Biographical Sketches of the Signers of the Declaration of Independence representing New Jersey - Part 3

FRANCIS HOPKINSON

Francis Hopkinson by Robert Edge Pine

Francis Hopkinson may be the most accomplished of the signers of the Declaration of Independence from New Jersey.  Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on September 21, 1737,[1] Hopkinson became an author and poet; a song-writer and musician; a lawyer and judge; an artist and Congressman.  As an ardent Patriot, he played a role in the founding of the United States politically and culturally - he is credited with having a hand in the design of the first American flag and the designs of the seal of the State of New Jersey and the Great Seal of the United States.[2]

Francis’ father, Thomas, was a merchant, lawyer and judge in Pennsylvania, as well as a friend of Benjamin Franklin.  In the latter capacity, Thomas also dabbled in electrical experiments.  He founded the Academy of Philadelphia (which later became the College of Philadelphia, and later the University of Pennsylvania) as well as the Library Company, and he was the first President of the American Philosophical Society.[3]   It is no wonder then, that before his death in 1751, Thomas enrolled fourteen-year-old Francis in the College of Philadelphia.  With his mother Mary’s blessing, Francis continued his education after his father’s death, earning his degree in 1757.

It appears that Hopkinson began composing music before his graduation from college - an Ode to Music was composed in 1754.[4]  After graduation, though, while still composing and writing, Hopkinson studied law under Benjamin Chew, the attorney general of Pennsylvania. During this time he wrote “My Days Have Been So Wondrous Free” (1759), thought to be the first secular music composition in America. In 1761 he joined the bar and in 1763 was appointed customs collector at Salem, New Jersey.  Between 1757 and 1763, Hopkinson was busy with his pen, contributing essays, poems and satirical writings to various periodicals.  In 1766, Hopkinson traveled to England for a year-long stay in which he met a number of prominent individuals, including Benjamin Franklin, Lord North and the painter Benjamin West.  Upon his return to North America, Hopkinson married Ann Borden in 1768.  She was the daughter of Colonel Joseph Borden, a leading merchant from Bordentown, New Jersey.  The couple would have five children.[5]

            In 1772, Hopkinson was appointed customs collector at New Castle, Delaware, though he was settled and practicing law in Bordentown by 1774.  In the same year, he was selected to be a member of the Provincial Council of New Jersey.  Pamphlets that he wrote during this time were filled with attacks on the British and on loyalists in the colonies.  In 1776, Hopkinson was elected an associate justice of the Supreme Court of New Jersey, but he declined that office and instead accepted appointment to the Continental Congress meeting in Philadelphia.  Sometime before the signing of the Declaration of Independence, Hopkinson wrote “The Prophecy,” an essay predicting the formal break of the colonies from England.[6]  While serving in the Congress from 22 June to 30 November 1776, Hopkinson also served on the Navy Board.

            During the winter of 1777 - 1778, an inventor by the name of David Bushnell caused quite a stir on the Delaware River.[7]  Bushnell filled barrels with gunpowder which were set to explode upon touching anything.  These he set afloat on the Delaware River north of Philadelphia, with the hope that as they fell downriver among the British ships, they would strike and damage or destroy the shipping.  Though some of the barrels did explode, the experiment did not have the desired effect.  The event did cause much excitement and anxiety among the British in Philadelphia, however.  A satirical letter was published in the Pennsylvania Ledger on 11 February 1778, and is believed to be written by Hopkinson.  The account is as follows:

Both officers and men exhibited the most unparalleled skill and bravery on the occasion; whilst the citizens stood gazing as solemn witnesses of their prowess. From the Roebuck and other ships of war, whole broadsides were poured into the Delaware. In short, not a wandering chip, stick, or drift log, but felt the vigour of the British arms. The action began about sun-rise, and would have been compleated with great success by noon, had not an old market woman coming down the river with provisions, unfortunately let a small keg of butter fall over-board, which (as it was then ebb) floated down to the scene of the action. At the sight of this unexpected reinforcement of the enemy, the battle was renewed with fresh fury–the firing was incessant till the evening closed the affair. The kegs were either totally demolished or obliged to fly, as none of them have shewn their heads since. It is said his Excellency Lord Howe has dispatched a swift sailing packet with an account of this victory to the court of London. In a word, Monday, the 5th of January, 1778, must ever be distinguished in history, for the memorable BATTLE OF THE KEGS.”[8]

 

The Battle of the Kegs from the UPenn archives

At a later date, Hopkinson also wrote a ballad of the event, to be sung to the tune of Yankee Doodle.

