Genealogical and personal memoirs relating to the families of the state of Massachusetts, Volume I, Part 122

Author: Cutter, William Richard, 1847-1918, ed; Adams, William Frederick, 1848-
Publication date: 1910
Publisher: New York, Lewis historical publishing company
Number of Pages: 924

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In a letter written from Woburn, May IT, 1775, he says, "Since Mrs. Thompson has been at Woburn she has been very unwell, which has prevented her coming to Concord this week as was proposed." On May 16, following, he was arrested in Woburn, and his trial was ap- pointed at the meeting-house in the first parish of that town, on Thursday, May 18, at two P. M. Ballwin states in his diary that Rum-

*In the "Journals of the Provincial Congress is preserved a petition of Count Rumford in reference to his trial at Woburn in May, 1776. It contains nothing new in Idea, however. beyond what we present.

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ford was taken up, as a Tory, but nothing was found against him, and the court adjourned to the following Monday. The final action in his case is preserved by his friend Baldwin, in words that show that the Woburn committee having charge of the case reported that they did not find in any one instance that the accused had shown a "disposition unfriendly to Amer- ican Liberty." but that his general behavior had "evinced the direct contrary." (Dated "Woburn, in the Province of Massachusetts Bay, 29th May, 1775").

It appears after his release that Rumford re- mained in this vicinity. On June 4. 1775, he viewed the military works at Boston, in com- pany with Baldwin (then an American major ) from Lechmere's Point, Cambridge, and on June 13 Baldwin reports that "Major Thomp- son went to Woburn." He was still in this vicinity in August. 1775. In that month he decided to quit the country. He made all his arrangements with deliberate preparation. After making his decision he remained two months in and about Woburn, and on October 13, 1775. accompanied by his stepbrother, Josiah Pierce, he started from Woburn in a country vehicle, and drove near to the bounds of the province, on the shore of the Narragansett Bay, whence young Pierce returned. Rumford was then taken by a boat on board the "Scarborough," a British frigate which lay in the harbor of Newport.

The following apology for his unpopularity among the Americans at the opening of the revolutionary war was written about 1847 by a Scotchman, and published in "Chambers Mis- cellany," (X. 5). His position comes as near the truth as we shall ever know.

"The truth," says this writer, "seems to be that not only was Thompson, as a man in com- fortable circumstances, was fond of the con- sideration and opportunities of enjoyment which they afforded him, averse to any dis- turbance, such as a war between the colonies and the mother country would cause, but that his constitution and temperament, his liking foi calm intellectual pursuits, disqualified him from taking part in political agitation. Many men who have distinguished themselves in liter- ature and science have, as a matter of principle, kept themselves aloof from the controversies and political dissensions of their time, alleging that, however important such questions might be, it was not in discussing them that their powers could be employed to most advantage. In the case of Thompson, however, who as yet bad not begun to lay claim to the character of

a man devoted to scientific pursuits, his coun- trymen thought, not altogether unreasonably, that they had grounds of complaint. What employment was he engaged in, that he ought to be exempted from the duty of a citizen- that of taking interest in public affairs? So, probably, the most candid and considerate of the American patriots reasoned; and as for the great mass of the populace, they condemned him in the usual summary manner in which the public judges."

Colonel Baldwin, his intimate friend, writing in 1805, confirms the idea of his indifference : "From this general view of the conduct of Major Thompson and his manner of leaving America, some may have received unfavorable impressions of his character. But he had never made politics his study and never perhaps seri- ously considered the origin and progress of the contest ; and if he sought for employment against his countrymen, he had sufficient op- portunities of being gratified."*

AT SALEM .- Rumford as a youth was ap- prenticed to a merchant in Salem, October 14. 1766. He lived in his master's family as a member of the household. It was here, it is said, that he was interested in playing the fiddle, an instrument upon which he was a skillful performer. Here he continued until about October, 1769. An enlightened minister, the Rev. Thomas Barnard, gave him his friendship and encouragement. As he says, himself. "The father of one of my companions, a very respect- able minister, and, besides, very enlightened (by name Barnard) gave me his friendship, and of his own prompting, undertook to in- struct me. He taught me algebra, geometry, astronomy, and even the higher mathematics. Before the age of fourteen, I had made suffi- cient progress in this class of studies to be able without his aid, and even without his knowl-

