4 THE ROYAL INSTITUTION. [CHAP. I. 



Thompson family. He was the chief man in Concord. 

 His son was a colonel and a lawyer, and his daughter, 

 when about thirty, was married to Colonel Rolfe, who 

 was sixty. She was left a rich widow in two years, and 

 in the middle of the following year Thompson came as 

 schoolmaster to Concord. He was not yet quite twenty. 

 His friend Baldwin describes him ' as of fine, manly 

 make and figure, nearly six feet high, with handsome 

 features, bright blue eyes and dark auburn hair. His 

 manners were polished and his ways fascinating, and he 

 could make himself agreeable. He had well used his 

 opportunities of culture, so that his knowledge was 

 beyond that of most of those around him, and he was 

 able to give satisfaction as a teacher.' 



In the country parsonage and at Colonel Walker's 

 house he frequently met Mrs. Rolfe, and he told his 

 friend Professor Pictet that she married him rather 

 than he her. This was about the end of 1772, when he 

 was nearly twenty. He had to teach no more in school. 

 His marriage made him one of the chief men in Con- 

 cord. 



After his marriage he went with his wife to Ports- 

 mouth, where she knew Governor Wentworth. 'He 

 saw in young Thompson not only the representative of 

 a family already known in the public and social life of 

 his province, but also a man of much promise, one 

 likely to work vigorously in whatever he took up.' The 

 Grovernor soon gave Thompson a commission as major 

 in the second provincial regiment of New Hampshire. 

 The young officer at once became an object of jealousy 

 and ill-will to all the lieutenants and captains of his 



