USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Historic homes and places and genealogical and personal memoirs relating to the families of Middlesex County, Massachusetts, Volume I > Part 19
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(VI) Benjamin Thompson, son of Benja- min Thompson (5), born March 26, 1753, died in Paris, France, August 21, 1814, mar- ried first, November, 1772, or December 25, 1772, Sarah (Walker) Rolfe, widow of Ben- jamin Rolfe, and daughter of Reverend Timothy and Eunice (Burbeen) Walker, of Rumford, now Concord, New Hampshire; she was born August 6, 1739, and died Jan- uary 19, 1792. He married second, October 24, 1805, Marie Anne Pierrette (Paulze) Lavoisier, born at Montbrison, January 20, 1758, died at Paris, February 10, 1836, daughter of M. Paulze, farmer-general of the finances, and widow of Antoine Laurent Lavoisier, the famous chemist and discoverer of oxygen. Child: I. Sarah, born October 18, 1774, (?) died at Concord, New Hamp- shire, December 2, 1752. (?)
His Simonds ancestry is this: I. James Simonds, of Concord and Woburn, whose second wife was Judith (Phippen) Hayward, to whom he was married January 18, 1643-4. Their son, 2. James Simonds, born at Woburn, November 1, 1658, died September 15, 1717, married December 29, 1685, Susanna Blodgett (Samuel, 2, Thomas, I), died February 9, 1714-15. Their son, 3. Lieutenant James Simonds, born November
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I, 1686, died July 30, 1775, in his eighty- ninth year, married June 17, 1714, Mary Fowle (Captain James, 3, Lieutenant James, 2, George, I), born June 18, 1689, died March 9, 1762. Their daughter, Ruth Simonds, born October 10, 1730, married May 30, 1752, Benjamin Thompson (V.) and was the mother of Benjamin Thompson, Count Rumford.
His Converse ancestry is this: Deacon Edward Converse of Woburn, son of Allen Converse, was the father of Lieutenant James Converse, who died at Woburn, May IO, 1715, aged ninety-five years; married first, October 24, 1643, Anna Long, of Charlestown (Robert), born about 1625, died August 10, 1691. Their son, Major James Converse, born November 16, 1645, died July 8, 1706, married January 1, 1669, Han- nah Carter (Captain John), born January 19, 1651, who married second, November 22, 1708, Henry Summers, of Charlestown. Their son, Captain Robert Converse, born December 29, 1677, died July 20, 1736, mar- ried December 19, 1698, Mary Sawyer, daughter of Joshua and Sarah (Wright-Pot- ter) Sawyer. Their daughter, Hannah Con- verse, born May 10, 1706, married Septem- ber 27, 1728, Ebenezer Thompson (IV) ..
(BY WILLIAM R. CUTTER.)
So much has been written RUMFORD concerning the life of Count Rumford that the principal events in the career of this remarkable man may be summarized in a cursory manner geo- graphically for the sake of convenient refer- ence, paying particular attention in passing, to a few facts or incidents that are not generally known.
AT WOBURN .- Woburn was the place of his birth. Aside from the date of the event and the names of his parents, and the fact that his father died soon after the birth of his dis- tinguished son, and that his mother soon mar- ried again, almost nothing is actually known of his early childhood. He was brought up in the residence of his stepfather, Josiah Pierce ; attended the Woburn grammar school, kept by the celebrated master, John Fowle; was a playmate with younger members of the Bald- win family, his stepfather's opposite neigh- bors ; attended scientific lectures at Harvard College with Loammi Baldwin, later famous as a colonel under Washington in the Revolu- ticmry War and a projector of the Middlesex
Canal and as the namesake of the Baldwin apple.
Some account of the history of the house in which he was born has been given elsewhere in this work.
Dr. George E. Ellis, the author of the only standard "Life of Count Rumford" (Memoir of Sir Benjamin Thompson, Count Rumford, with notices of his daughter. By George E. Ellis. Published for the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Boston)* mentions Rumford as dependent on his own exertions, without inherited means, or patronage, or even good fortune ; and while this may be to some extent true of his early life in Woburn, it was not true of his later life. Likewise it must be admitted that he had in his early, as he had in his later life, a lack of that rigid purity of prin- ciple, which, as even Dr. Ellis admits, would not insure with propriety all his domestic rela- tions being the subject of exact record. The cause of these failings in virtue is referred to the influences he encountered on foreign soil, and to foreign customs in such matters which prevailed in his day.
