HOPKINS. 203 HOPKINSON. HOPKINS, Samlel (1721-1803). An Ameri- can elergvuian and founder of the Hopkinsian theology. He was born at W'aterbury, Conn., Sep- tember 17, 1721. Having graduated at Vale Col- lege in 1741, he studied theology with Jonathan Edwards, and from 1743 to 17G9 was pastor of Housatonic, now called Great Barrington, Mass. He then removed to Newport, where he died De- cember 20, 1803. His writings consist of a life of Jonathan Edwards, sermons, addresses, a work on the millennium, and a system of theology, repub- lished in Boston^ 1852. He was remarkable for his simplicity, earnestness, and persevering in- dustrj'. His peculiar theological doctrines have found numerous followers in America in certain of the Christian bodies of which the tenets are generally Calvinistic. They hold most of the Calvinistic doctrines, even in their most extreme form ; but they entirely reject the doctrine of im- putation, both the imputation of Adam's sin and of Christ's righteousness. The fundamental doc- trine of the Hopkinsian system, however, is that all virtue and true holiness consists in disinter- ested benevolence, and that all sin is selfishness — the self-love which leads a man to give his first regard even to his ovn eternal interests being condemned as sinful. Consult his collected writ- ings with memoir by E. A. Park (Boston, 1852). HOPKINS, Stephen (1707-85). A Colonial Governor of Rhode Island, and one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. He was born in Providence, R. I., and was descended from an old English family, his great-grandfather, Thomas Hopkins, having settled in Providence about 1038. Stejihen's early life was spent on a farm, and he had little opportunity to gain an education, though under the tutelage of his grandfather and imele he learned surveying, and later broadened his intellectual horizon by ex- tensive reading. In 1732 he began his active participation in public affairs by becoming clerk of the newly constituted township of Scikuate. a position which he continued to hold for ten vears. From 1732 to 1738 (excepting the year 1734) he was a representative from Scituate to the General Assembl.v, and upon being returned in 1741 he was chosen Speaker. He became a justice of the Court of Common Pleas in 1736 and was ap- pointed its clerk in 1741. Si.x years later he was made assistant justice of the Superior Court at Kewport and in 1751 Chief .Justice. He was one of the Rhode Island delegates to the intercolonial et)ngresses which met in 1746. 1754, 1755, ana 1757, and in the Albany convention of 1754 was a member of the committee which was appointed to draw up a 'plan of union.' (See Albany Con- 'ENTiON.) In 1755 he was elected Governor of Rhode Island and was reelected almost continu- ously until 1708, when he withdrew finally from the gubernatorial contest. Meanwhile he had ac- fiuired large shipping and commercial interests, and had begun to take an active interest in the question of England's right to tax the Colonics. In 1764 he sent to the Assembly a tract. The Itiijhts of CoJonies Examined, which the Assembly ordered to be published and which was widely read. After acting as chairman of several Co- lonial committees, he was a member of the Gen- eral Assembly from 1770 to 1775. In 1774 he framed a bill to prohibit the imporUition of slaves, and from 1774 to 1780 was one of Rhode Island's representatives in the Continental Con- gress, being one of the signers of the Declaration Vol. X.— 14. of Independence in 1770. He was also a member of the Rhode Island Council of War and a dele- gate to numerous New England conventions. He died in Newport. He wrote: A True Hepresen- tation of the Plan Formed at Albany for Uniting All the ISritish Korth American Colonies (1755) ; and An Historical Account of the Planting and Growth of Providence (originally published in the Providence Gazette in 1762 and 1765), which, though a fragment, is of considerable value. It has been republished in the Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society, 2d series, vol. ix. (Boston, 1822), and in the Collections of the Rhode Island Historical Society, vol. vii. (Provi- dence, 1885). Consult Foster, Stephen Hopkins, a Rhode Island Statesman (Providence, 1884; forming Nos. 19 and 20 of the Rhode Island His- torical Tracts) . HOP'KINSON, Fbancis (1737-91). An American politician, jurist, and miscellaneous writer, born in Philadelphia, Pa. He is best re- membered for his Battle of the Kegs (1778), a humorous ballad based on an incident in the Revolutionary War. He was educated at the Col- lege of Philadelphia, admitted to the bar in 1701, and a few years later he spent a year in England, where his cousin was then Bishop of Worcester. Returning to Philadelphia, he prac- ticed law, was active in learned societies, de- clared his republican sympathies, and, having lemoved to New .lersey, was made delegate to the Continental Congress (1776). He took part in drafting the Articles of Confederation, and signed the Declaration of Independence. He held various offices under the Federal (iovernment. was .ludge of Admiralty for Pennsjivania ( 1779-89), sufVcred an impeacliment which failed, and was district judge there (1790-91). Hopkinson was a man of exceptionally varied accomplishments. He com- posed music for his facile songs, painted, was a dilettante in popular science, a humorist, and a political pamphleteer. His works were collected in three volumes (Philadelphia, 1792). Besides the Bottle of the Kegs, his most popular jiroduc- tion was a short i)rose allegory of the relations between the Colonies and the mother country, en- titled A Pretlit Story (1774). He was father of Joseph Hopkinson (q.v. ). HOPKINSON, John (1849-98). An English physicist and electrical engineer. He was born at Manchester, England, and received his educa- tion at Owens College, Manchester, and at Trin- ity College, Cambridge, where he graduated with honors in 187 1 and was appointed fellow and tutor. Commencing practice as an engineer, he soon became interested in electrical engineering, and was led to many important investigations. He was made a fellow of the Royal Society of London in 1878, and in 1800 was awarded by it a royal medal for researches in electricity and magnetism. He was at the time of his death a member of the Councils of the Institutions of Civil and Mechanical Engineers and professor of electrical engineering in King's College, London. Among his most important researches are those in which he showed the effect of temperature upon the m.ignetic properties of various metals. He was an authority in the theory and practice of dynamo-electric machinery, and discovered the ' method of employing the so-called 'characteristic curve' in discussing such problems. This curve is obtained by taking the electro-motive forces as ordinates and the current as abscissas, and
