Benjamin Tompson

Benjamin Tompson (1642 – April 13, 1714) was an American Puritan poet, author, educator and physician from the Massachusetts Bay Colony, who is widely considered by historians as the "first native-born poet in America". He is also noted for his poems and writings involving King Philip's War and related conflicts between the colonies and Massachusett Indian Nations in 17th-century southern Massachusetts. In the aftermath of Indian attacks and the burning of entire towns and churches, Tompson saw this as an occasion to memorialize the tragic loses incurred in the conflicts through poetry and other writings in the hopes that it would also inspire other writers who were generally silent to take up the cause. His poem, Harvardine Quils, is the definitive example, directed at Harvard's scholars and other writers.

Family background
Tompson was born on July 14, 1642, in which was then a part of Braintree. His parents were William Tompson and Abigail Tompson; Benjamin was the youngest of five children.

William was born in Lancashire county in 1596 or 1597; he likely attended the school in Winwick and knew Richard Mather who attended the same parish as he, and who had a great influence on William. William, a Puritan minister and the first pastor at Braintree, had emigrated from England in 1636. at a time when a "flood tide" of English migration to the colony was occurring. In May 1642, the Colony of Virginia was in need of ministers, where they sent some seventy letters to Boston in the hopes that they would heed their call and send any ministers that could be spared. The elders met and the letters were publicly read at a town meeting where it was agreed to send three ministers on the mission. William was one of the few ministers chosen, as he was one of several ministers who belonged to churches that had more than one minister. They set out in October from New York, but before they made it to the open sea they struck some rocks at Hell Gate and to prevent foundering they ran their ship ashore. While detained at New Amsterdam, they received "slender entertainment" and accommodations from the Dutch governor. It was mid-winter before they were able to secure another pinnace for their journey, where they departed from Narragansett Bay in October and safely arrived in Virginia. They were cordially received by the townspeople who welcomed their ministerial efforts. They were not, however, received in the same manner by the Virginia authorities because, as Puritans, Tompson and the other ministers would not conform to the dictates and precepts of the Church of England. Subsequently, they were ordered to return to Boston, as Puritanism was not tolerated by Governor Sir William Berkeley and his officers. Sometime in the summer of 1643, they arrived back in Boston.

Benjamin's mother died shortly after his birth and he subsequently was raised in the household of Thomas Blanchard, a neighbor. He attended Harvard College and graduated in 1662. In 1666 his father died. The next year Benjamin married Susanna Kirtland, with their marriage producing nine children. When he was fifty-one Susanna died in 1693. Subsequently, he was forced to take care of his children as a single parent. On December 13, 1698, he married Prudence Payson, a widow. Benjamin's older brother was Samuel Tompson, who was a Puritan Deacon.

Vocations
Tompson taught at the Roxbury free school for three years, founded by Puritan missionary John Eliot, which eventually became the Roxbury Latin School. Among his students was Cotton Mather. Thereafter he returned to Braintree, presumably in 1704, remaining there until 1710. Throughout his adult life he practiced medicine as a physician and was also a disciplinary teacher. As an author and poet Tompson is credited for being the first American-born poet to emerge. He is noted for his writings and poems eulogizing the various conflicts between the colonists and the Indigenous peoples of Massachusetts. Because the work involved an epic issue in New England it became one of the best sellers in England, where works by American writers were welcomed. When Tompson was able to find time not involved with his teaching he pursued his writing aspirations and taught himself the art of writing poetic verse, and was motivated more by his own enthusiasm than from the influence of other writers.

After years of co-existence between the colonists and local Indigenous nations, Tompson was deeply moved by the conflicts and destruction that erupted during King Philips War in 1675–1676. In an effort to memorialize the loss of life Tompson took to poetry, which he also employed as a means to get other writers to join in the effort to bring attention to matters. Historian Peter White maintains that with the outbreak of the war, Tompson saw himself as "the public, representative voice" of threatened Massachusetts, and that he "decided to declare himself spokesman, apologist, critic, war correspondent."

Tompson's works include New Englands Crisis, his most publicized work, a series of poems involving the troubles of King Philip's War, which included his definitive poem, Harvardine Quils. It was Tompson's appeal and a challenge to the writers of New England to join in the effort of memorializing the tragic losses. The first verse reads:

"What meanes this silence of Harvardine quils While Mars triumphant thunders on our hills. Have pagan priests their Eloquence confin'd To no mans use but the mysterious mind? Have Pawaws charm'd that art which was so rife To crouch to every Don that lost his life? But now whole towns and Churches fire and dy Without the pitty of an Elegy. Nay rather should my quils were they all swords Wear to the hilts in some lamenting words. I dare not stile them poetry but truth The dwindling products of my crazie youth If these Essays shall rouze some quainter Pens Twill to the Author make a rich amends."

The rights to the publication were bought by Boston's John Foster, who printed them in 1676; they are regarded as "the first collection of American poems to be printed in what is the American colonies". Also in 1676, Tompson wrote and published New-Englands tears for her present miseries, printed in London, discussing the cause of conflicts between colonists and Indigenous peoples.

Not long after the death and funeral of John Winthrope, a Puritan and once governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony, Tompson wrote a Funeral Tribute in his honor, which appeared in New-Englands Tears.

There are varying opinions among some historians as to who had the most inspirational influence on Tompson's authorship and his use of satire. Historian Moses Coit Tyler held the view that it was the English poet and social commentator, John Dryden, who bore the most influence on Tompson's work, and in particular his New Englands Tears. Two of Dryden's works make reference to Tears in regards to the English colonies. Historian Howard Judson Hall held the opinion that it was Tompson's teacher, John Quarles, who had the greatest influence. Historian Edwin Sill Fussell, however, maintains that the evidence to support either view conclusively, while compelling, is circumstantial, as both Dryden and Quarles made use of satire in their writings.

On June 1, 1699, Gabriel Bernon sold Tompson and wife Prudence his mansion with two and one-half acres in Roxbury for 110 pounds. On January 3, 1670, Tompson refused an offer to teach in Boston, as he had accepted a call to teach at Charleston, replacing Ezekiel Chevers, the former teacher. He taught there until November 1674. The years spent between 1674 and 1678 remain uncertain due to lack of any records, diary entries or letters. Beginning in 1700 Thompson once again was teaching at the Free School in Roxbury, remaining there for the next three years. In 1704 he returned to Braintree and taught at the local school there, while also serving as the town clerk.

Historian Howard Hall believed that Tompson remained in Braintree until 1710, when old age compelled him to return to Roxbury where he lived with his sons, Benjamin, a saddler, and Philip, also a physician. Historian Peter White, however, said it was more likely that after Tompson retired as town clerk he returned to Roxbury with Prudence, his second wife, and once again took up residence in the Bernon mansion, where he lived out the remaining years of his life.

Final days and legacy
Tompson died at his home in Roxbury on April 13, 1714, at the age of 71–72. His tombstone at the Eliot Burying Ground is inscribed with the following inscription: "Learned schoolmaster and physician and the renowned poet of New England".

Tompson's writings are historically significant because they reveal a common example of poetic verse in New England during the late seventeenth century, and because of their subject content: "it concerns itself specifically for the most part with native material&mdash;Indian wars and Puritan divines, colonial fashions, attitudes, and standards". Conversely, in terms of literary style Tompson's work is considered adequate rather than exceptional.