(1737–91), U.S. jurist and poet. Francis Hopkinson was born in Philadelphia, Pa., on Oct. 2, 1737. He was educated at the College of Philadelphia (now the University of Pennsylvania) and established a law practice after settling in New Jersey in 1773. As a member of the Continental Congress in 1776 he was one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. Hopkinson later served as a judge of the Pennsylvania admiralty court from 1779 to 1789 and a United States district judge from 1789 to1791. In addition to his career as a lawyer, Hopkinson was a musician and a writer. He was considered one of the great anti-British pamphleteers of the American Revolution, and he was the author of the popular poem ‘The Battle of the Kegs', published in 1778. (See also Declaration of Independence.)