1 8 Life of Count Rumford. 



Mother will giue me and a Count there of. Sir, I hear you liue 

 Shingel as yet, but dont Exspect it will be so long. Sir, Remem- 

 ber me to Ben 1 ) and to M* West. No more at this time. So 

 I Remain yours to Serue, 



"JOSHUA SIMONDS." 



John Sparhawk Appleton, of Salem, the son of the 

 gentleman to whom the above letter is addressed, has 

 appended to it the following: "Benjamin Thompson 

 (afterwards Sir Benjamin, and Count Rumford) was 

 apprenticed to John Appleton, merchant, Salem, Octo- 

 ber 14, 1766, with whom he continued until about 

 October, 1769, as appears by some memoranda sent 

 to Professor Levi Hedge, Cambridge, this 25th March, 

 1817." 



In a memoir of the late Francis Peabody, President 

 of the Essex Institute in Salem, communicated to 

 that body by Hon. C.- W. Upham, a very interesting 

 reference is made to the temporary residence of young 

 Thompson in that town. Mr. Upham traces that very 

 laborious and flourishing institution back through a 

 series of organizations, all having scientific and literary 

 objects in view, to a social evening club, formed about 

 the middle of the last century to promote literature and 

 philosophy. Beginning at that date, Salem and its 

 neighborhood was the home of many prominent men, 

 distinguished for enterprise in commerce and for attain- 

 ments in law, science, and manufacturing skill, whose 

 names are now famous in the history of the past. Mr. 

 Upham suggests that the lad of thirteen years, from the 

 farm in Woburn, must have found, from his genius 

 for observation and the improvement of opportunities, 

 some efficient impulse and help for his future course 

 in the place of his service. His employer, though 



