THOMPSON, GEORGE (1804–1878), anti-slavery advocate, born at Liverpool on 18 June 1804, was the third son of Henry Thompson of Leicester. He first became widely known as an advocate of the abolition of slavery in the British colonies. In October 1833 a series of lectures by him led to the formation of ‘the Edinburgh Society for the abolition of slavery throughout the world.’ He also lectured and took part in public discussions in Liverpool, Manchester, Glasgow, Bath, and other places. In September 1834 he undertook a mission to the United States. He engaged with William Lloyd Garrison, Whittier, and the members of the American Anti-Slavery Society in the movement for the abolition of slavery, and was instrumental in forming upwards of three hundred branch associations for that object. He is said to have caused by his speeches the failure of Thomas Jefferson Randolph's so-called ‘Port Natal’ plan of negro emancipation in Virginia. He was denounced by General Jackson in a presidential message. His life was frequently in danger. At the end of 1835 he had to escape from Boston in an open boat to an English vessel bound for New Brunswick, whence he sailed for England. On his return he was received with enthusiasm at Glasgow, Edinburgh, Newcastle-on-Tyne, and other large towns. He revisited America in 1851, and again during the civil war, when a public reception was given to him in the house of representatives, in the presence of President Lincoln and the majority of the cabinet.
Thompson was associated with Joseph Hume [q. v.], Sir Joshua Walmsley, and other public men in the National Parliamentary Reform Association. He was a member of the Anti-Cornlaw League, and took part in forming the British India Association, visiting India in order to acquire a knowledge of Indian government. In 1846 he was presented with the freedom of the city of Edinburgh; on 31 July 1847 he was returned to parliament for the Tower Hamlets, retaining his seat till 1852, and about 1870 a testimonial was raised for him by his friends in England and the United States. He died at Leeds on 7 Oct. 1878. In 1831 he married Anne Erskine, daughter of Richard Spry, a minister in the connection of the Countess of Huntingdon. By her he had six children.
Thompson was an admirable speaker, and of attractive manner in society (W. L. Garrison). John Bright ‘always considered him the liberator of the slaves in the English colonies.’
[Howitt's Journal, 1847, ii. 257–60 (with portrait); Ann. Register, 1878, ii. 175, 176; Appleton's Cyclopædia of American Biogr. iv. 760, v. 173, vi. 90; Garrison's Lectures by George Thompson, with … a brief Hist. of his Connection with the Anti-Slavery Cause in England; Life and Times of William Lloyd Garrison, New York, 1885; Burleigh's Reception of George Thompson in Great Britain; Grimké's Slavery in America; Holyoake's Sixty years of an Agitator's Life, 1892, i. 98.]
THOMPSON, GILBERT (1728–1803), physician, was born in Lancashire in 1728, and for many years kept a well-frequented school near Lancaster, on retiring from which he went to Edinburgh, and graduated doctor of medicine on 8 June 1753. He then went to London, but, meeting with little encouragement as a practitioner, he for a time served as writing-master in a boarding-school at Tottenham, and subsequently became a dispensing assistant to Timothy Bevan, the druggist. About 1765 his uncle, Gilbert Thompson of Penketh, died and left him 4,000l. He then commenced work as a physician in the city, and eventually attained to a fair practice. He was admitted a licentiate of the College of Physicians on 25 June 1770. He died at his house in Salter's Court, Cannon Street, 1 Jan. 1803. He was a quaker, and is represented as a man of great integrity, of mild and unassuming manners, and possessed of considerable learning and professional skill. He was an intimate friend of the physician, John Fothergill [q. v.] He is said to have been secretary to the Medical Society of London for several years, but there is no entry to this effect in the books of the society; he was a member, and was present at the first meeting in May 1773.
His works were:
- ‘Disputatio Medica Inauguralis de Exercitatione,’ Edinburgh, 1753, 4to.
- ‘A Biographical Memoir of the Life and a View of the Character of the late Dr. Fothergill,’ London, 1782, 8vo.
- ‘Select Translations from Homer and Horace, with original Poems,’ London, 1801, 8vo.
[Munk's Coll. of Phys. ii. 290; Brit. Mus. Cat.; Gent. Mag. 1803, i. 89; Records of the Medical Society of London.]
THOMPSON, Sir HARRY STEPHEN MEYSEY (1809–1874), agriculturist, born at Newby Park in Yorkshire on 11 Aug. 1809, was the eldest son of Richard John Thompson (1771–1853) of Kirby Hall, Yorkshire, captain in the 4th dragoons, by his wife Mary, daughter and coheiress of Richard Meysey of Shakenhurst, Worcestershire. After reading at home and under a private tutor near London, Harry entered Trinity College, Cambridge, as a fellow commoner in 1829. For some time he studied entomology under Charles Darwin, and gra-