*The reader is referred to the life by Professor Renwick (Spark's Biographies) for many particu- lars regarding Rumford's life in Woburn and Salem, based apparently on the statements in the manu- script of Josiah Pierce (half-brother) already referred to in a previous note. These statements are repeated in the article on Count Rumford in the "Chambers Miscellany," published about 1847. While very interesting we have omitted them here, because of their evidently overcolored and tradi- tionary character. One of them was, and the truth of it we do not deny, that the Woburn meeting- house was crowded to its very doors at the time his trial was held. This meeting-house then stood on the present Woburn Common, and was within a short distance of the spot where Rumford's admir- able statue now stands.

Renwick's work when compared with Rumford's memoranda presented in the latter work of Ellis, shows many inaccuracies in dates, though his state- ments are in other respects correct. This refers to statements of fact regarding the events of his life in America. It is supposed that Renwick used the important part of the Pierce manuscript and the Baldwin article of 1805, which he refers to.

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edge, to calculate and trace rightly the elements of a solar eclipse. We observed it together, and my computation was correct within four seconds. I shall never forget the intense pleas- ure which this success afforded me, nor the praises which it drew from him. I had been destined for trade, but after a short trial my thirst for knowledge became inextinguishable, and I could not apply myself to anything but my favorite objects of study.'

While in Salem he had premission to make occasional visits to Woburn, and walked one night from there to show his friend Baldwin parts of a machine he had made in the direction of solving the principle of "perpetual motion." His services to his employer at Salem becom- ing less necessary, owing to the obstructions imposed upon trade before the opening of the revolutionary war, he was sent to Boston and apprenticed to a similar business to that he had been at Salem.

IN BOSTON .- In Boston he was placed as an apprentice clerk with a Mr. Hopestill Capen, a dry-goods dealer. This was in the autumn of 1769. Here he attended a French evening school for the purpose of learning that lan- guage, but his stay in Boston was short, owing to the falling off in business caused by the de- pression of the times. Dr. Ellis gives a number of instances of Rumford's precocity during the period of his stay in Salem and Boston, but they are mostly of a character of which Rum- ford would be ashamed in his after life .*

AT CONCORD, NEW HAMPSHIRE .- An im- mature lad of nineteen, Rumford married a wealthy widow of thirty-three. She had been married when about thirty to an elderly bache- lor of about sixty. She was the daughter of a clergyman, and the facts of their union have been given in the genealogy preceding this article. The widow's husband died December 21. 1771. The date of her second marriage is said to have been about November, 1772, and it is also related that his mother's consent was obtained in the course of a rather sensational journey on the part of the couple to her abode in Woburn. But this is a matter of tradition. Something more definite is this: His friend Baldwin writes of him at this period as a per- son of a "fine manly make and figure, nearly six feet in height, of handsome features, bright blue eyes, and dark auburn hair." He seems to have been satisfactory to his Concord friends

as a teacher, and in a letter from there to his mother in Woburn he writes, "I have had 106 scholars at my school, but only have seventy at once."

Owing to the influence and activity of his wife, Rumford soon shone in New Hampshire colonial society, and at a military review at Dover, ten miles from Portsmouth, at which both were present, on the 13th of November, 1772, he attracted the attention of the royal governor, to whom he was introduced, and on the following day was a guest at his table. The result was a commission as major in the militia, conferred by the governor on the future Count. This commission was bestowed on Rumford over the heads of men in the line of promotion, and resulted, for political and military reasons, in his becoming the subject of jealous feeling and hostile criticism. So far as is known he was at that time devoid of both military knowl- edge and experience. It was not so afterwards. And whatever may be said, it was the opinion of the men of that day that Rumford from the outset of his military career was at heart a loyalist : and Wentworth, the governor to whom he was indebted for his rise to military rank, was the last royal governor of New Hamp- shire. How much (and doubtless it was much ) feminine influence may have helped to secure his elevation to office is not determined. It is evident to the most superficial observer that his wife's influence was a potent factor in bringing about the result. Her father and brother were staunch supporters of the Ameri- can side in the revolution, and it is likely her notions afterwards were never again urged either on one side or the other of the contro- versy.

