George Washington Ate Here

During the Revolutionary War, Waterbury was far removed from any battles, but still saw hundreds of soldiers as they marched through Connecticut. Long before the construction of I-84, West Main Street and East Main Street served as major thoroughfares for travelers passing through town on their way to or from Hartford. In September, 1780, General George Washington was one of those travelers. He stopped in Waterbury to dine with a friend, Joseph Hopkins, on his way to Hartford.

George Washington, 1780-82, by Charles Willson Peale
Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art

In 1780, the war's major battles were taking place in South Carolina. The British captured Charleston in May and were focusing their efforts on reclaiming the southern colonies. In the north, the British continued their occupation of Long Island and New York City, controlling the city's commerce and launching raids along the Connecticut shoreline. In July, 1779, British and Hessian troops under the command of Major General William Tryon, the Royal Governor of New York, attacked New Haven, Fairfield, and Norwalk, destroying supplies and buildings. Testimony from residents of those towns gave detailed accounts of British soldiers invading private homes, helping themselves to food and drink while threatening to kill the residents of those homes, including infants. Women were raped, and all personal belongings of value were taken at gunpoint.

Connecticut privateers regularly raided British ships traversing Long Island Sound as well as Loyalist communities on Long Island. Hundreds of British vessels were captured by Connecticut during the Revolutionary War, helping to supply the American army with food, ammunition, and other essentials.

Small disturbances occasionally happened in Connecticut towns. One of the best known took place close to Waterbury. A small band of Loyalists attacked the Bethany home of a Connecticut privateer, Ebenezer Dayton, in March, 1780. After plundering the Dayton home and taking a teenage boy as a hostage, the robbers traveled to a safe house in Waterbury (now part of Middlebury), then traveled south along the Naugatuck River, eventually fleeing to Long Island. They were pursued by local militias, captured, and brought to trial in Derby. The judge who presided over the trial was Joseph Hopkins, who dined with George Washington in Waterbury six months later.


Joseph Hopkins

Joseph Hopkins was fifty years old in 1780, one of the most respected people in Waterbury. His father was a political leader, serving several times as Waterbury's representative in Connecticut's legislature. Joseph Hopkins trained as a silversmith and opened a shop where he made a variety of goods out of silver, including buckles, buttons, spoons, and all types of jewelry. As Waterbury became more prosperous, Hopkins offered gold buttons and jewelry for his customers. During the 1770s, he advertised himself as a goldsmith and jeweler. His business was periodically robbed, sometimes by strangers, and at least twice by apprentices.

Advertisement, Connecticut Gazette, July 12, 1766

Advertisement, Connecticut Courant, June 9, 1772

Hopkins became the Town Treasurer for Waterbury in 1758 and a Justice of the Peace in 1762. He was elected to serve as Waterbury's Representative to the Connecticut General Assembly in 1764 and was re-elected numerous times over the decades. He was an active member of the legislature during the Revolutionary War.

Hopkins lived on the north side of West Main Street, about halfway between Holmes Avenue and Willow Street. His shop was in between his house and St. James Church, which was on West Main Street at the corner of Willow Street. My best guess is that his house and shop were at what is now 298 West Main Street.

Joseph Hopkins suffered from a series of health problems and "other misfortunes" that impacted his business during the early 1770s. His activities with the General Assembly and as a Justice of the Peace (and then as a Probate Judge starting in 1779) also made it difficult for him to maintain his business.

Advertisement, Connecticut Journal, January 22, 1773

Hopkins and his wife, Hepzibah, had eight children born between 1755 and 1770. At least one son, Jesse Hopkins, apprenticed in his father's shop. Born in 1766, Jesse Hopkins was fourteen when George Washington visited Waterbury. Too young to join the military, but still caught up in the spirit of the era, Jesse Hopkins paid close attention to political events. Decades later, he published a book called The Patriot's Manual, a compilation of essential documents including Patrick Henry's speech, the Declaration of Independence, and Washington's farewell address. In the preface, Jesse Hopkins wrote about being greatly influenced by the war and his father's patriotism. He hoped to instill some of that influence in younger generations through the publication of his book.


Washington's Visit to Waterbury

On September 17, 1780, George Washington left army headquarters for a meeting in Hartford. The general and his retinue arrived in Waterbury on September 19 and stopped for food and to reshoe a horse. They traveled from Middlebury along West Main Street, making their way carefully down Westside Hill, then across the Naugatuck River bridge. Between the river and Willow Street were open meadows for grazing farm animals. Willow Street was originally the boundary of the village, marked by a fence and gate during the early 1700s. Just past the entrance to the village was the home of Joseph Hopkins.

Southeast view of Waterbury in the 1830s, published in Connecticut Historical Collections by John Warner Barber in 1835

The Hopkins house was presumably one of the larger homes in Waterbury. Although I haven't found a description of it, we can assume that it was at least two stories and made out of wood. It may very well have been similar to the "old Johnson house" which used to stand at the corner of Willow and Johnson Streets.

The Old Johnson House, illustrated in
The Town and City of Waterbury, Vol. 3, p. 872

The Hopkins household would have included Joseph, Hepzibah, their eight children, and any apprentices or journeymen who worked in the Hopkins goldsmith shop. The household also included one person who was enslaved, a woman called Silence. Although by law Silence was a slave, too old to be eligible for gradual emancipation, she was able to claim a small amount of autonomy. She had a close relationship with a free Black man, Cuff Capeny, who enlisted in the army in 1777. When Capeny died in 1778, he left £5 to Silence. Capeny's will suggests that the Hopkins family were supportive of African Americans. Capeny left personal items to two of Joseph Hopkins' children and appointed Hopkins as executor of his will. Joseph Hopkins eventually emancipated Silence, even though the laws at the time made that difficult, specifying in his own will that she was free.

