Stephen Hopkins (politician) - Death and Legacy

Death and Legacy

In September 1776, poor health forced Hopkins to resign from the Continental Congress and return to his home in Rhode Island, though he remained an active member of Rhode Island's general assembly from 1777 to 1779. He died at his home in Providence on 13 July 1785, at the age of 78 and is buried in the North Burial Ground there.

Hopkins helped to found a subscription library, the Providence Library Company, in 1753, and was a member of the Philosophical Society of Newport. The town of Hopkinton, Rhode Island, was later named after him. Also, 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.

Although largely self-educated, Hopkins was instrumental in the establishment of the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations (now Brown University) as a founding trustee or fellow along with the Reverend James Manning, Samuel Ward, John Brown, Nicholas Brown, Sr., Moses Brown, the Baptist Reverend Isaac Backus, the Baptist Reverend Samuel Stillman, and the Congregationalist Reverend Ezra Stiles. Hopkins served as Brown's first chancellor from 1764 to 1785. His home, the Governor Stephen Hopkins House, originally located at the corner of Hopkins and South Main Streets in Providence, was moved twice after his death, both times to other locations on Hopkins Street. It is now located at 15 Hopkins Street, at the corner of Benefit Street, on the edge of the Brown University campus, and is a U.S. National Historic Landmark.

In his diary, the Reverend Ezra Stiles wrote of Hopkins, "I well knew Gov. Hopkins. He was a man of penetrating astutious Genius, full of Subtlety, deep Cunning, intriguing & enterprizing..." adding that he was a "man of a Noble fortitude & resolution" and "a glorious Patriot!" Hopkins, has been given strong accolades from numerous historians including Sanderson, Arnold and Bicknell, but was simply called by Richman "the greatest statesman of Rhode Island."