The Hopkinson House is currently a privately owned building

located at 101 Farnsworth Ave. in Bordentown, NJ.

            In 1776 and 1777, the British stationed in Bordentown raided and plundered Hopkinson’s Bordentown home.  Hopkinson was not to be found, however, and in 1778 he was again elected a member of the Congress and served as Treasurer of the Continental Loan Office.  In 1779 and 1780, Hopkinson served as a judge on the Admiralty Court of Pennsylvania.  During this time, Hopkinson was also at work designing or assisting in the design of, among other things, the Board of Admiralty seal, the Treasury Board seal, the seal of the state of New Jersey, the Great Seal of the United States and the flag of the United States, though in the case of the latter two some speculation remains.  Hopkinson’s design for the Great Seal was the second one submitted to Congress, which did not grant its approval.  A third committee, with the assistance of Congressional secretary Charles Thomson, created a third design, which was finally accepted and is still in use today.[9]  Thomson’s design borrowed key elements from Hopkinson’s design, including the striped shield and the field of stars.  As for the design of the flag of the United States, the only surviving record of any kind comes from a letter dated 25 May 1780, from Hopkinson to the Continental Board of Admiralty, where he mentioned “the Flag of the United States of America” among the many other patriotic designs he had completed over the course of the previous three years.  There is no mention of the exact design, but neither is there any mention in the historical record of any other person coming forward to claim ownership of the creation.[10]

Click on image to enlarge.

            Following the end of the Revolutionary War, Hopkinson remained active in the politics of the new nation.  He continued to serve on the Admiralty Court until 1787, when he became a member of the Constitutional Convention which ratified the Constitution of the United States.  In 1789, President Washington appointed Hopkinson as a judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, where he remained until his death on 9 May 1791.  Hopkinson, possibly the most artistic signer of the Declaration of Independence, is buried in Christ Church Cemetery in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

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[1] United States Congress. Hopkinson, Francis, (1737 - 1791). n.d. http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=H000783 (accessed March 3, 2012).

[2] University of Pennsylvania University Archives and Records Center. Francis Hopkinson (1737-1791). 2012. http://www.archives.upenn.edu/people/1700s/hopkinson_thos.html (accessed March 3, 2012).

[3] University of Pennsylvania University Archives and Records Center. Thomas Hopkinson (1709-1751). 2012. http://www.archives.upenn.edu/people/1700s/hopkinson_thos.html (accessed March 3, 2012).

[4] Library of Congress. Francis Hopkinson, 1737-1791. August 10, 2006. http://lcweb2.loc.gov/diglib/ihas/loc.natlib.ihas.200035713/default.html (accessed March 3, 2012).

[5] Cunningham, John T. Five Who Signed. Trenton: NJ Historical Commission, 1975; 20.

[6] Ibid., 21.

[7] For more information on Bushnell and his inventions, see my post, “David Bushnell”: http://dansamericanrevolutionblog.blogspot.com/2009/06/david-bushnell-is-credited-with.html.  Hopkinson’s essay regarding this event can be found in the Bushnell article, but has also been reprinted here.

[8] Naval Documents of the American Revolution Vol. 11. ed. Michael J. Crawford. Department of the Navy, Washington, DC, 2005; 78.

[9] The first design was submitted by a committee consisting of John Adams, Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin, and was the work of a Swiss-born painter named Pierre Eugene du Simitiere.  The committee working with Hopkinson was appointed on 25 March 1780 and was composed of James Lovell (from Massachusetts), John Moris Scott (New York) and William Churchill Houston (NJ).  The third committee consisted of Arthur Middleton (South Carolina), John Rutledge (South Carolina) and Elias Boudinot (New Jersey).  William Barton, a Philadelphia lawyer and scholar, then edited Thomson’s design.  This committee’s design was accepted on 20 June 1781.

[10] Leepson, Marc. Flag: An American Biography, New York: Thomas Dunne Books, 2005; 30-31, 33.

David Bushnell

David Bushnell is credited with designing the first submarine used for military purposes in 1776. He is also the architect behind a humorous attack against the British shipping in the Delaware River in early 1778.