For a time, about 1773. Rumford became a gentleman farmer on his wife's estate. He had broad acres to till and employed many laborers. To Baldwin he wrote in the middle of July, 1773. "I am engaged in husbandry." In August, 1774, he wrote : "I have been ex- tremely busy this summer, or I should have given myself the pleasure of coming to see you."

At Concord, New Hampshire, where his family connections were the most powerful set among the inhabitants, Rumford was protected for a time by their influence. However, by the people at large he was distrusted. He was summoned before a committee at Concord in the summer of 1774 to answer to the suspicion of "being un friendly to the cause of Liberty." and he positively denied the charge, and chal -- lenged proof. No proceeding ensned against

*These incidents are also related with even more fullness of detail by Renwick. The most important was his narrow escape from serious injury and the loss of his life in an explosion of gunpowder with which he was preparing some fireworks for a cele- bration.

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. him, and he was discharged. In November, 1774. a mob gathered round his dwelling and demanded his appearance. Had Rumford been within he would have been foully dealt with. But he had secretly left Concord just before. His wife and her brother Colonel Walker, came forth and assured the mob that her husband was not in town, and the gathering dispersed.

Rumford thought it was to be only a tem- porary separation from the place. His wife and infant child were with him afterwards at Woburn and Boston, but his separation from Concord was perpetual. He found himself unsafe at Woburn, and next sought safety in Charlestown, and on his own admission he boarded in Boston ( the seat of a British army ) until a few days before the 19th of April, 1775. These facts are obtained from an interesting letter of Rumford's, in which, seeking for his goods, he gives incidentally an account of his inovements at the beginning of the revolution. Separating these facts from the vagaries of tradition, one gets a much clearer idea of the truth.

October 1, 1775, "I came out of Boston a few days before the affair at Lexington on the 19th April, and have since not been able to re- turn. When I left the town I little imagined that a return would be thus difficult, or, rather impossible, and therefore took no care to pro- vide for such a contingency. I can- not conclude without informing you that since I left Boston I have enjoyed but a very in- different share of health. Since the 12th of August I have been confined to my room the greatest part of the time, and this is the nineteenth day since I have had a settled fever upon me, which I fear is not come to a crisis yet. I have not been out of the Province of Massachusetts Bay since I saw you. Mrs. Thompson and little Sally* were with me during the month of May, since which time I have not had the pleasure of seeing either of them."

The events in Rumford's life after the few days before the 19th of April, 1775, when the struggle actually began which separated the United States of America from the English government, are continued under the heading "Woburn" in this article.

GREAT BRITAIN .- After boarding a British frigate in the harbor of Newport, Rumford sailed in her to Boston, and remained there until the evacuation of that town by the British forces, of which event he was the bearer of tidings to England. Henceforward to the end

of the war he was in the service of the British government. The intelligence of the evacua- tion was made public in London in May, 1776, but it is supposed that through Rumford's agency the event had been known to the gov- ernment before. There will be no further attempt in this article to trace minutely his future movements or to palliate his motives. On the occasion of his arrival, "by the clear- ness of his details and the gracefulness of his manners, he insinuated himself so far into the graces of Lord George Germaine that he took him into his employment." In 1779 he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society. In 1780 he was made "Under Secretary of State for the Northern Department," and the oversight of all the practical details for recruiting, equip- ping, transporting and victualling the British forces, and many other incidental arrange- ments, was committed to him. He held this office about a year. He next sought active service in the British army, and he was on the American side of the ocean in 1782, and he was honored at the aged of twenty-eight with the commission in the British army of a lieu- tenant-colonel. He provided for himself by raising a regiment among the loyal Americans, or Tories, of his native land. He himself said, he "went to America to command a regiment of cavalry which he had raised in that country for the King's service." He disembarked at Charleston, South Carolina, passed the winter there, led his corps often against the enemy, and was always successful in his enterprises. Here he had the reputation of defeating the famous Marion's brigade, when its commander was absent, who, however, came in season to take part in the action, but had the mortifica- tion of witnessing the discomfiture of his little band. In the spring of 1782 Rumford sailed from Charleston to New York, and took com- mand of his regiment there awaiting him, and passed the winter with his command at Hunt- ington, Long Island. It has been asserted, and apparently with truth, that he was merely quartered there from having nothing to do elsewhere. Cornwallis had already surrendered, and Rumford, by leave of absence dated April II, 1783, returned direct to England, where he was advanced to a colonelcy, and thus secured half-pay on the British establishment for the remainder of his life.

