Benjamin Tompson 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".
14 Facts About Benjamin Tompson
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Benjamin Tompson is 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.
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Benjamin Tompson's parents were William Tompson and Abigail Tompson; Benjamin was the youngest of five children.
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Benjamin Tompson's mother died shortly after his birth and he subsequently was raised in the household of Thomas Blanchard, a neighbor.
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The next year Benjamin Tompson married Susanna Kirtland, with their marriage producing nine children.
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Benjamin Tompson taught at the Roxbury free school for three years, founded by Puritan missionary John Eliot, which eventually became the Roxbury Latin School.
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Benjamin Tompson is noted for his writings and poems eulogizing the various conflicts between the colonists and the Indigenous peoples of Massachusetts.
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When Benjamin 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.
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Benjamin 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.
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Also in 1676, Benjamin Tompson wrote and published New-Englands tears for her present miseries, printed in London, discussing the cause of conflicts between colonists and Indigenous peoples.
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Not long after the death and funeral of John Winthrope, a Puritan and once governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony, Benjamin Tompson wrote a Funeral Tribute in his honor, which appeared in New-Englands Tears.
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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, a physician.
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Historian Peter White said it was more likely that after Benjamin Tompson retired as town clerk he returned to Roxbury with Prudence, his second wife, and took up residence in the Bernon mansion, where he lived out the remaining years of his life.
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Conversely, in terms of literary style Benjamin Tompson's work is considered adequate rather than exceptional.