Life of Count Rumford. 95 



months of his new apprenticeship in Boston, in order 

 to have won so soon the place of an official in the Brit- 

 ish government 



o 



It has come down distinctly in the family of the Rev. 

 William Walter, D. D., as I learn from a granddaugh- 

 ter, that during Thompson's stay in Boston he was a 

 somewhat secret inmate of that clergyman's family in 

 their house in South Street. Dr. then Mr. Walter, 

 a graduate of Harvard College in 1756, was Rector of 

 Trinity Church in Boston, having been ordained by 

 the Bishop of London. There is a vague tradition 

 that the Rev. Mr. Walker contrived to have an inter- 

 view quite an unsatisfactory one with his son-in- 

 law while he was thus a guest of Mr. Walter. It may 

 have been so. But the jealousy of any intercourse be- 

 tween the town and the suburbs when occupied respec- 

 tively by the hostile armies, and the difficulties thrown 

 in the way of such intercourse, render this alleged inter- 

 view doubtful, and, unless sought by both parties, 

 improbable. I am inclined to believe that Mr. Walter 

 and Thompson were fellow-passengers to England. 

 They were thenceforward intimate friends. At the 

 peace, Mr. Walter came to Sherburne, Nova Scotia, 

 as a Doctor of Divinity, and there exercised his clerical 

 functions, having received a large grant of land from 

 the crown. He returned to Boston in 1791, and was 

 chosen Rector of Christ Church. I find mention of 

 him till his death, in 1800, in letters of Count Rum- 

 ford, as a confidential friend with whom he corre- 

 sponded. Unfortunately, the Count's numerous letters 

 to him have not been preserved. 



Of course there was much interest and curiosity 

 among the friends and relatives of Major Thompson 



