Hopkins, Samuel (1721–1803)

American clergyman and theologian. He studied theology privately with Jonathan Edwards before becoming pastor of the Congregational church in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, in 1745. His modifications of Edward's orthodoxy, known as Hopkinsianism, were influential. Parishioners, tiring of his stern sermons, dismissed him in 1769; he accepted a pulpit in Newport, Rhode Island, and remained there for the rest of his life. An early opponent of slavery, he worked to establish religious missions in Africa.

Born in Waterbury, Connecticut, he graduated from Yale in 1741.