Two Men of Taunton in the Course of Human Events 1731 1829

preeminent documents which have inspired the American people to deeds of courage, freedom, and glory. Among the signatures to the covenant drafted by the liberty-seeking immigrants in Provincetown Harbor is that of Stephen Hopkins. After the Pilgrims had founded Plymouth, this Hopkins went with Edward Win- slow on an exploring expedition ? the first white persons to leave a description of the Indian resort known as Cohannet, which lies in the shoulder blade of the defiant Cape. Cohannet, a few years later, received from English settlers the name of Taunton. Our Paine, living in Taunton and descended from Stephen Hopkins, was the sole resident of Plymouth Colony among the signers of the Declaration.1 1 From the adjoining plantation of Rhode Island came another signer with tremulous autograph directly descended from the same Stephen Hopkins. As the Epic of the Leonard family is strongly colored with iron, so through the Epic of the Paine family runs a distinct theological thread. To use the phrase of Holmes,1 Robert was of "Brahmin ancestry." By easy genealogical leaps, we come down his line from one clergyman to another. His father, Thomas, was minister at Weymouth; his grandmother on his mother's side had married two ministers, Mr. Esterbrook first, and later, Rev. Samuel Treat. Paine's maternal great-grandfather, Rev. Samuel Willard, was pastor of the Old South Church in Boston; and was acting president of Harvard College from 1701 to 1707; his paterna...