Francis Hopkinson

HOPKINSON, Francis. b. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 21 September 1737; d. Philadelphia, 9 May 1791. He was the son of Thomas Hopkinson and Mary Johnson, and entered the College of Philadelphia (now the University of Pennsylvania) with its first class in 1751, receiving a Baccalaureate degree in 1757, and a Master’s in 1760. He was a lawyer and politician, holding various Colonial and US posts in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware, and being most noted as a member of the Second Continental Congress and signer of the Declaration of Independence, as well as the first judge of the US District Court for Pennsylvania. An avid and popular poet and essayist, he is identified by some as the...