RUMFORD. 103 



admitting British goods. These disturbances caused Mr. Capen's 

 business to decline as Mr. Appleby's had formerly done, and 

 Thompson was again obliged to return to Woburn. He now 

 seriously turned his attention to the acquisition of scientific know- 

 ledge, and in company with his friend Baldwin attended a course of 

 lectures on experimental philosophy delivered at Harvard College, 

 instituting at the same time many experiments of his own, some of 

 which proved the germs of valuable conclusions published in after 

 life. In particular may be mentioned a course of experiments which 

 he began in order to ascertain and measure the projectile force of 

 gunpo\vder. 



Thompson, though still only in his seventeenth year, had now 

 acquired a certain amount of reputation ; he was also endowed with 

 much natural grace and many personal advantages, which subse- 

 quently proved the means of gaining him access to the fir^t circles 

 in Europe. 



Towards the close of the year 1770 he was invited by Colonel 

 Timothy Walker, one of the most important residents in the village 

 of Rumford, now Concord, in New Hampshire, to take charge of an 

 Academy in that place. Two years later, at the age of twenty, he 

 married Mrs. Rolfe, a colonel's widow possessed of a considerable 

 fortune. After his marriage Thompson took his place as one of the 

 wealthiest inhabitants of the district in which he resided, mixing 

 with the best society the colony afforded. Among others he made 

 the acquaintance of the governor John Wentworth, who, wishing to 

 attach to the British party so influential a colonist, gave Thompson 

 the commission of major in a regiment of the New Hampshire 

 Militia, in which a vacancy had occurred. This act of attention, 

 while gratifying to Thompson, procured him much ill-will from the 

 officers already in the service, and over whose head he had been 

 promoted. 



From this period he began to be unpopular in his native country. 

 He was represented as a friend of Great Britain, and an enemy to 

 the interests of the colonies. The public hatred of him at length 

 rose to such a height, that he only escaped by flight from the 

 ignominy of being tarred and feathered in the open streets. Leaving 

 his wife and an infant daughter, Thomas first took refuge in his 

 native town of Woburn, and then proceeded to Charlestown where 

 he remained for several months. From Charlestown he went to 

 Boston, at which place he was well received by General Gage and 

 the officers of the British army at that time in garrison at Boston. 

 Returning in the spring of 1775 to Woburn, he again ran the risk of 

 being tarred and feathered, but was saved by the interference of his 

 friend Baldwin. 



The commencement of open hostilities between the Colonists and 

 the British troops in May, 1775, made Thompson's position still 

 more critical, and finding that he could not overcome the prejudice 