Bushnell was born in Saybrook, (now Westbrook) Connecticut, in the year 1742. He graduated from Yale in 1775 and set to work on submarine warfare.

Sergeant Ezra Lee was the man who first used Bushnell’s submarine, called the Turtle because of its shape, in battle. Lee was interviewed by Charles Griswold, Esq. in the early nineteenth century. Lee provided Griswold with this description of the Turtle. According to this interview, Lee described the Turtle as being made of several pieces of large oak timber fitted together in the shape of a “round clam.” It was held together with iron bands, and the seams were corked before the whole machine was covered in tar to prevent water from seeping into the machine. The operator would enter from the top, by moving a metallic piece which opened upon hinges. Six pieces of thick glass were placed at the top of the machine so light could enter. About seven hundred pounds of lead were fixed to the bottom of the Turtle so that it may remained balanced. Two hundred pounds of this lead could be released to increase the buoyancy of the machine. “But to enable the navigator when under water, to rise or sink at pleasure, there were two forcing pumps, by which water could be pressed out at the bottom; and also a spring, by applying the foot to which, a passage was formed for the admission of water.” (1)

Steering was done by a rudder, whose tiller passed through the inside of the machine. “But not the least ingenious part of this curious machine, was that by which the horizontal motion was communicated to it. This object was effected by means of two oars or paddles, formed precisely like the arms of a wind-mill, which revolved perpendicularly upon an axletree that projected in front; this axletree passed into the machine at a water joint, and was furnished with a crank, by which it was turned : the navigator being seated inside, with one hand laboured at the crank, and with the other steered by the tiller.” The oars were about a foot long and about four inches wide. Two similar, though smaller, paddles were located near the top of the machine to assist in the ascension of the machine. (1)

The operator of the machine would attack by affixing its magazine to the target ship. A piece, separate from the machine, but of similar make and shape, was filled with over one hundred and thirty pounds of gunpowder, a clock and a gun lock. This piece was then affixed to the back of the machine, above the rudder, “by means of a screw, one end of which passed quite into the magazine, and there operated as a stop upon the movements of the clock, whilst its other end entered the machine. This screw could be withdrawn from the magazine, by which the latter was immediately detached, and the clock commenced going. The clock was set for running twenty or thirty minutes, at the end of which time, the lock struck, and fired the powder, and in the mean time the adventurer effected his escape.” (1)


David Bushnell had trained three men, including his brother Ezra, in the operation of the Turtle. Ezra Bushnell became sick during this campaign, however, and David Bushnell had to go to his second choice as operator, this being Sergeant Ezra Lee. The British ship Eagle, of 64 guns commanded by Captain Duncan and bearing Admiral Howe’s flag, was lying off Governor’s Island south of Manhattan during the campaign of 1776. On the night of 7 September 1776, about 11, two or three whaleboats towed Bushnell’s Turtle as close to the British fleet as they felt safe before Lee entered the machine and operated it on his own.

Bushnell, in a speech before the American Philosophical Society on June 8, 1798, stated that Lee “went under the ship and attempted to fasten the wood-screw into her bottom, but struck, as he supposes, a bar of iron. Not being well skilled in the management of the vessel, in attempting to move to another place, he lost the ship, and after seeking her in vain for some time, he rowed some distance and rose to the surface of the water, but found daylight had advanced so far, that he durst not renew the attempt.” (2)

Lee himself, in the aforementioned interview with Mr. Griswold, stated that he “applied the screw, and did all in his power to make it enter, but owing probably in part to the ship’s copper, and the want of an adequate pressure, to enable the screw to get a hold upon the bottom, his attempts all failed; at each essay the machine rebounded from the ship’s bottom, not having sufficient power to resist the impulse thus given to it. He next paddled along to a different part of her bottom, but in this manœuvre he made a deviation, and instantly arose to the water’s surface on the east side of the ship, exposed to the increasing light of the morning, and in imminent hazard of being discovered.” Lee attempted to dive one more time, but by then had lost sight of the Eagle. As he headed back up river, he realized his compass did not work and he would need to ascend. As day was dawning, this would be a problem for Lee; the British would be able to spot him. The British soldiers at Governor’s Island did spy him, and they sent out a barge to inspect the curious vessel. Lee, not wanting the Turtle to be caught, released the magazine in hopes that the British would approach and be killed by the explosion. The British, however, rowed away from the magazine and Bushnell’s Turtle. The magazine eventually drifted into the East River, where it exploded. (3)
The Turtle was eventually sunk by the British near Fort Lee, New Jersey, as it sat upon its transport ship. Thomas Jefferson later wrote to Bushnell, inquiring about the machine. Bushnell responded to Jefferson that he had salvaged the machine, but later destroyed it. The Connecticut River Museum, in Essex, Connecticut, houses a replica of the Turtle.

