Thomas sailed from England in 1635 alongside his cousin, Benedict Arnold, who later became the first governor of the Rhode Island colony under the Royal Charter of 1663.

He soon became a justice of the Inferior Court of Common Pleas, while also serving at times as the speaker of the House of Deputies and president of the Scituate Town Council.

While active in civic affairs, he also was part owner of an iron foundry and was a successful merchant who was portrayed in John Greenwood's 1750s satirical painting Sea Captains Carousing in Surinam.

He was a strong backer of the College of the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations (later named Brown University) and became the institution's first chancellor.

[8] There were no schools in this area at the time, but the books belonging to the family were supplemented by a small circulating collection and provided him with reading material, which he consumed voraciously.

Historian Irving Richman refers to Hopkins as "a close and severe student, filling up all the spare hours of his life with reading.

Joseph Brown had obtained a complete set of the necessary instruments, including a reflecting telescope, a micrometer, and a sextant, and an observatory was erected on a hill in Providence (later named "Transit Street" in honor of the event).

[13] Hopkins began his public service in 1730 at age 23 when he became a justice of the peace in the newly formed town of Scituate, a position that he held until 1735.

[18] In the mid-1750s, Boston portraitist John Greenwood was commissioned by a group of sea captains and merchants, including Hopkins, to create a satirical painting.

The men were stopped at a major trading port in Suriname on the north coast of South America where Greenwood was living at the time.

[19] One of Hopkins's enterprises later in life was as a manufacturer, and he became a partner with brothers Moses, Nicholas, Joseph, and John Brown in establishing the Hope Furnace.

Late in the previous year, Hopkins and his Attorney-General Daniel Updike were delegates from Rhode Island to the Albany Congress, which convened to discuss the common defense of the collective colonies and to hold a conference with the five Indian tribes to secure their assistance in thwarting French encroachment.

[22] As the war with France developed in February 1756, the General Assembly ordered the raising of 500 Rhode Island men for the expedition to Lake George in New York.

"[23] On the same day, without the knowledge of this letter, Hopkins wrote to Ward inviting him to accept the position of deputy governor, which had just been vacated by the death of John Gardner.

[25] The news of the act infuriated Americans, and Samuel Adams of Massachusetts invited all the colonies to a congress of delegates to meet in New York to discuss relief from the unjust taxes.

Rhode Island's appointed stamp distributor was Attorney General Augustus Johnson, who refused to execute his office "against the will of our Sovereign Lord the People.

"[25] The Rhode Island General Assembly met again at East Greenwich in September 1765, choosing delegates to the New York congress and appointing a committee to consider the Stamp Act.

[26] This pamphlet was directed primarily at the Stamp Act and helped build Hopkins's reputation as a revolutionary leader, with its broad distribution and criticism of taxation and Parliament.

[30] The text begins, "Liberty is the greatest blessing that men enjoy, and slavery the heaviest curse that human nature is capable of;" it goes on to present a clear and logical review of the relationship of the American colonies with England.

Sessions expressed alarm that the British schooner Gaspee had been cruising the Narragansett Bay, disrupting the traffic by stopping and searching commercial ships.

[18] Loyalist Massachusetts Governor Hutchinson further aggravated the colonists' sensitivities by urging Britain to rescind the Rhode Island Royal Charter.

[18] Sessions conferred with Chief Justice Hopkins, lawyer John Cole, and Moses Brown, and the four men drafted a letter to Massachusetts' statesman Samuel Adams.

His form is bent, his thin locks, fringing a forehead bowed with age and honorable service, and his hands shake tremulously as he folds them in his lap.

In July 1775, they adopted a national postal system that was devised by William Goddard, with Benjamin Franklin appointed as the first Postmaster General.

Hopkins was instrumental in framing naval legislation and drafting the rules and regulations necessary to govern the fledgling organization during the American War for Independence.

"[36] The gathering of the Founding Fathers was depicted in John Trumbull's Declaration of Independence, where Hopkins is pictured standing in the back wearing a hat.

[43] On October 28, 1772, Hopkins freed Saint Jago and wrote the following in the manumission document: But, principally, and most of all finding that the merciful and beneficent goodness of Almighty God; by the blessed Gospel of Jesus Christ our Lord: hath by the blessed Spirit taught all, who honestly obey its Divine Dictates, that, the keeping any of his rational Creatures in Bondage, who are capable of taking care of, and providing for themselves in a State of Freedom: is, altogather inconsistent with his Holy and Righteous Will.

[44]Hopkins felt that the bondage of self-sufficient "rational creatures" was against God's will; he also thought that unconditional freedom for some slaves would be irresponsible on his part.

[18] Hopkins was instrumental in the establishment of the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations (now Brown University) as a founding trustee.

"[54] Hopkins has been given strong accolades from numerous historians, including Sanderson, Arnold, and Bicknell, but Richman simply called him "the greatest statesman of Rhode Island.