troduction of water into the city. He was in full superintendence, under the mayor and a water board. In the course of the work he sailed with his family to Europe to superintend the casting of the pipes, gates, etc., and to arrange for their shipment.

In 1857-58 he was in Europe with his family, principally in Paris and London, with many excursions. With accomplished skill in draughting and etching, his pencil was ever busy in sketching all the objects of special interest, and his descriptions are illustrated by a mass of drawings, more or less perfected.

He was connected as consulting engineer with many more modern works, the most important, perhaps, being the Boston, Hartford, and Erie railroad. His journals show how fully every interval between these public works was improved. He was skilled in all family, horticultural, and agricultural labors, and his pen was ever busy in his own affairs, or for the service of friends.

He married December 6, 1837, the stepdaughter of his brother Loammi, namely, Catherine Richardson Beckford, daughter of Captain Thomas and Catherine (Williams) Beckford, of Charlestown. Her father was. at one time the partner of Joshua Bates, the London banker. Mrs. Beckford had two daughters by her first marriage, but no child by her second. He had but one child, a daughter, who married, and resides mainly in Quebec.

(BY ARTHUR G. LORING.)

was

Benjamin Thompson, better RUMFORD known as Count Rumford, a great-great-greatgrandson of James Thompson, one of the original settlers of Woburn, and prominent among those who early fixed their residence in that part of that town, which is now known as North Woburn. The same difficulty which meets not a few who search in vain for the details of the old English history of their ancestors, meets us, at the outset, says the family historian, in regard to him: -but little is known of his English antecedents, except that he was born in 1593; married a wife whose only name known to us was Elizabeth; had three sons and one daughter, all born in England, and early in 1630, when he was thirty-seven years of age, joined the company, who, under the lead of Governor John Winthrop landed in New England during that year. The tradition is

that James Thompson landed at Salem in the early part of June.

The numerous individuals bearing this almost universal name may be considered as befogging the subject, and therefore, in spite of vigilant research, it seems to be impossible to ascertain the place of his birth. Absolute proof is lacking up to the present date on the subject. It may be that he belonged to the numerous related families of Thompsons in London and several of the nearest counties around that metropolis. These families embraced a number that were eminent in the intellectual, social, and religious world, including a number who received the order of knighthood. The coats-of-arms of some of them, though differing slightly, are essentially the same. James Thompson first located himself at Charlestown, where he and wife were admitted to membership in the church at that place, August 31, 1633. He was admitted a freeman later in the same year. In December, 1640, he was one of thirty-two who subscribed the town orders or by-laws for Woburn. This town was incorporated in 1642, and he was chosen a member of the board of selectmen and served the town in that office with occasional brief intervals for about twenty years. He held also various minor offices. He was twice married. His first wife, Elizabeth, dying November 13, 1643, he married, February 15, 1644, Susannah Blodgett, widow of Thomas Blodgett, of Cambridge. She died February 10, 1661. Children: I. James, died January 24, 1647, an unmarried young man. 2. Simon, married Mary Converse (Edward, 1). 3. Olive, married September 3, 1650, John Cutler, and died before her father's death. 4. Jonathan, see forward.

James Thompson died 1682, at the age of eighty-nine years. eighty-nine years. His will, dated the last day of February, 1681 (meaning, of course, 1681-2), speaks of him as being greatly stricken in years; names his son, Jonathan Thompson, the only child of his then living; Sarah Rednap and Hannah Horn (sisters), his grandchildren; John Cutler and Susannah Logee (or Logan), his grandchildren, and his son Jonathan's six children (not given by name), James Thompson, "my grandchild," and John Sheldon, Senior (who married his son Simon's widow); his son Jonathan he appoints his executor; Samuel Blodgett, Senior, and John Mousall, overseers, and he gave Mr. Blodgett "Mr. Rogers his book," and Mr. Mousall, “a pair of new gloves."

(II) Jonathan Thompson, son of James Thompson (1), born in England, died at Woburn, October 20, 1691, married November 28, 1685, Susanna Blodgett (Thomas), died February 6, 1697-8, a daughter of his father's second wife who bore her mother's name. He inherited his father's homestead. He was the first male teacher ever employed under the authority of the town of Woburn. He was also in subsequent years a constable and town sexton. Children: 1. Susannah, born July 4, 1661, married March 7, 1700, Abraham Roberts of Reading. 2. Jonathan, born September 28, 1663, see forward. James, born 1666, died young. 4. James, born June 27, 1667, married October 22, 1695, Sarah Trask. 5. Sarah, born June 1, 1670, married April 11, 1692, John Swan. 6. Simon, born June 15, 1673, married December 12, 1700, Anna Butterfield. 7. Ebenezer, born August 18, 1676, died February 19, 1697-8, unmarried.

3.

