Stephen Hopkins

Stephen Hopkins was born in 1707 in Providence, Rhode Island, and became a merchant, judge, and many times governor of the colony. In 1764 he published The Rights of Colonies Examined, an early and widely read argument against taxation without representation. He sat in the Continental Congress from its first meeting and, at sixty-nine, was the second-oldest man to sign the Declaration, after Benjamin Franklin. A palsy caused his hand to shake; as he signed he is said to have remarked that his hand trembled but his heart did not. The wording of that remark comes from later recollection, but the shaky signature is plain on the parchment. Hopkins had taken part in the slave trade as a merchant earlier in life and also supported measures that began to restrict it in Rhode Island. He died in Providence in 1785.

See also: Signers of the Declaration · William Ellery · Benjamin Franklin