The Daughters of Captain John and Sarah
Charles M. Whipple, Ph.D., Ed.D., Litt.D.
Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Philosophy
University of Central Oklahoma
Barbara R. Carroll, B.A.
Genealogical Research Consultant
9 November 2005
This is the last in a series of articles on the lives of Captain John Whipple and his immediate family. It is part of a book to be released by the authors, and as such is a work in progress. Please send corrections or additions to charles@whipple.net or brcgenealogy@yahoo.com.
Sarah Whipple
"You may note that the Smiths named a daughter after her mother
just as they named the son after the father. This common practice
suggests that these early colonial women felt as strongly as the men
about perpetuating their names, hence their identity. Though not
legally allowed to keep their last names, at least this way they could
pass on their first, but, regrettably, the women did not also suffix
the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc. as usually happened with the sons. From the
historians' and genealogists' point of view, this repeated use of the
same first names with and between families, along with so many
intermarriages amongst these early families, compounds the difficulty
of tracing family members through the generations--and of
ascertaining relationships."
John Smith Senior's home in Massachusetts was at Ponkapog, in the
southern foothills of the Blue Mountains. His name appears on the
records of Dorchester in connection with a tract of land "about the
mill." Captain John Whipple lived near this same mill, and is thought
to have played a role, as an indentured servant, in its construction
for Israel Stoughton in 1634.
Smith was exiled after the Massachusetts General Court ordered that
"John Smyth salbe sent within theis 6 weekes out of this jurisdiccion
for dyvers dangerous opinions, wch hee holdeth, & hath divulged, if in
the meane tyme he removes not himselfe out of this plantation." He
immediately joined Roger Williams, William Harris, Joshua Verin,
Thomas Angell, and Francis Wickes as they fled through the wilderness
to the mouth of the Moshassuck River. Williams stated on 17 November
1677, "I consented to John Smith, Miller, at Dorchester [banished
also] to go with me."
"Smith, the miller (so-called to distinguish him from the other
Smiths) was married to Alice (maiden name not found) who bore two
children: John, Jr. and Elizabeth, who married Shadrach Manton, a
cooper [Manton signed the Last Will and Testament of Captain John
Whipple]. They found Shadrach dead on the road in 1714, but the town
declared it of natural causes. Thirteen grandchildren and sixty-five
great-grandchildren descended from Alice and John's two children. In
his will John Smith left his mill to his son John, but it was his
widow, Alice, who, after husband death in 1648, made an agreement with
the town to continue the business, becoming, perhaps, the Colony's
first businesswoman.... It was only after Alice had been operating it for
two years that her son, John, Jr., took over...adding a sawmill. He
operated both for the next thirty-five years.
Site of Sarah Whipple-Smith Mill
"Long before jail or meeting-house, the Town mill was the earliest
institution of the Plantations. It received much careful oversight
from the Town meeting.... The mill fixed the centre of the town at the
North end, and long kept it there. Around and near it, those who were
able, set their houses, and it became not merely the nucleus of
population, but the place of public rendezvous and exchange. It served
the same purpose as the meeting-house in early Massachusetts, or as
the newspaper and insurance offices of later days...it took part in many
a sturdy encounter of the Baptist, the Gortonian, and the Quaker...During
one hundred and eighty years the Town Mill fulfilled its office, and
was one of the last memorials of primitive times. It was destroyed at
last, by the Blackstone canal...."
"The earliest 'civic center' grew up in the vicinity of the falls
of the Moshassuck, a short distance north of the present Mill Street
bridge, where the town grist mill was established in 1646. John Smith,
one of the original settlers, was a miller by trade. He was granted a
home lot and erected a house on the Towne street but soon sold that
property and removed to the Moshassuck valley. In 1646 the town
granted him 'the valley wherein his house stands in case he set up a
mill.' Upon its erection the mill became the center of the town's
activities. On every second and third day of the week it was used 'for
grinding of the Corne of the Town.' On other days it served as a place
for informal gatherings by the townspeople and for occasional town
meetings and religious services. The miller died about 1649 and was
succeeded by his son, John Smith, Jr. The civic center was further
developed in 1655 by the establishment of a tannery, operated by
Thomas Olney, Jr., a short distance east of the mill at the foot of
the 'Stampers', a hill formerly so-called rising east of Moshassuck
river. A highway leading to the mill and tannery was laid out at that
time...."
