544 Life of Count Rumford. 



in Paris, as well as the Count's at Brompton, was to 

 revert to the survivor of the two. A further agreement, 

 to which reference will by and by be made," appears to 

 have been entered into between the parties, as to the 

 retaining by the lady of the name of her former husband. 

 At this stage of the arrangements, the Count ascer- 

 tained that requirements of law in France made it neces- 

 sary for him to obtain certain documents from America. 

 The following is a letter from him to his daughter : 



" PARIS, 2 July, 1804. 



" MY DEAR SALLY, This letter, which will be entirely 

 devoted to very serious and important business, will, no doubt, 

 obtain your serious attention. 



u In order to be able to complete in a legal manner some 

 domestic arrangements of great importance to me and to you, 

 I have lately found, to my no small surprise, that certificates of 

 my birth and of the death of my former wife are indispensably 

 necessary. You can, no doubt, very easily procure them, the 

 one from the Town Clerk of Woburn, the other from the 

 Town Clerk of Concord. And I request that you would do 

 it without loss of time, and send them to me under cover, or 

 rather in a letter addressed to me, and sent to the care of my 

 Bankers in London. As an accident may possibly happen to 

 that letter, I beg you would at the same time send another set 

 of these certificates directly to Paris, addressed to me, Rue de 

 Clichy, No. 356. 



" I should imagine that the Certificate of my Birth might be 

 drawn up in the following form : 



" This is to Certify that Benjamin Thompson, now Count 

 of Rumford of the Holy Roman Empire, the Son of the late 

 Mr. Benjamin Thompson, of Woburn, in the County of Mid- 

 dlesex, in the State of Massachusetts, Yeoman, and Ruth his 

 wife, was born at Woburn, on the 26 th day of March, in the 

 year 1753. In witness whereof, I, the Town Clerk of the said 

 Woburn, have hereunto put my name, &c. 



