Hopkinson, Francis (1737–91), born in Philadelphia, was the first student to enroll in the Academy of Philadelphia, and the first to receive a diploma from the College of Philadelphia. After studying law, and serving as collector of customs at Salem, N.J. (1763), he sailed for England to seek political preferment. He was unsuccessful, but on returning to the law rose rapidly, and was appointed to the New Jersey governor's council (1774) and elected to the Continental Congress (1776).

He was a distinguished harpsichordist and leader of Philadelphia musical society, and revised and composed music for Thomson and Mallet's Alfred, a Masque, presented at the College of Philadelphia (1757). He published a collection of psalm tunes and a number of songs, and his later claim to “being the first Native of the United States who has produced a Musical Composition” is generally considered justified. His literary ability was exhibited in the many poems that he wrote in this early period, including The Treaty (1761), an Indian poem; Exercises for his college (1761, 1762); Science (1762), prophesying a great future for the college; and Dirtilla (1772), a humorous work. To the Pennsylvania Magazine he also contributed a series of Addisonian essays, on subjects ranging from A New Plan for Education to the state of bachelorhood. In 1774 he began his career as a political satirist with A Pretty Story, and two years later he attacked the Letters of Cato in A Prophecy, which allegorically reviewed the contention with the mother country.

Meanwhile he was a signer of the Declaration of Independence, chairman of the Continental Navy Board (1776–78), treasurer of loans (1778–81), and judge of admiralty for Pennsylvania (1779–89). In Letter Written by a Foreigner on the Character of the English Nation (1777), he satirized the peculiarities of the English. This was followed by A Political Catechism (1777); a stirring “Camp Ballad”; and his Answer to General Burgoyne's Proclamation (1777), burlesquing the general's manifesto. He further satirized the English in “The Battle of the Kegs” (1778), the most popular of his writings, and “Date Obolum Bellisario” (1778), a poetical allegory in which wretched England, driven to beggary, tells of the grief caused her by her worthless son George. Hopkinson also satirized his fellow countrymen who sympathized with England, in The Birds, the Beasts, and the Bat, a Hudibrastic fable on men who turn their allegiance according to the state of the military weather; Two Letters (1776), supposedly written by a Tory, acknowledged the unscrupulous lies which the Americans were then attributing to the Loyalists; and Letter to Joseph Galloway (1778) accused the prominent Loyalist of treachery to country and friends. Among other jeux d'esprit was his publication of a mock advertisement of the King's Printer, Rivington, who it proclaimed was retiring after the surrender of Cornwallis, and auctioning off his stock of abusive books and maps.

During the war, Hopkinson also employed his several talents in writing The Temple of Minerva (1781), a “dramatic allegorical cantata,” “consisting of an overture, arias, ensembles, and choruses in praise of the American alliance with France”; in designing seals for various departments of the new government, a number of coins and issues of paper money, and the American flag, known as the Stars and Stripes. After the war, he was a federal judge in Pennsylvania, supported the Federalists in various writings, and published many literary essays, including Modern Learning Exemplified (1784), satirizing educational fads, and A Plan for the Improvement of the Art of Paper War (1786), ridiculing newspaper quarrels. Seven Songs, for the Harpsichord or Forte‐Piano (1788), actually containing eight pieces, was the first book of music published by an American. The Miscellaneous Essays and Occasional Writings was issued in 1792.

Francis Hopkinson

Francis Hopkinson (1737-1791), the first native American composer, was also a literary satirist, jurist, and inventor.

Francis Hopkinson was born on Oct. 2, 1737, in Philadelphia. He studied at the academy there and then attended the recently opened College of Philadelphia (later University of Pennsylvania), graduating at 19. In 1759 he composed his first song, "My days have been so wondrous free." Hopkinson read law under the attorney general of the Pennsylvania province and was admitted to the bar in 1761. He was a member of an Indian treaty commission in 1765, the same year he translated the Dutch Psalter and opened a conveyance service in Philadelphia. Benjamin Franklin characterized the young dilettante as "very ingenious, " of "good Morals & obliging Disposition." Hopkinson visited Franklin in London in 1766, vainly seeking royal preferment. Back home, he opened a dry-goods shop.

Hopkinson married Ann Borden, of Bordentown, N.J., on Sept. 1, 1768. In 1772 he was an organist at Christ Church in Philadelphia when England's prime minister Lord North appointed him customs collector for Newcastle, Del. Apparently dissatisfied with this position, he moved to Bordentown, resumed practicing law, and in 1774 rose to the governor's council. Also in 1774, he wrote A Pretty Story, a satirical anti-British nursery tale.

In 1776 Hopkinson was sent by New Jersey to the Continental Congress, which made him chairman of the naval board and, later, treasurer of loans. He was a signer of the Declaration of Independence. In 1778 he wrote his famous Revolutionary poem, The Battle of the Kegs, a jeering ballad commemorating a British "victory" over American mines on the Delaware River.

Hopkinson's Temple of Minerva, a gala "oratorical entertainment, " was presented in 1781. His pro-Constitution satire, The New Roof, appeared in 1787. In 1788 he composed his charming book of music, Seven Songs. Also a scientist and inventor, he designed a floating lamp, a spring block to assist sailboats, and a better method of gassing ascension balloons. He is also said to have designed the American flag.

Hopkinson served as an Admiralty judge from 1779 to 1789, when President Washington appointed him a federal judge. He died in Philadelphia on May 9, 1791, survived by his wife and six children.

Further Reading

Hopkinson's Miscellaneous Essays and Occasional Writings (3 vols., 1792) is the basic collection of his literary production. Much of Hopkinson's most engaging writing is found in his correspondence, particularly to Jefferson. The best secondary source is George Everett Hastings, The Life and Works of Francis Hopkinson (1926). It provides a guide to the originals in the Miscellaneous Essays and contains manuscript and published articles not included therein. Benson J. Lossing reprinted the original version of A Pretty Story, retitled The Old Farm and the New Farm: A Political Allegory (1857). O. G. Sonneck, Francis Hopkinson: The First American Poet-Composer (1905), discusses Hopkinson's musical life. □

Francis Hopkinson 1737–91, American writer and musician, signer of the Declaration of Independence, b. Philadelphia. A practicing lawyer, Hopkinson was also an accomplished poet, essayist, and musician and is considered the first native American composer of a secular song, My Days Have Been So Wondrous Free (1759). Hopkinson represented (1776) New Jersey in the Continental Congress and later (1776–78) served as chairman of the Navy Board (as such he may have designed the American flag) and as treasurer of the Continental Loan Office (1778–81). He wrote in support of the adoption of the U.S. Constitution and returned to public office in Pennsylvania, where he served as judge of the U.S. District Court (1789–91).

Bibliography: See his essays and writings (3 vol., 1792; repr. 1968); biographies by G. E. Hastings (1926, repr. 1968) and O. G. Sonneck (1905, repr. 1966).

Hopkinson, Francis (b Philadelphia, 1737; d Philadelphia, 1791). Amer. composer, harpsichordist, poet, lawyer, and politician (one of signatories of Declaration of Independence, 1776). Wrote first surviving piece of mus. by an American, Ode to Music (1754).