This was not David Bushnell’s only foray into marine warfare during the Revolution. In early 1778, Bushnell unleashed another of his experiments on the British.

In late December, 1777, Bushnell filled several kegs with powder, and set them to explode upon touching anything. He set them afloat in the Delaware River, above Philadelphia. Bushnell said, “We set them adrift, to fall with the ebb upon the shipping. Had we been within sixty rods, I believe they must have fallen in with them [the British ships] immediately, as I designed; but as I afterwards found, they were set adrift much too far distant, and did not arrive until after being detained some time by the frost; they advanced in the daytime in a dispersed situation and under great disadvantages. One of them blew up a boat with several persons in it, who imprudently handled it too freely, and thus gave the British that alarm which brought on the ‘Battle of the Kegs.’” (4)
Major Carl Leopold Baurmeister, of the German troops assisting the British (known as Hessians), was in Philadelphia during this “Battle of the Kegs.” He wrote the following to his superior in Germany, Friedrich Christian Arnold, freiherr von Jungkenn: “The severe cold, which lasted from the 1st to the 3rd of January [1778] and froze the Schuylkill [River] over solidly and the Delaware [River] from the banks nearly to the middle, let up on the 4th, and on the 5th the high tide brought ice-floes. The rebels then threw barrels filled with combustibles into the Delaware, hoping to set our ships on fire. However, trees placed in front of our ships prevented any damage being done. The sight of some fifty of these little machines exploding one by one was as beautiful as the enemy’s designs were destructive.” (5)

Finally, a letter from Philadelphia dated 9 January 1778 and published in the Pennsylvania Ledger on 11 February, gives the following humorous account: “Both officers and men exhibited the most unparalleled skill and bravery on the occasion; whilst the citizens stood gazing as solemn witnesses of their prowess. From the Roebuck and other ships of war, whole broadsides were poured into the Delaware. In short, not a wandering chip, stick, or drift log, but felt the vigour of the British arms. The action began about sun-rise, and would have been compleated with great success by noon, had not an old market woman coming down the river with provisions, unfortunately let a small keg of butter fall over-board, which (as it was then ebb) floated down to the scene of the action. At the sight of this unexpected reinforcement of the enemy, the battle was renewed with fresh fury–the firing was incessant till the evening closed the affair. The kegs were either totally demolished or obliged to fly, as none of them have shewn their heads since. It is said his Excellency Lord Howe has dispatched a swift sailing packet with an account of this victory to the court of London. In a word, Monday, the 5th of January, 1778, must ever be distinguished in history, for the memorable BATTLE OF THE KEGS.” (6) It is supposed that the great Francis Hopkinson, author, signer of the Declaration of Independence, and probabe designer of the first U.S. flag, wrote this letter. Hopkinson later wrote a ballad (to the tune of Yankee Doodle) titled “Battle of the Kegs.”

David Bushnell died in 1824 in Georgia at the age of eighty-four.




Notes:

(1) This description was furnished from an interview by Charles Griswold, Esq. of Ezra Lee, the operator of the Turtle, which was published in The American Journal of Science, vol. II, no. 1, 1820, p. 95-98.

(2) Submarine Warfare, Offensive and Defensive. Including a Discussion of the Offensive Torpedo System, Its Effects Upon Iron-Clad Ship Systems, and Influence Upon Future Naval Wars. By Lt.-Commander J.S. Barnes, U.S.N. D. Van Nostrand, New York, 1869, p. 23.

(3) The American Journal of Science, p. 100.

(4) Submarine Warfare, Offensive and Defensive, p. 24.

(5) Letters from Major Baurmeister to Colonel von Jungkenn Written During the Philadelphia Campaign 1777-1778. Ed. Bernhard A. Uhlendorf & Edna Vosper. The Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, 1937, p. 45.

(6) Naval Documents of the American Revolution Vol. 11. ed. Michael J. Crawford. Department of the Navy, Washington, DC, 2005, p. 78.