New Jersyan, Founding Father
Francis Hopkinson
At 38 years of age, Francis Hopkinson was the youngest of the five New Jersey signers of the Declaration of Independence.
And while credit today goes to Betsy Ross, it does appear he may well have been the designer of the first flag of the new country.
Four years after signing the Declaration of Independence Hopkinson, a lawyer, musician, chemist, mathematician and artist was employed by the Treasurer Department as Treasurer of Loans.
As such, and using his artistic talent, he was on the committee tasked with designing the Great Seal of the United State, creating the stars and stripes shield, a six-pointed star above the eagle’s head and the olive branch. He gave pencil sketches of the seal for the Treasury and Board of Admiralty, the body who governed the US Navy. He also drew sketches of currency, and a naval flag.
None of the sketches of the flag he designed for the new nation exists today. What exists is a bill he sent to Congress asking to be paid for his work. For his pay, he requested “a quarter cask of the Public Wine”. Congress rejected his bill, saying it was part of his job as a Treasury employee and he was not entitled to anything further.
That gives credence, considering minutes of the Continental Congress to the fact that if it were not the flag eventually adopted, he certainly did submit a design to be considered. His designs have six pointed stars in a circle, signifying no one state was greater than any other, in contrast to a staggered star arrangement many thought looked too much like Great Britain’s straight lines and crosses.
After leaving the Treasury, Hopkinson also served as a federal judge but died of an epileptic seizure when he was 53 years old.
Yet in death, he was once again the subject of some scrutiny.
Buried in Christs Church Burial Ground in Philadelphia, his gravestone was damaged through age in the next 100 years or so, and by the 20th century, there was doubt he was even buried there.
So in the 1930s, his remains were exhumed and inspected by an anatomist at the University of Pennsylvania. When it was determined, or at least suggested, these were truly Frances Hopkinson’s remains, his remains were reburied in a more fitting and lasting memorial. The bronze plaque above his grave, still at the Christ Church Burial Ground proclaims Frances Hopkinson as “the Designer of the American flag.”
