John Trumbull. Jonathan Trumbull, Sr. (1710–1785), LL.D. 1779.
Young Trumbull did have two incidents in childhood that bear mentioning. The first was that as a baby, he would suffer convulsions, often having three of four a day. By the time he was nine months old, the convulsions had been increasing in both number and severity and his parents were losing hope. One day an acquaintance of Trumbull’s father, Gov. Jonathon Trumbull, a Dr. Terry, who was an eminent physician of the day, stopped by for a visit. The doctor explained that Trumbull had been born with the ridges of his skull not being loose about his head to allow the brain to grow but overlapping one another. Because of this, Trumbull’s skull had begun to fuse, with the plates of the skull laying on top of one another not allowing any movement. The ridges, in effect, were squeezing his brain. Eventually, Trumbull would die or lose mental capacity if nothing were done. The doctor advised Trumbull’s mother, Faith Robinson Trumbull, to massage his skull many times a day to break apart the ridges and allow the brain room to grow. His mother set about this daily routine, rubbing his head many times a day and by the time Trumbull had reached three years of age, his convulsions had stopped completely, and his skull was smooth.
John Trumbull. Faith Robinson Trumbull. 1718-1780.
When the convulsions had stopped, Trumbull records that he was like a completely new person. He was an eager student. Trumbull wondered if his brain, after such an illness, had been set free. He found that other languages came easily to him, learning Greek by the age of six. More importantly, he found a spark of creativity that he did not know existed before. Because he was fragile, he would sit indoors and draw while other boys were playing outside. Trumbull writes, “My bodily health was frail, for the sufferings of early youth had left their impress on my constitution, and although my mind was clear, and the body active, it was never strong. I therefore seldom joined my little schoolfellows in plays or exercises of an athletic kind, for I was almost sure to be vanquished, and by degrees acquired new fondness for drawing, in which I stood unrivaled.”
One day while playing with his sisters, frolicking he called it, Trumbull fell down the stairs. His sisters’ bedroom had a door that led directly to a staircase and Trumbull, being young, played too roughly and tumbled all the way down the stairs. He developed a large bruise and lump over his right eye, but no one pursued it. This incident is said to have caused an injury that resulted in Trumbull losing sight in one of his eyes. Several years later, he discovered that he could no longer see out of that eye. In fact, Trumbull said that if he were to only try to use his bad eye, he could not even see well enough to read. This did not hamper his creativity, however. Instead, it gave him a determination to have a more scrupulous eye for details.
John Trumbull. Faith Trumbull Wadsworth. 1769-1846.
Brookhiser, Richard. Glorious Lessons: John Trumbull, Painter of the American Revolution.
Sizer, Theodore. “The Autobiography of Colonel John Trumbull, Patriot-Artist.”
