Sarah Thompson, Countess Rumford, (18 October 1774 – 2 December 1852) was a philanthropist. She is the first American to be known as a

Countess Count (feminine: countess) is a historical title of nobility in certain European countries, varying in relative status, generally of middling rank in the hierarchy of nobility. Pine, L. G. ''Titles: How the King Became His Majesty''. New York: ...

.Metcalf, p. 84
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Early life

Thompson was the daughter of the Anglo-American

physicist A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate cau ...

and inventor

Benjamin Thompson Sir Benjamin Thompson, Count Rumford, FRS (german: Reichsgraf von Rumford; March 26, 1753August 21, 1814) was an American-born British physicist and inventor whose challenges to established physical theory were part of the 19th-century revolut ...

and of Sarah Rolfe, a rich and well-connected heiress, who was thirteen years older than her husband. Both were born and brought up in the American

colonies In modern parlance, a colony is a territory subject to a form of foreign rule. Though dominated by the foreign colonizers, colonies remain separate from the administration of the original country of the colonizers, the '' metropolitan state'' ...

and married there in 1772. During the

American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...

of 1775 to 1783, Benjamin Thompson took the side of the British, and at the end of the war he moved to London. He was

knight A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a head of state (including the Pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church or the country, especially in a military capacity. Knighthood finds origins in the Gr ...

ed in 1784. In 1785, when Sarah Thompson was eleven years old, her father moved to

Bavaria Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...

to become an '' aide-de-camp'' to the

Prince-elector The prince-electors (german: Kurfürst pl. , cz, Kurfiřt, la, Princeps Elector), or electors for short, were the members of the electoral college that elected the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. From the 13th century onwards, the prin ...

Charles Theodore. She, however, remained in

New England New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York (state), New York to the west and by the Can ...

with her mother. In 1792, Sir Benjamin Thompson was created a

Count Count (feminine: countess) is a historical title of nobility in certain European countries, varying in relative status, generally of middling rank in the hierarchy of nobility. Pine, L. G. ''Titles: How the King Became His Majesty''. New York: ...

of the

Holy Roman Empire The Holy Roman Empire was a political entity in Western, Central, and Southern Europe that developed during the Early Middle Ages and continued until its dissolution in 1806 during the Napoleonic Wars. From the accession of Otto I in 962 ...

. He took the name "Rumford" for Rumford, New Hampshire, which was an older name for the town of

Concord Concord may refer to: Meaning "agreement" * Pact or treaty, frequently between nations (indicating a condition of harmony) * Harmony, in music * Agreement (linguistics), a change in the form of a word depending on grammatical features of other ...

, where he had been married, becoming "Count Rumford".

Adult life

Around 1796, at her father's request, Sarah Thompson traveled to

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

to be with him, since four years earlier her mother had died.Bouton, p. 572 In 1797, the Elector of Bavaria accepted Thompson as a Countess of the Holy Roman Empire. In recognition of her father's military services to Bavaria, she was to be given one half of his pension of 2000 florins upon his death, with the right to live in any country she wished. When her father died in 1814 she became "Countess Rumford". Thompson spent her time between her homes in Brompton, London, and Concord, New Hampshire, with other trips in-between. She often would travel to

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

and lived there for two and three years.

Later life

From 1845, Thompson lived primarily at her home in Concord, New Hampshire.Burton, p. 573 She lived there in luxury with an adopted daughter until her death in 1852. Thompson established the Rolfe and Rumford Asylums in Concord, New Hampshire. She provided assistance to and bequeathed large sums of money to charitable societies in Concord and Boston for needy children, motherless girls, widows, and the mentally ill. The

United Way United Way is an international network of over 1,800 local nonprofit fundraising affiliates. United Way was the largest nonprofit organization in the United States by donations from the public, prior to 2016. United Way organizations raise funds ...

in 1984 founded the Rumford Society in honor of the charitable donations given by Thompson. Her gravestone monument reads,

Bibliography

* * * * * * * * Metcalf, Henry Harrison et al., ''The Granite Monthly'', published 1886, Original from the University of California, Google Books digitized. *

References

External links

A Biography of Benjamin Thompson (her father), written in 1868

{{DEFAULTSORT:Thompson, Sarah 1774 births 1852 deaths German countesses People from Concord, New Hampshire People of New Hampshire in the American Revolution Counts of the Holy Roman Empire