The emblazoned diploma of arms which he received in his thirty-first year from the king of England when he became a knight, states in dignified terms that he was the "son of Benjamin Thompson, late of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, in New England, Gent : deceased, and one of the most ancient families in North America ; that his an- cestors have ever lived in reputable situations in that country where he was born, and have hitherto used the arms of the ancient and re- spectable family of Thompson, of the county . of York, from a constant tradition that they derived their descent from that source."
He was born, it is said, in the west end of the house now standing at North Woburn, and generally known by the name of the Rum- ford birthplace. His widowed mother was re- married when he was three years old, and his stepfather took his new wife and her child to another house not far distant, but long since
*"The Life of Rumford by Prof. James Renwick" (Spark's Biography, 2nd ser., vol. V.) is the next con- siderable American performance on the subject. Pro- fessor Renwick expresses obligation for the use of a manuscript belonging to Josiah Pierce, half-brother of Count Rumford, entitled by its author "Outlines of the Family, Infancy and Childhood of Benjamin Thomp- son, Count Rumford." This manuscript was in exist- ence in 1845, but its present whereabouts is to us unknown. Josiah Pierce, half-brother of Count Rum- ford, married Phebe, daughter of Daniel and Phebe (Snow) Thompson, of Woburn. His wife's father was killed in the battle of Lexington and Concord, April 19, 1775. For an account of their children see "Thomp- son Memorial" (Boston, 1887), p. 50. This branch of the Pierce family were among the founders of the pres- ent town of Rumford, Maine.
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Replica of Statue of Count "Rumford"( Benjamin Thompson) on grounds of Woburn Public Library
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removed, which stood opposite, as before said, the present Baldwin mansion.
The fact, which has been stated, particu- larly in France, that the child's stepfather banished him from his house in his infancy, whether this information be gotten from Count Rumford himself or not, must be taken with much allowance for the exuberance of the French imagination. For it was contrary to the usual New England character and con- trary to the regard which Count Rumford afterwards showed to his mother and her children born of Josiah Pierce. That his early life was always smooth we do not pretend to assert, but that any excessive cruel treatment was given the child, that we deny. Making allowance for overcolored statement, a few facts from the Count's lips are here advanced :
"If the death of my father had not, contrary to the order of nature, preceded that of my grandfather, who gave all his property to my uncle, his second son, I should have lived and died an American husbandman. Shortly after the death of my father, my mother contracted a second marriage which proved for her a source of misfortunes. A tyrannical husband took me away from my grandfather's house with her. I was then a child ; my grandfather, who survived my father only a few months, left me but a very slender subsistence. I was then launched at the right time upon a world which was almost strange to me, and I was obliged to form the habit of thinking and act- ing for my self, and of depending on myself for a livelihood.
"My ideas were not yet fixed ; one project succeeded another, and perhaps I should have acquired a habit of indecision and inconsist- ancy, perhaps I should have been poor and un- happy all my life, if a woman had not loved me,-if she had not given me a subsistence, a home, an independent fortune."
Anticipating a little, we continue: "I mar- ried, or rather, I was married, at the age of nineteen. I espoused the widow of a Colonel Rolfe, daughter of the Rev. Mr. Walker, a highly respectable minister, and one of the first settlers of Rumford. He was already con- nected with my family. He heartily approved of the choice of his daughter, and he himself united our destinies. This excellent man be- came sincerely attached to me ; he directed my studies, he formed my taste, and my position was in every respect the most agreeable that could possibly be imagined."
It is admitted by Baron Cuvier that Rum- ford had informed him himself that he would have probably remained in the modest condi-
tion of his ancestors if the little fortune which they had to leave him had not been lost during his infancy. Thus a misfortune in early life, as in many other cases, was the cause of his subsequent reputation. His grandfather, from whom he had everything to expect, had given all he possessed to a younger son, leaving his grandson almost penniless." This and the loss of his father and the second mar- riage of his mother, and his so stated removal from her care, leads to the conclusion that "Nothing could be more likely than such a destitute condition to induce a premature dis- play of talent."
These statements and imputations resting apparently upon positive assertions made by himself, however, leave room for supposing that his eulogists, being both of them French- men, may have erred in a matter of sentiment, by exaggerated expressions. (Ellis, Life, p. IO.) Common reputation gives him an excel- lent mother, who never neglected him, but ap- pears to have treated him with a redoubled love. His own letters to her, when in a state of popular celebrity, comfort and affluence abroad, in her later years, are full of affection and tender regard. The alleged tyranny of his stepfather finds no statement on the part of the new husband's descendants as a reason for the justification of any charges of that kind. The stepfather appears to be in every aspect of the case a kind and faithful husband and took his wife's child with her to a new home, as already shown. The eldest son by her second marriage grew up with the Count as a playmate, and in after life as a correspondent, and a son of this half-brother never heard any- thing from his father that would warrant an imputation of ill treatment.