Sarah Whipple and John Smith Junior inherited the Smith mill
property, started a nearby sawmill on their own, and along with their
10 children, carried on the family business. Sarah and her family also
played an important role in the Indian war. "On March 30, 1676,
Providence was attacked by the Indians. Previously a large proportion
of the citizens had removed to Newport with their families and
effects, leaving only 27 men to defend the town...the Indians burned most
of the houses on Town street as well as the mill, the tannery, and the
miller's house on Moshassuck river. John Smith Jr., the miller, was
then town clerk and the records were in his possession. They were
thrown from his burning house into the millpond to preserve them from
the flames, and to the present day they bear plenary evidence of the
two-fold dangers they escaped, the two-fold injury they suffered."
In addition to the paid position of clerk to the town council during the mid 1670s, other responsible civic positions John Smith Junior held, as listed in The Early Records of the Town of Providence (Providence: Snow & Farnham, 1892-1915), were town sergeant and constable. The council also appointed him to serve as a representative to the general assembly in Newport (XI:157). Like her younger sisters, Sarah endured the loss of her first husband through death. He died sometime between 22 Ffebruary 1681/82 when he drew up his will (VI:60-62) and 10 April 1682 (VI:37) when "Sarah Smith (widow) hath this day preferred unto ye council a written paper for ye council to vew and approve for her deceased husbands will. And also a paper as an inventory of his estate..." On 2 June 1682, she and her son, John III, signed as administrators of his estate. And, also like her sisters, Sarah signed her name with an "x" (XVII:2).
John Smith's Last Will and Testament reads in part: "I bequeath to
Sarah my wife halfe the mill with ye halfe of ye land neare it, viz
ten acres upon ye hill and ye valley whereupon ye house standeth...and ye
halfe of all the lande and meadow at ye west river...halfe of ye sawmill..."
Her brother John Junior and brother-in-law William Hopkins inventoried
his movable estate at a little over £90. "Smith Street bears the name
of John Smith, father and son, the first millers of Providence."
Approximately six years later, on 21 May 1688, "Richard Arnold and
Sarah Smith are this day Openly Published in way of Marriage in ye
Open town meeting no person objecting" (VIII:175). Richard Arnold was
a 46-year-old Quaker widower with four children, two young enough
still to be under his care. His first wife was Mary Angell, sister of
the wives of two of Sarah's brothers.
Captain Richard Arnold, Esq., was a wealthy farmer/industrialist
who had been prominent in town politics for years.
Richard Arnold died 22 April 1710. "First I give Sarah my wife for the time of her natural life my two lotts in the Towne with the orchard and house upon them and also my meadow at the west riveralso two cowes, and one third part of my household goodsand all the Estate that was hers before I married with her....." (VII:1-9). "The Towne council tenders the Administration of the sd estate unto Sarah Arnold, widow of the sd Capt. Richard Arnold, but she refused it, whereupon the councill granted it to his sons....." On 12 May 1710 she "Quitclaimed" the two lots and meadow property in the will to her stepsons, Richard, John, and Thomas: "because of her age could not manage it." In return she was to receive eight pounds annually for life (XX:380-81).
Captain Arnold appears to have been good to his stepchildren, even
assisting them to improve and enlarge their holdings. For instance, he
and John Smith III built a second saw mill "downe streame from the dam
of sd John Smith for setting up a saw mill" (XI:102-03). The mills
stayed in possession of the Smith family for several generations.