(III) Jonathan Thompson, son of Jonathan Thompson (2), born September 28, 1663, died 1748, married Frances Whitmore, daughter of Francis Whitmore, of Cambridge. He was a resident of Woburn, in the part now North Woburn. Children: I. Jonathan, born February 9, 1689-90, married first, September 3, 1713, Phebe Carter, of Woburn; married second, Abigail Fowle, of Woburn. 2. Hannah, born January 28, 1691-92, married Josiah Pierce. 3. Joseph, born October 20, 1694, married December 30, 1718, Sarah Bradshaw, of Medford. 4. James, born November 14, 1696, married Mary Hancock, of Lexington. 5. Susannah, born July 6, 1699, married March 21, 1722, Benjamin Mead. 6. Ebenezer, born March 30, 1701, see forward. 7. Mary, born August 18, 1703, married first, William Cowdry, of Reading; married second, January 20, 1736-7, Captain Isaac Hartwell, of Oxford. 8. Samuel, born September 8, 1705, married Ruth Wright, of Woburn. 9. Patience, born October 25, 1713, married Timothy Lamson, of Concord. IO. Esther, married 1740, Amos Lamson. II. Jabez, married November 13, 1735, Lydia Snow. Daniel, died young.

12.

(IV) Ebenezer Thompson, son of Jonathan Thompson (3), born March 30, 1701, died 1755, married September 27, 1728, Hannah Converse, born May 10, 1706, daughter of Captain Robert and Mary (Sawyer) Converse of Woburn. He was captain of the local militia company designated as the second foot company of the second regiment of

Middlesex County, of which regiment Eleazer Tyng, Esq., was colonel. Thompson's commission was dated July 3, 1753. He occupied the house now standing, known as the Rumford birthplace. Children: 1. Benjamin, born November 27, 1729, see forward. 2. Ebenezer, born September 15, 1731, graduated Harvard College, 1752, and became the pastor of the church at York, Maine, where he died unmarried in 1755. 3. Hannah, born September 21, 1734, married March 8, 1753, Benjamin Flagg of Woburn. 4. Hiram, born May 17, 1743, married February 3, 1767, Bridget Snow of Woburn.

(V) Benjamin Thompson, son of Captain Ebenezer Thompson (4), born November 27, 1729, died November 7, 1755, married May 30, 1752, Ruth Simonds, born October 10, 1730, died at Baldwin, Maine, June 18, 1811, daughter of Lieutenant James and Mary (Fowle) Simonds; she married second, Jan

1, 1756, Josiah Pierce, of Woburn. Benjamin Thompson died before completing his twenty-sixth year, and resided in the house of his father, now known as the Rumford birthplace. His gravestone is standing in the first burial ground of Woburn. Child: I. 1. Benjamin, born March 26, 1753, see forward.

(VI) Benjamin Thompson, son of Benjamin Thompson (5), born March 26, 1753, died in Paris, France, August 21, 1814, married first, November, 1772, or December 25, 1772, Sarah (Walker) Rolfe, widow of Benjamin Rolfe, and daughter of Reverend Timothy and Eunice (Burbeen) Walker, of Rumford, now Concord, New Hampshire; she was born August 6, 1739, and died January 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: 1. Sarah, born October 18, 1774, (?) died at Concord, New Hampshire, December 2, 1752.(?) •

His Simonds ancestry is this: 1. 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, 1), died February 9, 1714-15. Their son, 3. Lieutenant James Simonds, born November

1, 1686, died July 30, 1775, in his eightyninth year, married June 17, 1714, Mary Fowle (Captain James, 3, Lieutenant James, 2, George, 1), born June 18, 1689, died March 9, 1762. Their daughter, Ruth Simonds, born October 19, 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 10, 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, Hannah 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, married December 19, 1698, Mary Sawyer, daughter of Joshua and Sarah (Wright-Potter) Sawyer. Their daughter, Hannah Converse, born May 10, 1706, married September 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 geographically for the sake of convenient reference, 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 distinguished son, and that his mother soon married 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 playmate with younger members of the Baldwin family, his stepfather's opposite neighbors; attended scientific lectures at Harvard College with Loammi Baldwin, later famous as a colonel under Washington in the Revolutionary War and a projector of the Middlesex

a

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 principle, which, as even Dr. Ellis admits, would not insure with propriety all his domestic relations 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 ancestors have ever lived in reputable situations in that country where he was born, and have hitherto used the arms of the ancient and respectable 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 Rumford birthplace. His widowed mother was remarried 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 considerable American performance on the subject. Professor 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 Thompson, Count Rumford." This manuscript was in existence in 1845, but its present whereabouts is to us unknown. Josiah Pierce, haif-brother of Count Rumford, 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 "Thompson Memorial" (Boston, 1887), p. 50. This branch of the Pierce family were among the founders of the present town of Rumford, Maine.