THOMPSON, Daniel Pierce, author, born in Charlestown (now a part of Boston), Massachusetts, 1 October, 1793; died in Montpelier, Vermont, 6 June, 1868. He was the grandson of Daniel, who was a cousin of Benjamin Thompson, Count Rumford, and was killed at the battle of Lexington. He was brought up on a farm. prepared himself for college under difficulties, taught for one winter, and then entered Middlebury college, where he was graduated in 1820. Going to Virginia as a family tutor, he studied law there, and was admitted to the bar in 1823, after which he returned to Vermont and settled in Montpelier. He was register of probate in 1824, and clerk of the legislature in 1830-'3, and was then appointed to compile the "Laws of Vermon" from 1824 down to and including the Year 1834" (Montpelier, 1835). He was judge of probate from 1837 till 1840, from 1843 till 1845 clerk of the supreme and county courts, and from 1853 till 1855 secretary of state. From 1849 till 1856 he edited a weekly political paper called the " Green Mountain Freeman." He was a popular lecturer before lyceums and orator on public occasions. Mr. Thompson began to contribute poems and sketches to periodicals while he was in college, and continued to write frequently for the newspapers and magazines, besides publishing political pamphlets. He took part in the anti-Masonic controversy, and published a satirical novel on the subject, entitled "The Adventures of Timothy Peacock, Esq., or Freemasonry Practically Illustrated," which appeared under the pen-name of "A Member of the Vermont Bar" (Middlebury, 1835). In 1835 he wrote for the "New England Galaxy," of Boston, a prize tale called "May Martin, or the Money-Diggers," which was issued in book-form (Montpelier. 1835), and reprinted in London. Next appeared "The Green Mountain Boys," a romance, in which the principal men connected with the history of Vermont in the Revolutionary period are brought into the plot (Montpelier, 1840; republished in Boston and London) ; "Locke Amsden, or the Schoolmaster" (Boston, 1845) ; "Lucy Hosmer, or the Guardian and the Ghost" (1848); and "The Rangers, or the Tory's Daughter" (1851). His later romances are "Tales of the Green Mountains" (1852); "Gaut Gurley, or the Trappers of Lake Umbagog" (1857); "The Doomed Chief, or Two Hundred Years Ago." based on the story of King Philip (Philadelphia, 1860) ; and " Centeola, and other Tales" (New York, 1864). He was also the author of a " History of Montpelier, 1781-1860, with Biographical Sketches" (Montpelier, 1860). In later life he published monographs on topics of American history and on biographical subjects in various magazines. A novel, with the title of "The Honest Lawyer, or the Fair Castaway," was left unfinished.