Major Thompson remained in and about Woburn two months after writing his last letter to Mr. Walker, in which he so deliberately avowed his intentions. He settled his affairs with his neighbours, collecting dues and paying debts, well assured that his wife and child would lack none of the means of a comfortable support. Having thus made all his preparations, he started from Woburn, October 13, 1775, in a country vehicle, accompanied by his stepbrother, Josiah Pierce, who drove him near to the bounds of the province, on the shore of Narragansett Bay, whence young Pierce returned. Thompson was taken on board the ‘Scarborough,’ British frigate, to Newport and from thence to Boston. In the Alienation Act of the Senate of New Hampshire in 1778 he was named among the proscribed; and in 1781, the confiscation papers of his property call him ‘of Woburn, physician, now an absentee.’ Whilst Mr. Thompson was at Boston the American rebellion became a revolution. General Gage was succeeded by General Howe, and to him Lord Dartmouth wrote in September 1775: ‘No room was left for any other consideration but that of proceeding against the twelve associated Colonies in all respects with the utmost vigour as the open and avowed enemies of the State,’ and he spoke of the great risk and little advantage that are to be expected from the continuance of the army at Boston during the winter, and on the advantages of recovering possession of New York. He tells the general that ‘the Empress of Russia, in the fullness of her affection for the British nation, and of gratitude for the benefits she had received under her late difficulties, had made the most explicit declaration and given the most ample assurance of any number of infantry that might be wanted.’ When, ‘in consequence of this generous and magnanimous offer,’ a requisition was made to her for 20,000 men for Canada, objections arose, and ‘much embarrassment and disappointment were the only results.’ The Cape Fear expedition failed from ignorance of the depth of the river.