Joseph Hopkins stated in his will, written in 1801, that Silence's full name was Silence Will and that he had purchased her as a "slave for life" from Samuel Willis of Middletown years earlier. Willis was a sea captain who was active in the slave trade, bringing enslaved captives from Africa and the West Indies to Connecticut. "Silence" was a not-uncommon Puritan name during the 1700s. Silence Will might have been connected to the Cam family of Derby, Connecticut, where a Native American woman known as both Mary Will and Mary Cam died in 1763.

When George Washington stopped at the Hopkins house, the food he ate was most likely prepared and served by Silence Will. The great contradiction of the Revolutionary War, the enforcement of slavery by people declaring independence based on principals of equality, was hotly debated at the time. Many of the Black men who fought for the country's independence did so with the hope that their own liberty could be secured as well. A growing number of ministers, including Joseph Hopkins' cousin Samuel Hopkins, were abolitionists. Samuel Hopkins published a pamphlet in 1776 imploring the Continental Congress to end slavery. Joseph Hopkins was most likely aware of his cousin's abolition work.

At least one Waterbury soldier was distressed that George Washington and so many other patriots kept people enslaved. In 1781, Josiah Atkins of Waterbury's Farmingbury settlement (now Wolcott) marched past Washington's home and wrote the following in his journal:

“This day we pass Gen. Washington’s plantation which is of large extent. Some men in these parts, they tell me, own 30,000 acres of land for their patrimony & many have two or 300 negroes to work on it as slaves Alas! That persons who pretend to stand for the rights of mankind for the liberties of society, can delight in oppression & that even of the worst kind!”

Whether or not the issue of slavery came up during Washington's visit to Waterbury is unknown. Joseph Hopkins sent a bill for "14 meals Victuals for Genl. Washington and his attendants at 13 Dollars pr meal £54:12:0" and Samuel Frost similarly sent a bill for "4 Horse Shoes set for Genl. Washingtons Family £16:0:0" but no other records of the visit remain.

Joseph Hopkins' bill for feeding Washington & his retinue
Library of Congress, George Washington Papers, Series 5, Financial Papers: Revolutionary War Receipts, June 1775 - December, 1783

Jesse Hopkins later recalled that LaFayette also dined in his father's home, sometime around 1782. Records of this have yet to be found.

Washington's trip to Hartford in September, 1780, included a critical meeting with Count Rochambeau to discuss strategy for the French troops who had recently landed in Rhode Island. Washington wanted them to attack the British in New York City, but they had arrived late in the campaign season and many were seriously ill. They spent the winter in Newport, then marched through Connecticut during the summer of 1781 to join us with Washington's army in Virginia. They passed back through the following year, both times marching through Waterbury on West Main and East Main Streets. Two of Rochambeau's soldiers were unable to complete their march, succumbing to illness in Waterbury. They are buried in the East Farms Cemetery.

Joseph Hopkins and George Washington maintained a professional friendship, corresponding occasionally over the decades. Much of that correspondence has been lost. In 1798, Washington sent a reply to a letter from Hopkins, part of a conversation between the two men relating to an ongoing conflict with France.



The Looking Glass for 1787

In 1785, Joseph Hopkins secured a contract to produce copper coins for Connecticut. He was one of four men working in partnership who cited a "scarcity of small change" in the state and concerns over counterfeiting as their reasons for producing copper coins. After receiving permission from the state, the partners formed The Company for Coining Coppers with four other men, each owning an eighth portion of the company. Their mint was established in New Haven.

The venture went poorly and was subject to a state investigation in 1789 after shutting down in 1787. Joseph Hopkins was dubbed "Joe Copper" by critics and was lampooned in a political cartoon called "The Looking Glass for 1787."

In the cartoon, Hopkins is shown next to a copper coin and says "Curs Commutation" to a figure labeled CATO (the pseudonym of someone who frequently wrote letters to newspapers about politics), who replies "I despise your coppers." A full description of the cartoon is given in All Politics is Local: Family, Friends, and Provincial Interests in the Creation of the Constitution by Christopher Collier.

"The Looking Glass for 1787" by Amos Doolittle; Library of Congress

Cato and Joe Copper in "The Looking Glass for 1787"

The furor over the copper coins died down swiftly and was soon forgotten.

Joseph Hopkins died in 1801 while in New Haven where he was the Assistant Judge of the County Court. He was remembered as being of sound mind and having "an honest heart," living his life "in an exemplary manner with the profession and practice of Christianity." Hopkins's patriotism during the Revolutionary War was honored in Waterbury's history books.

Obituary, Connecticut Journal, April 2, 1801

Sources/Further Reading

"Depositions of the Savage Conduct of the British in New Haven" as detailed at the Founders Online website

"New London's Sound Defense," ConnecticutHistory.org

"Connecticut Raids," The George Washington Presidential Library at Mount Vernon

"Chauncey Judd, or The Dayton Robbery of 1780"

"Waterbury's African Americans," Fortune's Story website

"Connecticut Coppers 1785-1788"

Joseph Hopkins's biography in Henry Bronson, The History of Waterbury, Connecticut (1858)