The John Whipple and Thomas Olney families witnessed marriages
between two of their children: John Junior and Mary Olney and Mary
Whipple and Epenetus Olney. Mary Whipple
The Olney family, of which Mary became an early member, was much
revered from the earliest days of the colony. "Thomas Olney, the
founder of this large and distinguished family, was among the first to
take a title to 'Outlands' on the lower reaches of the Moshassuck and
Woonasquatucket rivers. He was one of the original members of the
First Baptist Church, Providence, of which his son Thomas was minister
in 1668. Father and son held town offices from town clerk to assistant
to the Governor for one hundred and fourteen years. The family estates
extended from 'Observation Hill' on the east to 'Round Hill,' beyond
the 'Seven Mile Line,' on the west, and included the section named
Olneyville. The Olney name found its way into Smithfield and
Glocester, with intermarriages with the Whipples, Sayles, Waterman and
Williams families. In the fourth generation of this family, there were
sixty of the name and blood."
"The Olneys were another of Providence's early families. In 1635,
Marie Ashton and Thomas Olney, Sr., originally from Hertfordshire,
England, came on the ship Planter to Boston, Massachusetts. They had
with them two young children: Thomas, Jr., three, and Epenetus.... Their
daughters were Mary, who married John Whipple, Jr., son of Capt. John
Whipple; and Lydia, who married Joseph Williams, son of Roger and Mary
Williams.... In 1659, Thomas established his son, Epenetus and his
daughter-in-law, Mary Whipple, the daughter of an innkeeper, in a
house adjoining his and next door to that of Gregory Dexter, Pastor of
the Baptist Society of Providence. There they established the Olney
Tavern that would soon become intertwined with Providence's history; a
place where religious and political influences would happily
converge. The tavern's traditions were continued by their son, James,
and his wife Hallelujah Brown, and then by their son Joseph under whom
it became the site of the many festivities that made it famous."
"Toward the end of the century public houses were becoming more
numerous and more commodious. One of these was built by Epenetus
Olney, replacing his former tavern, which had been destroyed by the
Indians. It stood for many years and was the rendezvous for travelers
over the Common Road to Pawtucket. The town stocks were erected on
Dexter's lane, adjoining the tavern, and close by a blacksmith shop
was established by John Olney in 1699."
"Olney's Tavern, which shared with Whipple's and Turpin's a
celebrity that endured well into the last century...enjoyed a longer life
and greater celebrity than either of the other two...The property passed
to the descendants of Epenetus Olney through several generations, and
saw its rivals die while it continued its successful career as a
hostelry well into the last years of the last century...when Joseph Olney
dedicated his big elm on the green in front of it as a 'liberty tree.'
But in 1803, when the city was drifting away from it and it had seen
its best days, Colonel Jere Olney built a house on the green before
it, and it was a matter of a few years only before it passed
away."
As noted in the John Whipple Junior chapter, Mary and her husband
owned competing taverns with her oldest brother and their father. The
Olney tavern was just around the corner and up the hill from the two
John Whipple taverns at the northeast corner of Town Street and Olney
Lane. Hotel-taverns were places of great importance "before the
building of the county court house in 1729. Those of Whipple and
Epenetus Olney were famous...."
