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Samuel "Shark" Thompson came to Coventry in 1806 at first purchasing lot 139 on the Irasburg
border along Linton Hill Rd. He then purchased from Joseph Marsh 2 parcels of land in lots 136
and 137 just to the north and for awhile lived in Marsh's cabin. According to Pliny White, Thompson was quite a character: |
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He was a most original and eccentric character, and
was familiarly called "Shark Thompson." His moods were various and contradictory. At times he
was irritable in the extreme, and the slightest provocation would rouse him to ungovernable
wrath which vented itself in the most horrid profanity and most brutal conduct. One of his
cotemporaries said that "he could swear the legs off from an iron kettle in less than two
minutes." He ruled his family with a rod of iron. A son of his was once the innocent cause of
the death of a cow, and for nine successive days Thompson administered to him a severe whipping
every morning and evening. He was poor to the very last degree of penury. Very often his wife
and children suffered severely for want of suitable food and clothing. Sheriffs constantly
harassed him with attachments and executions, and were sometimes greatly harassed in return.
Jotham Pierce once attempted to serve a process on him by driving away some cattle, which
Thompson prevented by putting up the bars as often as Pierce could let them down. During the
struggle, Thompson, having a favorable opportunity, caught one of Pierce's fingers between his
teeth, and fixed them into it with a vigor and tenacity of grip, which, in the officer's
estimation, fully justified the appellation of "Shark." But there was another side to his
character. He was very kind and obliging to his neighbors, and would divide his last morsel of
food with any one who was in need. He was full of sympathy for the sorrowful and suffering.
Tears would flow copiously down his sun-burnt cheeks as he stood by the bedside of a dying
neighbor, and from the depths of his soul would come up the consoling expression, "By Judas,
it's too bad," which was his unvarying formula on such Occasions. He had by nature a strong
mind, though it was never cultivated. There being no lawyer in the immediate vicinity, he took
up pettifogging, in which he achieved a good deal of celebrity. He had a gift of extemporizing
law to meet the emergencies of a case, and the fluency and vigor of speech with which he
maintained his positions rendered him an antagonist not to be despised even by the regular
practitioners of the law. In after-life, he moved to Potten, C. E., where he made a profession
of religion, and became an active, exhorter. How well he succeeded in that capacity may be
inferred from the account he himself gave of one of his performances - "I attended an evening
meeting, and found them all dull and sleepy. The spirit didn't move a bit. Pretty soon I thought
I would see what I could do, and I got up, and in less than five minutes, by Judas, I had 'em
all afire." Pliny White, History of Coventry, Vermont. |
| Evidence of Mr. Thompson's troubles with attachments and executions from the sheriff can be seen in his petition to the Vermont general assembly in October of 1814 "for an act of suspension" of his debts. Having been arrested in September 1813 he spent the next 13 months in the common jail in Brownington apparently for failure to pay his debts. |
 Samuel Thompson's petition for an act of suspension (1) |
To the Honorable the General assembly
of the State of Vermont to be convened
at Montpelier in said State on the second
Thursday of October Instant. The petitioner
Saml. Thompson of Brownington in
the County of Orleans humbly sheweth
that your honors petitioner is now & has-
been, for thirteen Months now last passed
confined a prisoner in the common Gaol
in Brownington in the County of Orleans
and that your petitioner has a family of
a wife, and five children, dependent on him
for support and that from various disappoint-
ments and misfortunes he is wholly unable
to pay his debts and support his family at
this time and that his property consists of
a farm in Coventry in the County of Orleans
for which he gave Eight hundred dollars
and executed a Mortgage deed securing the
payments for sd. farm and that your petitioner
has payed about five hundred dollars towards
said farm and has made large improvements on
the same & your petitioner further states that it
is out of his power to sell said farm in consequence
of its being on the northern frontier where no sails [sic]
of lands can be made at this time & your honors
petitioner prays your honorable body to take his
unfortunate case in to your wise consideration
and grant him an act suspending all civil
against him for the term of five years or grant him
such other relief as you in your wisdom may think
proper & as in duty bound your petitioner will ever pray Brownington Oct. 10 1814 Samuel Thompson |
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References: 1. Samuel Thompson's Petition for an Act of Suspension from the Vermont legislature, Oct. 10, 1814, Vermont State Archives, MsVt 8P Vol.50 p.129, Montpelier, Vt. - Pliny White, History of Coventry, Vermont, 1858, Irasburgh, VT |