, and became a judge on the Court of Common Pleas.

When New Jersey formed a revolutionary assembly, or provincial Congress, he was elected to it in 1776, and served as its Vice-President. In June of 1776, the New Jersey delegation in the Continental Congress was opposed to independence. As a result, the entire delegation was replaced, and Hart was one of those selected. He joined the Continental Congress on June 22, 1776, in time to vote for and sign the Declaration of Independence. He served only until August of that year.

In August of 1776, New Jersey elected a General Assembly under their new state constitution. Hart was returned to that body, and served as the Speaker of the Assembly until 1778. While meeting with the assembly in the fall of 1776, his farm and mill were burned by Hessean troops. He was forced to live in hiding in the woods and in caves. When Washington won the Battle of Princeton in 1777 Hart was able to return home, but his health had been damaged irrevocably.

He died at home of kidney failure, and is buried in the First Baptist Church Cemetery in Hopewell, New Jersey.

Benjamin Harrison V - Signer of the Declaration

Quotes

Tibits

Benjamin Harrison V, after hearing of British intentions to hang revolutionaries, is reported to have said the following:
"When the time of hanging comes," the large Harrison said to small Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts, "I shall have the advantage over you. It will be all over with me in a minute, but you will be kicking in the air for half an hour after I am gone."

Bio

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Benjamin Harrison (V) (April 5, 1726 – April 24, 1791) was an American planter and revolutionary leader from Charles City County, Virginia. He was perhaps the first figure in the Harrison family to gain national attention. Harrison was a representative for Surry County, Virginia (1756 - 1758) and Charles City County (1766 - 1776) to the House of Burgesses. He was a Virginia delegate to the Continental Congress from 1774 to 1777, signed the Declaration of Independence, and was Governor of Virginia from 1782 to 1784. He was son of Benjamin Harrison IV and Anne Carter, and grandson of the plantation owner Robert Carter. His son William Henry Harrison and great-grandson Benjamin Harrison would both become President of the United States. His brother in law was Speaker of the House of Burgesses, Peyton Randolph

Harrison lived all his life at Berkeley Plantation, the Harrison family home in Virginia, and his children were born there.