j6 Life of Count Rumford. 



" To the Honourable the Committee of Safety for the Colony of 



Massachusetts Bay. 



" The Petition of Benjamin Thompson, Esq., of Concord, in 

 the Province of New Hampshire, humbly sheweth : 



" That on Monday, the I5th inst., your petitioner was taken 

 up and confined in this Town, upon suspicion of being inimical 

 to the liberties of this Country ; and that in consequence of his 

 being taken up, the Committee of Correspondence for the 

 Town, after having given public notice of the time and place 

 of hearing, and desired all persons that could give evidence to 

 attend, proceeded to an examination of the affair, agreeable to 

 the recommendation of the Honourable Provincial Congress. 

 But as no person appeared to lay anything of consequence to 

 his charge ; and as the Committee were not pleased either to 

 acquit or condemn him ; and as his own personal safety, as well 

 as the quiet and satisfaction of the public, but more especially 

 of the people of New Hampshire, depends on his having an 

 acquittance after the most public, thorough, and impartial 

 examination, your petitioner humbly prays that the Committee 

 of Safety would be pleased to take the matter into .consideration, 

 and examine the same ; and that they would be pleased to give 

 notice of the time and place of hearing, not only to the people 

 of New Hampshire, and others that are in the Army at Cam- 

 bridge, or elsewhere, but also that the public in general, and 

 the inhabitants of the Town of Concord, in the Province of 

 New Hampshire, and the adjacent Towns in particular, be de- 

 sired to attend or send in depositions of what they know relative 

 to the affair. 



" And your petitioner, as in duty bound, shall ever pray, &c. 



"BENJ. THOMPSON. 



" WOBURN, May 19, 1775."* 



May 20, 1775, Colonel Baldwin makes the follow- 

 ing entry : 



" Saturday, I presented a Petition to the Committee of Safety, 

 sent me by Major Thompson, and brought by Alexander 



* Force's American Archives, 4th Series, Vol. II. pp. 647, 648. 



