![]() Lewis Temple was born in Richmond Virginia, but it is unclear whether he was born free or born a slave. Upon arriving in New Bedford in 1829, Temple took up work as a blacksmith and married Mary Clark of Maryland on June 20, 1829. In 1834, he was elected vice president of the New Bedford Union Society, the village’s first anti-slavery society and one of the black auxiliaries to the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society founded a year earlier. While working in his shop on Walnut Street in 1848, Temple invented an improved harpooning instrument. Now called the Temple toggle iron, his creation had a pivoting head that would secure the harpoon into the whale’s flesh. Earlier harpoons would often work loose in the fury of the fight. The tool revolutionized 19th century whaling. ![]() In the fall of 1853, Temple fell while crossing a plank over an open sewer trench. He sustained serious injuries. In March 1854, the city approved a $2,000 payment to Temple, but he died six weeks later. His personal estate was valued at $2,459.75. That included the money owned to his widow by the city, which was finally paid with interest in February 1857. A monument honoring Temple stands in front of the New Bedford Free Public Library on Pleasant Street in New Bedford. No likeness of Temple exists, so the monument is based on a photograph of his son, Lewis Temple, Jr. |
Last updated: August 2, 2018