Benjamin Tompson
Benjamin Tompson, born in 1642 in Braintree, Massachusetts, was an influential figure in early American literature and education. After graduating from Harvard College in 1662, Tompson pursued a career in teaching classical languages across various Massachusetts towns. His interests broadened to medicine during King Philip's War, where he occasionally served as a physician. While much of his poetry has been lost, notable works include elegies that reflect on personal loss and satirical commentary on the Puritan society of his time.
Tompson's poem "New Englands Crisis" addressed the conflicts between settlers and Indigenous peoples, achieving recognition in England and marking him as a significant literary voice of the colonial period. His reputation grew as he contributed prefatory poems for notable works, including those by William Hubbard and Cotton Mather, often infused with a playful tone. Following personal tragedies, including the death of his first wife, he married Prudence Payson, who supported his literary endeavors. Although Tompson garnered acclaim during his lifetime, his legacy has since become less prominent in the annals of American literature.
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Benjamin Tompson
- Born: July 14, 1642
- Birthplace: Braintree, Massachusetts, American colonies
- Died: April 10, 1714
- Place of death: Massachusetts, American colonies
Biography
Benjamin Tompson was born in 1642 in Braintree, Massachusetts, some five years after his parents immigrated to New England from England. His mother died soon afterward, and he was largely raised by his neighbor, Thomas Blanchard. He attended Harvard College, graduating in 1662, and then lived with his father for four years until his father’s death. A year later, he married Susanna Kirtland, with whom he would eventually have nine children.
It was assumed at the time that most graduates of Harvard would become ministers; Tompson, on the other hand, was more interested in teaching. He taught classical languages in schools in the Massachusetts towns of Boston, Charlestown, and Braintree. He also grew interested in medicine during King Philip’s War in 1676, and would occasionally work as a physician as well as a teacher.
Although much of Tompson’s writing has been lost, he began writing poetry not long after leaving college. The earliest extant poem is “Remarks on the Bright and Dark Side of Mr. William Tompson,” an elegiac consideration of his father, notable in part because its characterization of the Puritan settlements in North America are contrasted by “Gulielmi Tompsoni Braintreensis,” written the next year but not published, which seems to question the Puritan cause in America. He then composed a long elegy for the death of Robert Woodmancy, head of the Boston Latin School, titled “The Grammarians Funeral,” which struck a satirical tone rather than a mournful one. The poem was not published until 1708, perhaps because of Tompson’s own vulnerability in his position as a teacher.
Tompson had a series of disagreements with school authorities and did not teach for many years during the 1670’s; much of his better-known poetry dates from this period. After his experience in King Philip’s War, he wrote New Englands Crisis: Or, A Brief Narrative of New Englands Lamentable Estate at Present, Compar’d with the Former (but Few) Years of Prosperity . . . . This poem tells of the conflict between the New England settlers and the Algonquins, led by the leader of the Wampanaoag, known as either Metacomet or King Philip. The poem was very successful in England, and was subsequently followed by a longer, updated version of the poem, New- Englands Tears For Her Present Miseries: Or, A Late and True Relation of the Calamities of New-England Since April Last Past . . . .
The year 1676 would continue to be productive for Tompson, as he wrote an elegy published in broadside eulogizing the passing of John Winthrop, Jr. As Tompson’s reputation grew, he was asked to write a prefatory poem for William Hubbard’s A Narrative of the Troubles with the Indians in New-England. He was then asked to perform a similar duty for Cotton Mather’s Magnalia Christi Americana; typically, he could not resist a few puns poking fun at Mather.
After his first wife’s death, Tompson married wealthy Prudence Payson in 1698, who functioned in part as his patroness. Tompson would continue to publish elegiac verse and to work at securing his literary reputation in both the colonies and in England. Although he gathered some acclaim during his life, his star has dimmed over the years.