Autographs
Stephen Hopkins (Signer) 1755 French & Indian War Document at Lake George Endorsement for Soldier’s Pay
STEPHEN HOPKINS (1707-1785). Signer of the Declaration of Independence; Four-Time Governor of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, a Chief Justice of the Rhode Island Supreme Court, and Author of the First Anti-Slavery Law in the United States.
November 8, 1755-Dated, Endorsement Signed, "Step Hopkins" (Newport, Rhode Island), on the verso of an Autograph Document Signed of Edward Cole, "Edw Cole," 1 page, 6.25" x 4", Lake George, September 17, 1755 requesting £1,200 pay for his company, Very Fine. On the verso, Hopkins, together with fellow Committee of War members, approves the payment, "and charge it to the Colony." Clean and well written, having minor wear at margins, on period laid paper.

Lt. Colonel Cole had recently marched from Rhode Island to Albany to reinforce British troops under the command of William Johnson. Cole's Rhode Islanders had arrived just in time to help a British scouting party overcome French and Indian ambush as they returned to Fort Lyman (later renamed Fort Edward, in honor of Edward, Duke of York) from Lake George. Cole's reinforcements enabled William Johnson to improve his camp's defenses and allowed him to wage a pitched battle against his French adversaries. Johnson prevailed against the French late in the afternoon, being the first significant British victory of the French and Indian War. Cole writes, only a week following the battle, in full:

"Pay to Mr. William Mumford or Order the Sum of Twelve Hundred pounds /old Tenor/ for wages Due to me and my Comp[any] and Charge the same to Your Most Obt. Servt. Edw[ar]d Cole."

Mumford, who Rhode Island records reveal commanded Fort George in Newport Bay for much of the War, signs in receipt of the funds destined for Cole's men. This Document also stands as one of the earliest known usages of "Lake George" in contemporary manuscript. William Johnson had just renamed Lac Ste. Sacrament, Lake George in honor of George II on August 25, 1755.
Stephen Hopkins (March 7, 1707 – July 13, 1785) was a Governor of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, a Chief Justice of the Rhode Island Supreme Court, and a Signer of the Declaration of Independence.

From a prominent Rhode Island family, Hopkins was a grandson of William Hopkins who served the colony for 40 years as Deputy, Assistant, Speaker of the House of Deputies, and Major. His great grandfather Thomas Hopkins was an original settler of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, sailing from England in 1635 with his first cousin Benedict Arnold, who became the first governor of the Rhode Island colony under the Royal Charter of 1663.

As a child, Stephen Hopkins was a voracious reader, becoming a serious student of the sciences, mathematics, and literature. He became a surveyor and astronomer, and was involved in taking measurements during the 1769 transit of Venus across the sun. Hopkins began his public service at the early age of 23 as a justice of the peace in the newly established town of Scituate, Rhode Island. He soon became a justice of the Inferior Court of Common Pleas, while also serving at times as the Speaker of the House of Deputies and President of the Scituate Town Council.

While active in civic affairs, he also was part owner of an iron foundry and was a successful merchant who was portrayed in John Greenwood's 1750s satirical painting Sea Captains Carousing in Surinam. In May 1747, Hopkins was appointed as a justice of the Rhode Island Supreme Court, and he became the third Chief Justice of this body in 1751. In 1755, he was elected to his first term as governor of the colony, and served a total of nine of the next 15 years in this capacity.

One of the most contentious political issues of his day was the use of paper money versus hard currency. His bitter political rival Samuel Ward championed hard currency, whereas Hopkins advocated the use of paper money. The rivalry between the two men became so heated that Hopkins sued Ward for £40,000, but lost the case and had to pay costs. By the mid-1760s, the contention between the two men became a serious distraction to the government of the colony and, realizing this, they attempted to placate each other—initially without success. Ultimately, both agreed to not run for office in 1768, and Josias Lyndon was elected governor of the colony as a compromise candidate.

In 1770, Hopkins once again became Chief Justice of the Rhode Island Supreme Court and, during this tenure, became a principal player in the colony's handling of the 1772 Gaspee Affair, when a group of irate Rhode Island citizens boarded a British revenue vessel and burned it to the waterline. In 1774, he was given an additional important responsibility as one of Rhode Island's two delegates to the First Continental Congress, Samuel Ward being the other. Hopkins had become well known in the 13 colonies ten years earlier when he published a pamphlet entitled "The Rights of Colonies Examined," which was critical of British Parliament and its taxation policies.

Hopkins signed the Declaration of Independence in the summer of 1776 with worsening palsy in his hands, holding his right hand with his left and saying, "my hand trembles, but my heart does not." He served in the Continental Congress until September 1776, when failing health forced him to resign. He was a strong backer of the College of the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations (later named Brown University), one of the school's most ardent supporters, and became the institution's first chancellor. He died in Providence in 1785 at the age of 78, and is buried in the North Burial Ground there. Hopkins has been called Rhode Island's greatest statesman.

The French and Indian War/Seven Years' War, 1754–63. The French and Indian War was the North American conflict in a larger imperial war between Great Britain and France known as the Seven Years' War. The French and Indian War began in 1754 and ended with the Treaty of Paris in 1763.

During the American Revolution, Edward Cole was a British Loyalist. Rhode Island Patriot authorities confiscated his home and property, and Cole became a refugee in Nova Scotia.

(See: "Claims and Memorial of Edward Cole of Rhode Island," [Halifax], Feb. 24, 1784, Great Britain, Public Record Office, Audit Office, Class 13, Volume 59, folio 64).