In addition to serving in the typical civic positions of a man active in town life, such as juryman, constable, fences viewer, etc., as well as buying and selling hundreds of acres of land, Epenetus Olney appears in The Early Records of the Town of Providence (Snow & Farnham, 1892-1915) as a moderator of the town council, and a deputy to the general assembly at Newport (VIII:14 & III:122). He took the Oath of Allegiance the same time as Captain John Whipple (III:101). He was called a "shoemaker" in a land deal of 8 March 1669/70 (IV:254). He took the side of his relatives (John Whipple Junior, William Harris, etc.) in the controversy over Indian lands (VIII:61). He was granted land for a wharf and warehouse (VIII:17-18). On 27 January 1695/96, he joined his in-laws Joseph Whipple, William Hopkins, John Smith Junior, John Dexter, and others in an appeal to build a school house on Whipple property (XI:22). Epenetus Olney died 3 June 1698. His son, James, wrote "Whereas Epenetus Olney...died intestate...if he had, had the opportunitye to have a written will, he would have disposed of his landes amongst his sons...I make over into my said two brothers John and Thomas Olney all of that land...being at the place called caucaunjawalchchuck...140 acres...." Mary Whipple-Olney, relict and widow, was made adminitrix of the estate ((II:216). She died 12 July 1698.
Subsequent to the deaths of his parents, James inherited the
tavern, and maintained the business until his death in 1744.
Several historians recount the engaging story of Joseph Olney
Junior's sister Polly's romance with a Bostonian named William
Palfrey. "It was a time (just before the Revolutionary War) when
tavern-keepers were typically showmen, and their taverns places where
young and old gathered to 'dance the old square dances and
minuets'...The Olney inn was no exception.... It was at one of these
assemblies at the Olney Inn that William Palfrey from Boston first met
Polly Olney, and managed to engage Moses Brown as a go-between in
Palfrey's pursuit of her." [Moses Brown was the youngest of the four
merchant princes of Providence]. "Polly was the 'charming and strangely
facetious daughter of Joseph Olney,' who carried on the favorite Olney
Tavern of his parents." Joseph Junior arranged for his sister to meet
Palfrey in secret on more than one occasion. A series of letters
between Palfrey and Polly through Moses Brown, however, did not result
in marriage. Instead, she married another Bostonian named Thomas
Greene in 1764 and moved to that city. Moses Brown subsequently
married Mary Olney, Polly's cousin. "Mary and Polly... were approximately
the same age, their fathers both descendants of the pioneer settler,
Thomas Olney, Sr., and both their fathers owned taverns in
Providence."
Joseph Senior's brother, Captain Jonathan Olney, was founder of the
town of Olneyville, Rhode Island.
Abigail Whipple Dexter Hopkins, youngest daughter of Captain John,
died in Providence 19 August 1725. The date and place of her birth are
unknown. It has historically been placed at Providence about
1660. This arbitrary nativity assignment assumes that since records of
her christening in Dorchester have not been found, she must have been
born after the family's move to Providence. This places her birth
four years subsequent to her brother David's christening in 1656,
which is inconsistent with the ordinal positioning of her siblings.
On 5 February 1671/72, The Reverend Gregory Dexter, former governor
of the colony
The Dexter family began to "burn lime" in the mid 1660s on this
property, which was immediately west of the farms of Abigail's
brothers William and Eleazer, and her sister-in-law Mary Harris
Whipple's father's family, at what became known as the "Limerock
settlement." These families eventually went into the
lime-manufacturing business together. Gregory Dexter was mentioned in
a letter from Roger Williams to John Winthrop Junior, Governor of
Connecticut, 19 August 1669. Part of the letter reads, "Sir I have
incouraged Mr. (Gregory) Dexter to send you a Limestone and to salute
You with this inclosed. He is an intelligent man, a Master Printer of
London, and Conscionable (though a Baptist)....Sir if there be any
occasion of Your Selfe (or others) to use any of this stone,
Mr. Dexter hath a lusty Teame and lustie Sons and a very willing heart
being a Sangwine Cheerfull Man to doe Your Selfe or any service upon
very honest and cheap Considerations...."
In explaining why the village of Limerock was placed on the
National Register of Historic Places, the Rhode Island Historical
Preservation Commission stated, "The monopoly which the Dexters,
Whipples, Harrises, Jenckesses,and Mowreys held for so long over the
industry...kept Limerock a close community; the interconnections among
these families were labyrinthine and contributed to the social and
physical stability of the village."