It is not to be doubted from his insistent will during life, that he exercised the patience and sympathy of his friends somewhat severely, and by, perhaps, at the outset, a de- termined unwillingness to apply himself to any routine and rewarding work in accordance with their old-fashioned New England ideas.
It is evident from the handwriting of the Count when he was only thirteen years of age, and from the spelling and the almost faultless grammatical expressions in his letters and compositions before he had reached manhood, and from his skill in accounts, that he had not only remarkable native powers, but had been the subject of careful and thorough training. Credit for this is given to his village teacher, Master John Fowle, a graduate of Harvard College in 1747, a man of unusually good reputation in this line of work. The hand-
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writing of Rumford was clear, strong, and elegant in his youth, and it remained so through his life, and it has been asserted that the mode of instruction through which young Rumford and his contemporaries passed af- forded a superior training with more signal results than was realized later under more elaborate provisions for elementary education. Rumford indicated from his earliest years an intense mental inclination for things scien- tific in their nature, and showed a particular ardor for mathematics, and his leisure was de- voted to the manufacture of ingenious me- chanical contrivances, leading early in his career to an interest in the deeper principles of mechanics and natural philosophy, as it was then understood.
It is said of him that he was for a time a pupil in a school at Byfield, under the charge of a relative, that he was, when eleven years old, put under the care of an able teacher in Medford, named Hill; that in 1766 he was apprenticed to a Mr. John Appleton, of Salem, an importer of foreign goods, and a bill for goods bought from this store and receipted by Rumford when he was only fourteen years old is remarkable for grace of penmanship, mercantile style, and business-like signature. But his career in Salem is to be treated separ- ately, and we pass on to a later date in Wo- burn.
In 1771 young Rumford began the study of medicine with Dr. John Hay, of Woburn. He appears to have been a boarder in his house from December 15, 1770, to June 15, 1772. Dr. Hay lived on the estate now known as the Kimball estate, 732 Main street, Central Square, and his house at a later date was called the "Black House," and was standing as late as 1854. Dr. Hay returned about 1780 to his native town of Reading, where his father was also a physician. While boarding at Dr. Hay's, Rumford attended Mr. Winthrop's lectures at Cambridge (1771) and from December 9, 1771, to February 5, 1772, he was keeping school at Wilmington. In March and April, 1772, he was doing the same. And in June, 1772, he was absent for the part of a week at Bradford, probably arranging for work of a similar kind, as he is credited with having been a teacher there.
The following is an account of the division of his time while a student at Dr. Hays : "From eleven at night to six in the morning, sleep. At six, arise, and wash my hands and face. From six to eight, morning, exercise one-half and study one-half the time. Eight to ten A. M., breakfast, attend prayers. From
ten to twelve, study all the time. From twelve to one, dine. From one to four, study con- stantly. From four to five, relieve my mind by some diversions or exercises .. From five till bedtime, follow what my inclination leads me, whether it be to go abroad, or stay at home and read either anatomy, physic, or chemistry, or any book I want to peruse." His studies while at Dr. Hay's were divided into days. The list was anatomy, physic, surgery, chemistry and the materia medica.
The above data are taken from minutes- made by Rumford himself at the time. Through the influence of Baldwin he obtained with his friend the privilege of attending Professor Winthrop's lectures at Cambridge, neither young man being a regular student at the college there. It is said that they walked to and from the place to their homes at Wo- burn, and were in the habit of repeating the experiments witnessed, with rude apparatus of their own contrivance at their homes after- ward.
The exact time when Rumford taught. school in Bradford is not definitely stated, but it was some time in the year 1772. His ex- perience here led to his being appointed in the- same year to the mastership of a school in. Concord, New Hampshire, then known as a. town by the name of Rumford ; but his arrival there was followed by his speedy marriage.
