Editing Benjamin Thompson (section)

==Later life==
[[Image:Royal Institution - Humphry Davy.jpg|thumb|right|Satirical cartoon by [[James Gillray]] showing a Royal Institution lecture on pneumatics with Davy holding the bellows and Count Rumford looking on at extreme right. Dr Garnett is the lecturer holding the victim's nose.]]

After 1799, he divided his time between France and England. With Sir [[Joseph Banks]], he established the [[Royal Institution]] of [[Great Britain]] in 1799. The pair chose Sir [[Humphry Davy]] as the first lecturer. The institution flourished and became world-famous as a result of Davy's pioneering research. His assistant, [[Michael Faraday]], established the Institution as a premier research laboratory, and also justly famous for its series of public lectures popularizing science. That tradition continues to the present, and the Royal Institution [[Christmas lectures]] attract large audiences through their TV broadcasts.
[[File:Benjamin Thompson Count Rumsford.jpg|thumb|A bust of Benjamin Thompson, Count Rumford, in Rumford, Rhode Island.]]
Thompson endowed the [[Rumford medal]]s of the [[Royal Society]] and the [[American Academy of Arts and Sciences]], and endowed the [[Rumford Chair of Physics]] at [[Harvard University]]. In 1803, he was elected a foreign member of the [[Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences]], and as a member of the [[American Philosophical Society]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=APS Member History|url=https://search.amphilsoc.org/memhist/search?creator=Benjamin+Thompson&smode=advanced|access-date=1 April 2021|website=search.amphilsoc.org}}</ref>

After several affairs and a close friendship with Mary Temple, Viscountess Palmerston,<ref>{{cite journal | url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/metrics/10.1080/00026980.2023.2234717?scroll=top | doi=10.1080/00026980.2023.2234717 | title=When Ben met Mary: The Letters of Benjamin Thompson, Reichsgraf von Rumford, to Mary Temple, Viscountess Palmerston, 1793–1804 | date=2023 | last1=James | first1=Frank A. J. L. | journal=Ambix | volume=70 | issue=3 | pages=207–328 | pmid=37615065 }}</ref> in 1804, he married [[Marie-Anne Pierrette Paulze|Marie-Anne Lavoisier]], the widow of the great French [[chemist]] [[Antoine Lavoisier]]. (His American wife, Sarah—whom he had abandoned at the outbreak of the American Revolution—had died in 1792.)<ref>{{cite book |title=Memoir of Sir Benjamin Thompson, Count Rumford, with Notices of his Daughter |author=George E. Ellis |publisher=Macmillan and Company |location=London |year=1875 |page=43}}</ref> Thompson separated from his second wife after three years, but he settled in [[Paris]] and continued his scientific work until his death on 21 August 1814. Thompson is buried in the small cemetery of [[Auteuil, Paris|Auteuil]] in Paris, just across from [[Adrien-Marie Legendre]]. Upon his death, his daughter from his first marriage, [[Sarah Thompson, Countess Rumford|Sarah Thompson]], inherited his title as Countess Rumford.

He was also known to have been a lover of [[George Germain, 1st Viscount Sackville]].<ref>{{cite web | url=https://wng.org/sift/happy-fourth-of-july-thanks-to-two-loutish-british-lords-1617407797 | title=Happy Fourth of July—thanks to two loutish British lords }}</ref><ref>https://bobarnebeck.com/homosexuality.html</ref><ref>http://www.elisarolle.com/queerplaces/fghij/George%20Germain,%201st%20Viscount%20Sackville.html</ref>