Abigail Dexter received approval, on 5 January 1679/80 from the
town council to administer her deceased husband's estate.
After the death of her husband, Abigail married Captain William Hopkins in 1682, their son being Major William Junior. William Junior's son was Governor Stephen Hopkins.
William Hopkins Senior's father, Thomas, came to New England with
his sister Frances Man and their uncle William Arnold in 1635. He
followed Roger Williams in 1636 from Plymouth to Providence. At first,
he was assigned to a home share of land situated near the south end of
the town, the fourth lot south of what is now Powers Street. He later
moved to a location west of the Pawtucket River, about ten miles north
of his first assigned home lot. "Another of those who early-on
obtained wharves was Thomas Hopkins Sr. We must assume he is the same
Thomas Hopkins who was the oldest of the three children of William
Arnold's sister, Joanne, who came to this country with the Arnold
family group in 1635....Thomas was allotted home shares at the south end
of town...and additional land ten miles further out in what is now
Lincoln. He made this his home until he fled to Long Island during
the King Philips' War, never returning. By the time of his death, the
elder Thomas had over 1,000 acres of land..."
At his death in 1684, his son Captain William inherited the
Pawtucket property and subsequently passed it on, in 1723, to his son
Major William. Major William Hopkins, in turn, sold a portion of it to
Colonel Joseph Whipple on 22 August 1724, a plot of land estimated to
contain 80 acres. On 19 October 1728, he mortgaged "his dwelling
house" to Colonel Whipple and soon removed to Scituate, as he was a
resident there by 10 April 1733. In these deeds he was called a
carpenter.
According to The Early Records of the town of Providence
(Providence: Snow & Farnham, 1892-1915), the Hopkins family had been
politically prominent in Providence affairs from the beginning. Early
on, Captain William served on the town council, was an assistant, and
was its moderator on numerous occasions (IV:70, III:223,VIII:59). He
was a representative from Providence to the Rhode Island General
Assembly for many years (XVII:144). Along with his eventual
father-in-law Captain John Whipple, he was one of those who "staid and
went not away" when the Indians attacked (VIII:12), and as such was
later appointed to a committee to sell captives as was his eventual
brother-in-law John Whipple Junior (VIII:15). "...William was a deputy
from Providence for fifteen years between 1674 and 1715, acted in the
town council of Providence for over twenty years, was town treasurer,
major of the militia for the mainland of the Colony, and assistant or
senator for seven years and speaker of the House of Deputies, one
year. William's son, William, resided in Providence where his son,
Stephen, was born. In Stephen's veins flowed good ancestral blood from
the vigorous Hopkins line, crossed with that of the Whipples,
Wickendens, and Wilkensons, all of whom showed special capacity for
patriotic public service."
Abigail and William gave the Pawtucket farm to their son and moved
to Masipague, about three miles east of Providence, where they lived
out the rest of their married life. William died 8 July 1723, and
Abigail was bonded to administer the estate (XII:70). In his last will
and testament, the farm was given to their oldest grandson, William,
providing that "he shall allow his Grandmother my Wife Abigaill
Hopkins one Convenient Roome in my dwelling houseprovide for her a
sufficient maintenance bothe in sickness and in helth during the term
of her natural life...." He also bequeathed to "my Grandson Rufus Hopkins
my house Lott of Land which was Layd out upon my own Right upon the
Hill Called the Stompers Hill in said Providence... in the last division
of House Lotts..." Finally, "I Give and bequeathe unto my son William
Hopkins all the Farme of Land and meadows: whereon he now dwells
belonging to him to Give to & amongst his children..." The document was
dated 1 July 1723.
Abigail Whipple Dexter Hopkins died 19 August 1725. In her last
will and testament, dated 16 August 1725, she stated that "I Give &
bequeathe unto my three Children John Dexter William Hopkins
The portrait of Stephen Hopkins below hangs elevated above the fireplace in the Corporation Room in University Hall (the building in the portrait) at Brown University. The caption reads "Stephen Hopkins, First Chancellor of Brown University, 1764-1783."
