58 Life of Count Rumford. 



his own school, and that there was no instructive book 

 in the village, or in the not scanty library of his father- 

 in-law, who had thrice been a sojourner in England, 

 whose contents had not attracted him. 



His marriage, enabling him to give over the necessity 

 of school-keeping, furnished him the leisure and the 

 means for making excursions at his pleasure. Besides 

 his acquaintance with Governor Wentworth at Ports- 

 mouth, he had also, on visits with his wife to Boston, 

 been introduced to Governor Gage, and several of the 

 British officers, and had partaken of their hospitalities. 

 Two soldiers who had deserted from the army in Bos- 

 ton, finding their way to Concord, had been employed 

 by him upon his farm. Thinking they would do better 

 to return to their ranks and their comrades, they had 

 sought for the intervention of their employer to secure 

 them immunity from punishment. Thompson ad- 

 dressed a few lines for this purpose to General Gage, 

 asking, at the same time, that his own agency in their 

 behalf should not be disclosed. 



I can find no positive and direct evidence of any 

 unfriendly or unpatriotic act done by Mr. Thompson, 

 or even of any speech of such a character attributed to 

 him. None such is upon record. His friend, Colonel 

 Baldwin, stood by him, as would appear, confidently 

 and heartily. But his brother-in-law, the Hon. Tim- 

 othy Walker, next to his father the most influential 

 man in Concord, with other friends, by advising his 

 leaving that town, help us to conjecture what may have 

 been the facts of the case, though no witness ever ap- 

 peared to testify against him when opportunity was 

 given. Besides his acquaintance with the royal gov- 

 ernors, the patronage he had received from one of them, 



