Author: Hopkins, Lemuel
Biography:
HOPKINS, Lemuel (1750-1801: WBIS)
The son of Stephen and Dorothy (Talmadge) Hopkins, prosperous farmers, he was born in Waterbury CT. He trained as a physician and started his own practice in Litchfield CT in 1776, a practice interrupted by his stint in the American army during the Revolutionary War. In 1784 he received an honorary MA degree from Yale and moved to Hartford CT, where he became a member of the set of professional men known as the "Hartford Wits" who collectively produced satirical essays and poems between about 1775 and 1815: other members of the group were Joel Barlow, Timothy Dwight, David Humphreys, and John Trumbull (qq.v.). He thus has sole authorial responsibility for a few titles and a share in collaborative productions such as The Echo and The Anarchiad--the latter published first in the New Haven Gazette and not in book form until 1861. He never married and had no children. (ANBO 24 Apr. 2019; Appleton) HJ