"He was the first Chancellor of Brown, a chief justice and
four-time governor of the state. He even signed the Declaration of
Independence, but after Stephen Hopkins died in 1785 no one was too
sure what the ol'guy looked like. In fact, for nearly two centuries he
was mistaken as someone else, a mistake that was only corrected about
20 years ago when a new painting of the colonial statesmen was hung in
the State House.The mix-up began when 'Signers of the Declaration of
Independence,' the famous painting by 18th-century artist John
Trumbull showing all of the signers of the historic document,
mistakenly identified Hopkins as John Dickinson, the representative
from Pennsylvania. Trumbell painted the work between 1788 and
1795....When Trumbull was ready for Hopkins, the Rhode Islander was
dead. It is believed that a relative of Hopkins became the stand-in
for Trumbull's original painting....In 1819, Congress approved funding
for a large engraving of the painting for the Capitol Rotunda. At that
time, Trumbull mistakenly concluded that Dickinson--a Quaker pictured
wearing a Quaker's hat--was Hopkins, who also was a Quaker. It was a
mistake easily made, since the painting contained 47
individuals. Trumbell's sketch of Hopkins' relative remained
undiscovered for nearly 200 years, when an art historian spotted the
discrepancy in the 1970s. John Hagen, the artist responsible for
correcting the 200 year old faux pas and revealing Hopkins' true
likeness, has put the finishing touches on a second Hopkins portrait
that will hang in the Corporation Room of the University Hall...."
"Knowing nothing of armed ships, he (Adams) made himself expert,
and would call his work on the naval committee the pleasantest part of
his labors, in part because it brought him in contact with one of the
singular figures in Congress, Stephen Hopkins of Rhode Island, who was
nearly as old as Franklin and always wore his broad-brimmed Quaker hat
in chamber. Adams found most Quakers to be 'dull as beetles,' but
Hopkins was an exception. A lively, learned man...he suffered the loss of
three sons at sea, and served in one public office or other
continuously from the time he was twenty-five. The old gentlemen loved
to drink rum and expound on his favorite writers. The experience and
judgment he brought to the business of Congress were of great use, as
Adams wrote, but it was in the after-hours that he 'kept us alive.'
His custom was to drink nothing all day, nor 'til eight o'clock in the
evening, and his beverage was Jamaica spirits and water....Hopkins never
drank to excess, according to Adams, but all he drank was promptly
converted into wit, sense, knowledge, and good humor."
"Hopkin's was a grand figure who had seen a lot in life. You can't
miss him in the painting. He's at the back with his broad-brimmed
Quaker hat on. In after hours he loved to drink rum and expound his
favorite writers. 'He read Greek, Roman, and British history, and was
familiar with British poetry,' wrote John Adams, 'and the flow of his
soul made his reading our own and brought recollection in all we had
read..."
Hopkins reputation among his colleagues in the Continental Congress
as an extraordinarily intelligent and well-read person has been traced
to his roots in the home of his childhood." His father, Major William
Hopkins Junior, the only child of Captain William and Abigail Whipple
Hopkins, lived in Cranston, a suburb of Providence, where Stephen was
born in 1707. His mother was Ruth Wilkinson daughter of Samuel
Wilkinson and Plain Wickenden."
In 1731, Hopkins early began making trips to Newport to participate
in the philosophical society as one of its youngest members; the
society had been founded by the Anglo/Irish philosopher and theologian
George Berkeley. His cousin, Captain Joseph Whipple Junior, his
grandmother Abigail's brother's son, was a fellow member of the
society, and served as deputy governor of Rhode Island from 1753 to
1756, as did his son Joseph III, from 1749 until
1754.
