Joseph Tompson

Joseph Tompson was born on May 1, 1640, the son of Rev. William Tompson, pastor of the church in Braintree. His elder brother William, who had studied at Harvard College alongside the future Billerica minister Samuel Whiting, spent several years as a missionary among the Pequot Indians at New London, Connecticut, and died young. His father had married the mother of Simon Crosby as his second wife, and town historian Henry Hazen counts the two stepbrothers among "an important circle of eight families" that Braintree gave to Billerica. In the land division of November 1659 Tompson and Peter Bracket held in common the right of John Gurney of Braintree, and in 1660 he was granted a house lot of "twenty and seaven acreis" at the easterly edge of the Dudley farm, in the southeast part of the village; in Hazen's day it was Mr. Tufts' place, at the end of Tufts' lane.

On July 22, 1662 he married Mary Bracket, daughter of Deacon Richard Bracket of that town; Simon Crosby married her sister. Mary died on March 23, 1678-9, and on March 17, 1680-1 he married Mary Denison of Roxbury, daughter of Edward Denison, who survived him and died on October 9, 1743, at the age of 90. Among their children were Benjamin Tompson, later town clerk and representative, and Mary, who in 1710 married Ephraim Manning, son of Samuel Manning.

The son and brother of ministers, Tompson was better educated than most of his neighbors; Hazen thought that "with the possible exception of Danforth" he was the best educated man in town. On January 19, 1679-80 the selectmen chose "Ens. Tompson" as Billerica's first schoolmaster, "to teach such to read and to write as shall come to him to learn," and "it was many years before he had a successor." He kept the school for more than thirty years in his own house; no payment appears in the town accounts until 1710, when he received one pound as schoolmaster.

In Indian wartime he rose through the ranks of the town's military company. As Sergeant Tompson he was master of one of the garrison houses of 1675. When the company chose its officers on June 17, 1689 it gave him thirty-five votes to twelve for Captain Danforth, but the governor and council would not consent and insisted "that Danforth remain Captain and Tompson Lieutenant"; he later held the rank of Captain himself. He was one of the selectmen, and in March 1677-8 he signed, with Jonathan Danforth and Samuel Manning, the selectmen's reply to Cambridge about running the bounds between the towns. He succeeded Danforth as town clerk, in Hazen's words, although Hazen's own list of clerks puts Samuel Manning in the office from 1686 to 1690, and Tompson kept the records in 1691, 1693 to 1698 and 1700 to 1702; his "fine but not very distinct writing" survives in county and state archives as well as the town books. In May 1700 he signed, as "your humble supplicant, Joseph Tompson, in the behalf of the Town of Billerika," a petition asking the General Court to confirm the town's lands, pleading that Billerica was "a frontier" that had "been at sundry times broken in upon by the enemie." He represented the town in the General Court several times, in 1692 and from 1699 to 1702; in February 1692-3, when the town decided to send one deputy instead of two, it dismissed Tompson and kept Captain Ralph Hill. Hazen also names him among the well-informed citizens who served their neighbors in legal matters before the town had any lawyer.

Tompson was a deacon of the church. When the town allowed pews to be built in the meeting house in 1711-12, "Captain Tompson" was granted a place "between Mr. Whiting's pue and the East door," and the three deacons, of whom he was one, were named with Major Lane and Oliver Whiting to regulate the pews. He died on October 13, 1732, "in 93d y." as the town record puts it.

References

1. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883), Genealogical Register p. 148, TOMPSON family #1 (parentage, brother William, birth 1640)
2. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883), Genealogical Register p. 149, TOMPSON #1 (house lot, first schoolmaster, deacon, town clerk, Captain, representative, marriages, death)
3. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883), p. 27, First Settlers (Braintree circle of families; Tompson and Crosby married Bracket sisters)
4. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883), p. 253, Education (chosen schoolmaster 1679-80; taught more than thirty years; paid 1710)
5. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883), p. 126, 1689 election of militia officers (Tompson chosen over Danforth; confirmed as Lieutenant)
6. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883), p. 176, Religious History (Captain Tompson's pew; the deacons, 1711-12)
7. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883), p. 80, Boundaries (May 1700 petition signed by Joseph Tompson for the town)
8. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883), p. 304, lists of town clerks and representatives
9. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883), p. 111, The Indians and Wamesit (garrison houses of 1675; Sergeant Tompson a master of garrison)
10. Vital Records of Billerica to 1850 (1908), deaths p. 399 (Capt. Joseph Tompson, Oct. 13, 1732, in 93d year; his wives)