1775. JET. 22.] COUNT RUMFORD. 11 



Dr. Ellis, in his admirable biography, says : 



Major Thompson remained in and about Woburn two 

 months after writing his last letter to Mr. Walker, in 

 which he so deliberately avowed his intentions. He settled 

 his affairs with his neighbours, collecting dues and paying 

 debts, well assured that his wife and child would lack none 

 of the means of a comfortable support. Having thus made 

 all his preparations, he started from Woburn, October 1&, 

 1775, in a country vehicle, accompanied by his step- 

 brother, Josiah Pierce, who drove him near to the bounds 

 of the province, on the shore of Narragansett Bay, whence 

 young Pierce returned. Thompson was taken on board 

 the ' Scarborough,' British frigate, to Newport and from 

 thence to Boston. 



In the Alienation Act of the Senate of New Hampshire 

 in 1778 he was named among the proscribed ; and in 

 1781, the confiscation papers of his property call him 

 4 of Woburn, physician, now an absentee.' 



Whilst Mr. Thompson was at Boston the American 

 rebellion became a revolution. General Gage was suc- 

 ceeded by General Howe, and to him Lord Dartmouth 



even the colour of a judicial proceeding, banished from their tenderest 

 connections into the remotest part of another province. Nor can it be 

 unknown to you that many have suffered death from tortures inflicted 

 by the unrelenting populace under the eye of usurped yet passive 

 authority ; that some have been dragged to trial for their loyalty and, 

 in cruel mockery of law, condemned and executed ; that others are now 

 perishing in loathsome dungeons, and that penal edicts are daily issuing 

 against all who hesitate to disavow, by a solemn oath, the allegiance 

 they owe and wish to pay to their sovereign.' 



General Howe shows the exasperation of the Royalists also. He says : 



' Members of committees, collectors of arbitrary fines, &c., oppressors 



of the peaceable inhabitants, have been seized by the exasperated 



inhabitants of different parts of the country and delivered into my 



hands.' 