As noted, after mortgaging their farm to his uncle Joseph Whipple, his parents moved to Scituate, a few miles west of Providence, when Stephen was a young man, where his father earned his living as a farmer. For several years, Stephen followed the same trade. It was while living there that he was chosen town clerk, and afterward elected a representative from that village to the general assembly at Newport, where he became speaker in 1741. He became a justice of the peace, and subsequently a justice of one of the courts of common pleas. Then, in 1733, at the age of 27, he became chief justice of the court in that district.
Stephen Hopkins Memorial Plaque
He moved to back Providence in 1742, where he erected a house in which he continued to reside for the rest of his life. The house is still standing at the corner of Benefit and Hopkins Street and is on the National Register of Historic Places. The memorial plaque below, on one corner of the house, commemorates his life and work. At Providence, he immediately entered the mercantile trading and ship building businesses, as well as engaging in what the British considered to be illegal smuggling. He was a partner with the Brown brothers (for whom Brown University is named)' co-owning an iron foundry with them. Hopkins served as the first Chancellor of that same school in 1764. The Brown brothers--Nicholas, Joseph, John, and Moses--exchanged the profits from these iron products in their slave trading business. At about the time of the Revolutionary War, they employed about 75 men. Then, during the war, the foundry produced guns and ammunition.
Subsequent to his move to Providence, Hopkins was often moderator of the town council and represented the town almost constantly in the general assembly at Newport, serving as its speaker in 1744 and 1749. He became Chief Justice of the Superior Court in 1751, and in 1754 was a delegate to the Albany convention in New York, where he voted for Benjamin Franklin's plan for the union of the colonies.
Ten years later, as governor of the colony, Hopkins wrote a
pamphlet in defiance of England's intent to impose a tax on
sugar. Called "The Rights of Colonies Examined," it was one of the
first assertions of colonial rights. He asked, "Can it possibly be
shown that the people in Britain have a sovereign authority over their
fellow subjects in America? All laws and all taxation that bind the
whole must be made by the whole. Thus early in the quarrel with the
mother country, Rhode Island raised the cry no taxation with out
representation."
Hopkins Monument
In summary of his Rhode Island political career, Hopkins served in the general assembly from 1732 until 1752 and 1770 to 1775, and was its speaker in 1738 to 1744 and in 1749. He was elected governor ten times1755-56, 1758-61, 1763-64, and 1767, and appointed chief justice of the superior court in 1751.
While attending the Continental Congress, where he served from 1774 until 1776, Hopkins helped to draft the Articles of Incorporation and served on the committee responsible for the development of the Continental Navy. He persuaded the Congress, in 1775, to outfit 13-armed vessels and to commission them as the Navy of the United Colonies. He saw to it that Rhode Island received a contract to out fit two of these. He was able to get his brother, Esek, commissioned as Commander-in-Chief. His niece's husband, Abraham Whipple, the great grandson of his grandmother Abigail's brother Samuel, was then appointed Commodore of the Navy. Abraham and Esek had received their maritime training on slave ships owned by the Brown family.
Admirably, Hopkins, along with Moses Brown, was primarily responsible for securing action against slavery. In 1774, the Rhode Island general assembly passed an act prohibiting the importation of slaves. He also led the fight in the Continental Congress to ban slavery. At the time he signed the Declaration of Independence, Hopkins was almost 70 years old and of poor health, due probably to a paralytic stroke. He had to guide his writing hand with his other hand, stating that "My hand trembles, but my heart does not." Due to his deteriorating medical condition, he resigned in September of 1776. However, he continued to serve his state during the year that followed and even attended several New England political conventions. Then, in 1780, he left politics all together.
Stephen Hopkins, Esq., Governor of Rhode Island and Providence
Plantations, died 13 July 1785. The state of Rhode Island erected a
monument to him in the North Burial Ground on which, with other
commendations, is inscribed these words "His name is engraved on this
immortal record of the Revolution, and can never
die."
Sarah, Mary, and Abigail