It is our intention to ignorethe various tradi- tions which have befogged the actions of Count Rumford in Woburn about the time of the battle of Lexington and Concord, April 19, 1775, and present only an extract from a letter of that time which has a very pointed refer- ence to him in connection with his arrest on. that date, while he was at his mother Pierce's. house in North Woburn, by a military com- pany of the town, when he was confined there by an illness, probably the one he mentions in his letter of October 1, 1775, which we have quoted elsewhere. He said, "I came out of Boston a few days before the affair at Lexing- ton," having "enjoyed, since I left Boston a very indifferent share of health." It is sup- posed then that he took refuge at his mother's, and was ill there on the day of April 19, as be- fore hinted. The quotation from the other let- ter mentioned is here presented. It is an auto- graph letter from Major Josiah Johnson to James Fowle, Esq., dated September 9, 1775, both influential men of middle life in the then town of Woburn :"
"The town of Woburn upon the shortest notice mustered and marched 180 brave men, well equipped, for the assistance and relief of
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their distressed brethren at Concord, whither the Ministerial troops had stolen their march for the destruction of our magazine there de- posited, whose heroic deeds under the prudent conduct of Captain Jonathan Fox and others (on the emergency of the 19th of April last) greatly added to the glorious achievements of that memorable day. Though we don't find this Captain Fox justly charged with the illboding conduct of promoting the escape of a supposed enemy that day captiv- ated and committed to safekeeping by the heroism of others, whose worthy deeds justly entitled them to a much better fortune; a fact notoriously regretted."*
His release is credited and probably cor- rectly to the influence of his friend Baldwin. He had his trial later. Woburn is only five miles from Lexington, and hesitation on the part of any man to go to the field on Lexing- ton's battle-day was, under the excitement which prevailed, a dangerous thing to display. It is commonly believed that every able- bodied Woburn man was present in the en- gagement, and the excuses of the few left, who did not go, were rigidly inquired into, and Rumford's case among the rest. The ap- pearance of a militia company before his house on the evening of that day, and its object, is clearly explained by the letter which we have quoted. Rumford was indeed favored by hav- ing influential friends throughout the whole of his career.
In a letter written from Woburn, May II, 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, fol- lowing, he was arrested in Woburn, and his trial was appointed at the meeting-house in the first parish of that town, on Thursday, May 18, at two P. M. Baldwin states in his diary that Rumford 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 "dis- position unfriendly to American 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 Narragan- sett 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 Miscellany," (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 comfortable circumstances and fond of the consideration and opportunities of enjoy- mnt which they afforded him, averse to any disturbance, such as a war between the colonies and the mother country would cause, but that his constitution and tempera- ment, his liking for calm intellectual pur- suits, disqualified him from taking part in political agitation. Many men who have dis- tinguished themselves in literature 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 ad- vantage. In the case of Thompson, however, who as yet had not begun to lay claim to the character of a man devoted to scientific pur- suits, his countrymen thought, not altogether unreasonably, that they had grounds of com- plaint. 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 can- did 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."
*In the "Journals of the Provincial Congress is pre- served a petition of Count Rumford in reference to his trial at Woburn in May, 1775. It contains nothing new in idea, however, beyond what we present.
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Colonel Baldwin, his intimate friend, writ- ing in 1805, confirms the idea of his indiffer- ence: "From this general view of the con- duct 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 seriously considered the origin and progress of the contest; and if he sought for employment against his countrymen, he had sufficient opportunities of being grati- fied."*
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 minis- ter, the Rev. Thomas Barnard, gave him his friendship and encouragement. As he says, himself, "The father of one of my com- panions, a very respectable minister, and, besides, very enlightened (by name Bar- nard) gave me his friendship, and of his own prompting, undertook to instruct me. He taught me algebra, geometry, astronomy, and even the higher mathematics. Before the age of fourteen, I had made sufficient progress in this class of studies to be able without his aid, and even without his knowl- edge, to calculate and trace rightly the ele- ments of a solar eclipse. We observed it to- gether, and my computation was correct within four seconds. I shall never forget the intense pleasure 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 my- self to anything but my favorite objects of study."
*The reader is referred to the Life by Professor Renwick (Spark's Biographies) for many particulars regarding Rumford's life in Woburn and Salem, based apparently on the statements in the manuscript 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 Miscel- lany," published about 1847. While very interesting we have omitted them here, because of their evidently overcolored and traditionary 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 admirable 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 im- portant part of the Pierce manuscript and the Bald- win article of 1805, which he refers to.
While in Salem he had permission 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 becoming less neces- sary, owing to the obstructions imposed upon trade before the opening of the Revo- lutionary War, he was sent to Boston and apprenticed to a similar business to that he had been at Salem.
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