My Loyalist Ancestors - Benjamin Thompson AKA Count Rumford

The Count Rumford birthplace in Woburn, MassachusettsThis is the second blog post on a Loyalist ancestor I have written this year for the 250th anniversary of the United States. Benjamin Thompson is my first cousin, six generations removed. His mother, Ruth Simonds (b. 1730) is the sister of my 5th great grandfather, Caleb Simonds (1720 - 1811). Benjamin Thompson was born 26 March 1753 in Woburn, Massachusetts in the house of his grandfather, Captain Ebenezer Thompson. He attended the local schools until he was eleven years old, when he was sent (along with his young friend and neighbor Loammi Baldwin) to Medford to study mathematics, astronomy and science. At age 13 he was bound as an apprentice to a Salem merchant, John Appleton. Thompson went home to Woburn soon after because Appleton lost his business when the relations between the colonies and England became strained. Then he taught school in Wilmington in 1768 and 1769. Later in 1769 he again studied science (anatomy and…