Gilbert newton lewis biography summary of thomas paine

Born in rural Thetford, England in , he went to school even though compulsory education was not established yet. His father was a corset-maker, and young Thomas was apprenticed to him at age 13 when he failed out of school. Thomas Paine established his own shop in Kent before marrying Mary Lambert. Things were just looking up for Thomas before disaster struck in the form of his business collapsing and his wife dying in childbirth.

Thomas Paine, by Matthew Pratt in Public domain. Having gained and lost two different positions and working as a stay-maker making bone stiffening strips for corsets , Paine eventually landed a job as a teacher in Sussex.

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It was here that Paine first became involved in government, primarily in small civic matters. He joined a vestry Episcopal church organization involved in secular affairs who were responsible for collecting taxes and distributed tithes to the poor as well as joining excise officers in requesting better working conditions and more pay from Parliament.

It was also here, in , that he published his first pamphlet, The Case of the Officers of Excise. A few years later, he was fired from the excise service and a tobacco business he had attempted to start failed. He was so deeply in debt he had to sell his household possessions.

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The same year he separated from his wife and moved back to London where he met Benjamin Franklin. A man of many talents, Paine is responsible for the design of several bridges in England and America, and his Sunderland Bridge has famously been copied multiple times. He received a patent for the single-span iron bridge. As well as dabbling in architecture, he developed a smokeless candle and collaborated with another inventor John Fitch to develop a steam engine.

A letter of recommendation from Franklin in hand, Thomas Paine emigrated to Philadelphia that very same year.