IN GERMANY .- Rumford, on his return from America, readily obtained leave of the King to visit the continent. He accordingly left Eng- land in September, 1783. He arrived at Stras- burg, where the Prince Maximilian of Deux

*For more about this daughter, see beyond. ii-3

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Ponts, then field-marshal in the service of France, and later Elector of Bavaria, was in garrison, who, when commanding on parade, saw among thie spectators an officer in a foreign uniform, mounted on a fine English horse, whom he addressed. The officer was Rumford, and thus began an acquaintance which had a decisive influence on his future career. The Elector of Bavaria, Charles Theodore, uncle to the above Prince Maximilian, gave Rumford an earnest invitation to enter into his service in a joint military and civil capacity. The English King granted Rumford the permission desired, and also conferred on him the honor of knighthood. He therefore entered, at Mun- ich, in 1784, on the service of the Elector. His labors ranged from subjects of the homeliest nature in relation to the common people, up to the severest tests and experiments in the inter- ests of practical science. On his arrival the Elector appointed him colonel of a regiment of cavalry and general aide-de-camp. He soon learned that the development of resources and the reform of abuses were the emergent needs of the Electorate. He made reforms in the army and for the removal of mendicity. The manner of their accomplishment has been a "household tale" for a century and a quarter .*

In 1788 the Elector made him a major-gen- eral of cavalry and privy councillor of state. He was put at the head of the war department. He was raised in 1791 to the rank of a Count of the Holy Roman Empire, and selected as his title the former name of the village in his own native country, where he had first enjoyed the favors of fortune,-that is, Rumford; and, criticize as one may, this distinction was won by merit. In 1796 he published his Essays- altogether on scientific subjects-in London. He had by 1797. "by his own exertions acquired a sufficiency" not only for his own "comfort- able support" during his life, but also to enable him to make a handsome provision for his (laughter. He was therefore willing to re- nounce all claims he might have on his late wife's estate, and engage his daughter to do so. He insisted, however, on the exchange of re- ceipts. His fame was also by this time well established in America. The property of his deceased wife came for the most part from her former husband, and would go mainly to her son by him. A portion of the widow's (lower which she had enjoyed as Mrs. Thomp- son, would legally descend to Rumford's daugli-

ter by her. On the event of a satisfactory arrangement with her relatives the Count agreed to assume the whole responsibility of her maintenance thereafter, and of provision for her survival, and that he would influence her to make a will in which in the event of her death all she received from these relatives would be returned to them or to their heirs. Her grandfather Walker left her a legacy of £140, to be received when she was married or when she was eighteen years of age. It is understood that all these matters were adjusted in a satisfactory manner. Rumford's foreign duties, however, and his obligations to the Elector, debarred him from serving in certain positions in England, and especially in the posi- tion of Minister Plenipotentiary from Bavaria to the Court of Great Britain, to which he had been appointed, it being contrary to the rules to receive in that capacity from another coun- try a British subject. At the age of forty-five Count Rumford had attained the climax of his political services.

CONCLUSION .- From 1800 to the date of his death in a suburb of Paris, August 21, 1814. Count Rumford's career furnishes less interest for Americans. He was engaged in 1799 in the establishment of a new scientific institution in London, called the Royal Institution of Great Britain, on a plan regarded exclusively as his own. He had reasons for believing that his official position in Bavaria would no longer yield the fruits it had previously enjoyed, and so he turned his attention more strictly to the pursuits of science. It is not our intention to enlarge on this, as there is plenty of published material at hand for any one who is interested to investigate it. A significant incident in con- nection with the name of his American birth- place, was his visit with his friend Pictet to Woburn Abbey, England, in the year 1801. He was in Paris before 1807. Previously, in 1805, he contracted a marriage with the rich widow of a celebrated French chemist. The money settled upon him by his second wife, or its remainder, he left by will to different insti- tutions : the reversion of half his Bavarian pen- sion he left to his daughter. Owing to incom- patibility of dispositions the couple separated by mutual agreement in 1809. The state of war in Europe aggravated his troubles and those of his second wife by preventing their content- plated travels for pleasure.

