Francis Hopkinson
Born: October 2, 1737
Died: May 9, 1791
Colony/State: New Jersey
Occupation / Public Role: Lawyer, musician, author, judge, delegate to the Continental Congress
Contribution to the Founding Era: Delegate to the Continental Congress, signer of the Declaration of Independence, chairman of the Continental Navy Board at Philadelphia, and later a federal judge.
Francis Hopkinson was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and graduated from what is now the University of Pennsylvania in 1757. He studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1761, and built a career that mixed public service with unusually broad creative interests. He was not just a lawyer and politician; he was also known as a composer and writer, which makes him one of the more distinctive figures among the signers.
Before independence, Hopkinson held a number of colonial offices. He served as secretary to a Pennsylvania commission that dealt with Native nations in 1761, then held customs posts at Salem, New Jersey, and New Castle, Delaware. By 1774 he had settled in Bordentown, New Jersey, resumed practicing law, and entered New Jersey’s revolutionary political world through the provincial council and executive council.
Hopkinson served as a delegate to the Second Continental Congress from June to November 1776 and signed the Declaration of Independence as one of New Jersey’s five signers. The National Archives lists him as 38 years old in 1776 and identifies his occupation as lawyer, musician.
His work during and after the Revolution went beyond the Declaration itself. The U.S. House records that he served as chairman of the Continental Navy Board at Philadelphia from 1776 to 1778 and later became treasurer of the Continental Loan Office. He was then appointed judge of the Admiralty Court of Pennsylvania in 1779 and, after the Constitution went into effect, became judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania in 1789.
Hopkinson is also often remembered for his cultural contributions. Britannica identifies him not only as a lawyer and signer but as a musician and author, and he has long been associated with early American patriotic design and satire. He was one of those founders who did not fit neatly into a single box; law, politics, music, writing, and public administration all ended up on his plate.
Francis Hopkinson died in Philadelphia in 1791. He is not usually one of the first names people mention among the signers, but he was one of the more colorful and wide-ranging members of the founding generation: a signer, public official, naval administrator, judge, and creative figure all at once. That is not background scenery. That is a man with several jobs and apparently no interest in boredom.
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- Signers of the Declaration of Independence
- Declaration of Independence
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