As the American Studies class was doing a Web quest on the Constitution in the Electronic Classroom, I was putting together the display on Massachusetts in the hall. Suddenly I heard “he went to Governor Dummer.” I knew she was talking about Rufus King who was one of the boys who matriculated from the Little Red Schoolhouse during the tenure of Master Samuel Moody. King left Byfield for Harvard, graduating in 1777 at the head of his class. He studied law under Theophilus Parsons (another illustrious Little Red Schoolhouse graduate of Moody’s) in Newburyport. His career in the law began and in 1783 he was admitted to serve before the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts. He went on to serve as the Massachusetts delegate to the Philadelphia convention on the Constitution. He supported a strong national government with greater power belonging to the most populous states. After signing the Constitution he returned to Massachusetts and was a delegate to the state’s convention which ratified it. He served as a U.S. Senator from New York and as the ambassador to Great Britain. He had a long career as a Federalist. You can read more about the boy who studied here in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress or at the National Archives.
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