The subject with which, as a physicist, he was chiefly engaged was the nature and effects of heat. A superb bronze statute of him was set up in 1867, in one of the public squares of

*His career was greatly popularized, particularly in America, by an article in "Chambers Miscellany." which appeared in the year 1847.

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Munich, and a replica, the gift of a private citizen, was in 1899 erected in Woburn.

His daughter, Sarah Rumford, sailed from Boston for London in the winter of 1796, to see her father, who had come from Munich to meet her there. She went with him to Bavaria, and remained abroad a little more than three years. The praticulars of her stay are given in Ellis' Life. She received the title of Countess in 1797 from the Elector of Bavaria, and a pension which lasted during her life. She made a second visit to her father in 1811, and remained in France and England many years after her father's death. The Countess says, in her memoranda, that while her father was a great favorite with the ladies, some of them sharply censured him for the four following faults : "First, for living so short a time with his wives, considering him, from it, a bad hus- band; second, for taking sides against his country ; third, letting his daughter get on as she could, he revelling at the time in the city of Paris ; fourth, that he should pitch on Paris as a permanent residence, when both in Munich and in London he had made himself so useful, had won such honors, and had such distin- guished associates and friends." This, it should be understood, was the judgment of European women of his acquaintance, and Sarah display- ed more wisdom than she is usually accredited with when she made a record of it. Her at- tractions and ability were in no degree remark- able. In 1835 she came to America and again went abroad in 1838. In 1844 she came back. She died in the chamber in which she was born, December 2, 1852, and her remains lie buried in the old burial-ground at Concord, New Hampshire. By inheritance and otherwise she left a handsome estate. She devised her home- stead and fifteen thousand dollars in money to trustees to found an institution in Concord to be called "The Rolfe and Rumford Asylum" for young female orphans. The funds were allowed to accumulate. This institution was opened for use about 1882, and has been in successful operation since.

A translation of part of Count Rumford's epitaph at Paris (the original is in the French language) is here inserted as an admirable tribute to his worth:

Celebrated Physicist! Enlightened Philan- thropist! His Discoveries on Light and Heat have made His Name Famous. His Labors for the Bettering the Conditions of the Poor will Cause Him to be Forever Cherished by the Friends of Humanity.

In Bavaria, Lieutenant-General,

Head of the State,

Leader of the Realm, Major-General, State Councillor. Minister of War.

In France,

Member of the Institute.

and of

The Academy of Sciences.

The following significant opinion of Rum- ford's life was written in the year 1847, and forms the conclusion of the sketch in "Cham- bers Miscellany :"

"Rumford, whose memoirs we have now de- tailed, was not a faultless character, or a per- son in every respect exemplary ; but making due allowances for circumstances in which he was at the outset unfortunately placed, and keeping in mind that every man is less or more the creature of the age in which he lives, we arrive at the conclusion that few individuals occupying a public position have been so thoroughly deserving of esteem. The practical, calm, and comprehensive nature of his mind, his resolute and methodical habits, the benev- olence and usefulness of his projects, all excite our admiration. Cuvier speaks of Rumford as "having been the benefactor of his species with- out loving or esteeming them, as well as of holding, the opinion, that the mass of mankind ought to be treated as mere machines"-a re- mark which is applicable to not a few men who have been eminent for labors of a humane de- scription, and which naturally gives rise to this other remark -- "that a good intellectual method, directed to practical ends, is often of more value to mankind than what is called a good heart."

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Genealogical and personal memoirs relating to the families of the state of Massachusetts, Volume I, Part 122

Author: Cutter, William Richard, 1847-1918, ed; Adams, William Frederick, 1848- Publication date: 1910 Publisher: New York, Lewis historical publishing company Number of Pages: 924

Author: Cutter, William Richard, 1847-1918, ed; Adams, William Frederick, 1848-
Publication date: 1910
Publisher: New York, Lewis historical publishing company
Number of Pages: 924