Book Description

Excerpt from Colonial and Revolutionary Families of Pennsylvania, Vol. 4: Genealogical and Personal Memoirs According to family tradition, Thomas Hopkinson attended Oxford Univer sity, and later appeared in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where his attendance at the first meeting of the Library Company, November 8, 1731, was recorded. The following spring he was appointed purchaser of books for this library, in which Benjamin Franklin was deeply interested. His rise in the legal profession was rapid. For several years after his arrival in America he was agent for a number of London firms. On October 6, 1741, he was'elected a member of the Common Council of Philadelphia. Oh January 17, 1744, he succeeded Andrew Hamilton as Judge of vice-admiralty for the Province of Pennsylvania, which office he held until his death. Thomas Hopkinson was commissioned prothonotary of the court of Common Pleas of Philadelphia, November 24, 1748, and 011 June 30, of the following year, became a justice of that body as well as of the Court of Quarter Sessions of the Peace, and the Orphans' Court. His last important political appointment was on the commission to settle the boundary dispute between Pennsylvania and Maryland in 1750. He was associated with Benjamin F ranklin in many intellectual activities. In 1743, Franklin established an organization called the American Philosophical Society, of which Thomas Hopkinson was first presi dent. He was a member of St. John's Lodge, of Philadelphia, which is regarded as the first Masonic lodge in America. Thomas Hopkinson died November 5, 1751. His will was dated April 11, 1751, and proved November 21 of that year. He married, at Christ Church, Philadelphia, September 9, 1736, Mary Johnson, niece of the Bishop of Worcester. (johnson - American Line - II.) Among their childreh was Francis, of whom further. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.