Who was Stephen Hopkins?

Answer 1

Stephen Hopkins was born March 7, 1707 in Scituate, Rhode Island. Hopkins had little formal education, although he was an avid reader of Greek, Roman and British history and enjoyed English poetry as well. He was reared to be a farmer, and had inherited his father's estate in Scituate, although he was chiefly employed as a land surveyor. He was elected town clerk and some time after was chosen as a representative from Scituate to the general assembly. He was subsequently appointed a justice of the peace, and a justice of one of the courts of common pleas. In 1733, he became chief justice of that court.

In 1742, he sold of his father's farm in Scituate, and moved to Providence, where he made a survey of the streets and lots and he erected a house, in which he continued to reside until his death. He married young, at the age of nineteen, a Miss Sarah Scott and fathered seven children.