Benjamin Tompson

Background

Benjamin Tompson was the son of the Rev. William and Abigail Tompson. He was born on July 14, 1642 in Quincy, Massachussets, then a part of Braintree, five years after his father emigrated from England to the colonies. His mother died shortly after his birth, and he was brought up chiefly in the household of Thomas Blanchard, a neighbor, who moved from Braintree to Charlestown.

Education

Tompson probably studied with John Morley, the local schoolmaster. He graduated at Harvard College in 1662 and, until his father's death in December 1666, lived with him in Braintree.

Career

In 1667 he succeeded Robert Woodmansey as master of the "free school, " now the Boston Latin School. In January 1670/71 Ezekiel Cheever replaced him, and Tompson taught in Cheever's former position in Charlestown until November 7, 1674.

He seems to have had no regular employment again until 1679, when he began teaching in Braintree. He continued in this work until 1699. He taught in Roxbury, at what is now the Roxbury Latin School for three or four years, and then resumed his place in Braintree, probably in 1704, and kept it till 1710.

Throughout his life he labored as physician as well as pedagogue, and his interest in medicine grew with the years. The writing of verses, too, took a share of his time. There were printed before his death: New Englands Crisis at Boston in 1676 and New-Englands Tears for Her Present Miseries at London in 1676, two volumes of verse on King Philip's War, much of the contents being identical; A Funeral Tribute to Gov. John Winthrop of Connecticut, a broadside printed in Boston in 1676; The Grammarians Funeral, an elegy on Robert Woodmansey, printed as a broadside, probably in Boston, in 1708; "Upon the Elaborate Survey of New-Englands Passions from the Natives, " prefixed to William Hubbard's A Narrative of the Troubles with the Indians (1677); "Upon the Very Reverend Samuel Whiting" and "Celeberrimi Cottoni Matheri, " both in Cotton Mather's Magnalia (1702); A Neighbour's Tears on . Mrs. Rebekah Sewall in Boston in 1710; and "The Translation by Death of . Mr. James Allen, " in Benjamin Wadsworth, Death is Certain (1710). These, and his other verses, left in manuscript, have been collected in H. J. Hall, Benjamin Tompson. His Poems (1924), except for two which are included in K. B. Murdock, Handkerchiefs from Paul (1927).

It is only as a verse-writer that Tompson is remembered, and it is only among his New England contemporaries that he has distinction. He handled couplets competently and is at his best in satire, but his work lacks any truly poetic quality. He displays, however, some signs of literary training and a constant effort to conform to the literary fashions of his time. His writing is of interest because it represents the cultivated standard of achievement in verse in New England in the late seventeenth century, and particularly because it concerns itself specifically for the most part with native material--Indian wars and Puritan divines, colonial fashions, attitudes, and standards. Subject rather than style makes Tompson's verse a minor landmark in American literary history.

Achievements

• Benjamin Tompson is remembered as a poet who wrote "Upon the Elaborate Survey of New-Englands Passions from the Natives, " prefixed to William Hubbard's A Narrative of the Troubles with the Indians (1677); "Upon the Very Reverend Samuel Whiting" and "Celeberrimi Cottoni Matheri, " both in Cotton Mather's Magnalia (1702) and A Neighbour's Tears on . Mrs. Rebekah Sewall in Boston in 1710.

Works

More photos

• book

  • New England's crisis

    ( About the Book Books about American Poetry present the...)

  • New England's crisis, (The Club of Odd Volumes I. Early American poetry)
  • Benjamin Tompson, 1642-1714: First Native Born Poet of America

Connections

In 1667 he married Susanna Kirtland, who bore him nine children.

Father:

William Tompson

(1597–1666)

Mother:

Abigail Collins Tompson

(1605–1642)

Spouse:

Susanna Kirtland Tompson

(1652–1693)

child:

Abigail Tompson Belcher

(b. 1670 )

Brother:

Joseph Tompson

(1639–1732)

Brother:

Eliezur Tompson

(b. 1635 )

Brother:

Samuel Tompson

(1630–1695)

Sister:

Eleanor Tompson French

(1626–1711)

References

• Biographical sketches of graduates of Harvard University, in Cambridge, Massachusetts / by John Langdon Sibley. Volume 2 of 3