Rome. Among the others are many prints after Raphael, and a series of portraits of sovereigns and eminent military commanders published, with historical notices in Latin, in 1600, and several times reprinted. Thomassin used only the graver. He died at Rome at the age of seventy.—J. T—e.
THOMPSON, Edward, a versatile English writer, was born at Hull about 1738, and commenced life as a sailor. He took part in several naval engagements, and when peace was proclaimed in 1762, was driven out of employment. He then commenced a literary career by writing a licentious poem called the "Meretriciad," which attracted the attention of Churchill, and led to a friendship between them. His next publications, "The Soldier," "The Demirep," and "The Courtesan," are all of the same objectionable class. In 1767 he published his "Sailor's Letters," in which he described in a loose, unconnected style many of the incidents of his own life. He afterwards edited the works of Oldham, 3 vols.; of Paul Whitehead, 1 vol.; and of Andrew Marvel, 3 vols. He was author of several popular nautical songs. He returned to maritime life on the recommencement of hostilities, and had the command of the Hyæna under Rodney during the engagement at Cape St. Vincent. Thompson died in 1786.—F.
THOMPSON, Thomas Perronet, Lieut.-General, the first moiety of whose long and active life was spent in military warfare, owes his reputation more especially to the part he took in political contests during the latter portion of his career. He was the son of the late Mr. T. Thompson, banker, at Hull, and formerly M.P. for Midhurst. He was born at Hull in 1783, and educated at the grammar-school there when Joseph Milner, the historian of the church, was head-master. He entered Queen's college, Cambridge, in 1798, and took his B.A. degree in 1802. The following year he sailed in the Isis as a midshipman, and continued to serve in the navy till 1806 when he passed over to the other service and became a second lieutenant. In 1807 he served in the rifle brigade at the attack on Buenos Ayres, and was among the captured under General Craufurd in the church of St. Domingo. The next year he advanced a step, and by the influence of Mr. Wilberforce was sent out as governor to Sierra Leone. His zeal in suppressing the slave trade is said to have been unacceptable to persons of influence at home, and he was recalled. Returning in 1812 to active service in the army, he went to the Peninsula in 1814 with the 14th light dragoons, and took part in the battles of Nivelle, Nive, Orthes, and Toulouse, for which he received the war medal with four clasps. As captain in the 17th light dragoons he was in the Pindaree and other campaigns in India, from 1815 to 1819. In the latter year, having previously acquired a knowledge of Arabic, he was appointed secretary and interpreter to Sir William Grant Keir on his expedition to the Persian Gulf. Being left there as political agent, he commanded a detachment of native troops ordered to act against the tribe of Beni-Boo-Ali, which detachment being defeated by the Arabs, necessitated the expedition under Sir Lionel Smith in the following year. In 1821 Thompson returned to England, and cultivating the acquaintance of men of letters, became first a contributor to the Westminster Review, and afterwards part proprietor of that organ of advanced liberalism. In that journal he published many able articles on political economy, boldly advocating free trade at a time when the position of the protectionists seemed absolutely unassailable. His celebrated "Corn-law Catechism" was published in 1827, and went through fifteen editions in four years. In 1829 he retired from the army as lieutenant-colonel on half-pay. In the same year appeared his "Enharmonic Theory of Music," which he supported in successive numbers of the Westminster, and which was reprinted in 1850 with a long explanatory title, referring to an enharmonic organ built for the Exhibition of 1851. Colonel Thompson, who had always been an ardent promoter of parliamentary reform, was elected member of parliament for Hull in 1835. He was ousted at the next election, and remained out of parliament some years; but in 1847 was returned for Bradford in Yorkshire. He was again unsuccessful in 1852, but in 1857 recovered his seat as representative of Bradford. He attained the grade of lieutenant-general in December, 1860. In 1843 he published a collection of his miscellaneous writings, under the title of "Exercises, Political and others," 6 vols. 12mo, He died on the 6th of September, 1869.—R. H.
THOMPSON, William, a distinguished Irish naturalist, was born at Belfast on 2nd November, 1805, and died at London in January, 1852. He was at first destined for mercantile pursuits, but his passion for natural science led him to devote his attention entirely to that subject. He soon became celebrated for his knowledge of ornithology. He studied the Irish fauna in a special manner, and prepared a report on that subject for the British Association in 1840. He also published accounts of the birds and fishes of Ireland. He accompanied the late Professor Edward Forbes in his voyage to the Ægean Sea in H.M.S. Beacon in 1841, but he did not continue with the expedition during the whole of the voyage. He contributed many valuable articles to the Annals of natural history. In 1843 he read at the Cork meeting of the British Association a report on the vertebrate fauna of Ireland. He commenced the publication of a complete work on the fauna of Ireland, and up to 1851 three volumes of it appeared. He did not live to complete it, but he left manuscripts which were published as a fourth volume in 1856. He was president of the Natural History and Philosophical Society, and a member of the Royal Irish Academy.—J. H. B.
* THOMS, William J., literary antiquary, was born in Westminster in 1803. The son of the secretary of the first commission of revenue inquiry, he received a good education, and entered as a clerk the secretary's office at Chelsea hospital. After being for several years clerk of the printed papers, he was appointed deputy librarian of the house of lords. From an early period he contributed to periodicals, among them the Foreign Quarterly Review. In 1828 he edited a collection of early English prose romances, with bibliographical and historical introductions; a new edition of it appeared in 1858. In 1838 he published his useful compilation, "The Book of the Court," including an account of the history and nature of the principal offices of state. In 1839 he edited for the Camden Society, of which he has long been secretary, Anecdotes and Traditions illustrative of early English history; and for the Percy Society in 1844, a reprint of Caxton's (1481) version of Reynard the Fox (Reineke Fuchs), with notes and an introductory sketch of the romance. He has also given to the world an excellent edition (1842) of Stow's Survey of London, with notes and a sketch of the author; and to his translation of Worsall's Primeval Antiquities of Denmark (1849) he has contributed much valuable and original matter. In November, 1849, he established and he has since continued to edit, the well-known periodical. Notes and Queries.—F. E.
THOMSON, Adam, D.D., was born at Coldstream in 1779, and ordained in his native place in 1806. In connection with the United Presbyterian Church he was a useful and popular minister. For more than half a century he laboured in all good works, and died in February, 1861. His great work was his active and successful part in overthrowing the Scottish monopoly in printing Bibles. He published several volumes—"Consolation for Christian Mourners;" "Outlines of Sermons;" "Comparison of English and Scottish Dissent."—J. E.
THOMSON, Andrew, D D , an eminent Scotch clergyman, was born in 1779 at Sanquhar, of which his father was at one time minister. After completing the usual course of study he was licensed to preach the gospel in 1802 by the presbytery of Kelso, was ordained in the same year minister of the parish of Sprouston, was translated in 1808 to the East church of Perth, in 1810 was removed to the New Greyfriars' church, Edinburgh, and finally was appointed in 1814 minister of St. George's church in the same city. Dr. Thomson was not only an eloquent preacher and diligent pastor, but one of the principal leaders in the church courts, and a fearless and powerful debater. A few months after his settlement in Edinburgh he commenced a new periodical, called the Christian Instructor, which he edited till his death. He was a zealous supporter of the British and Foreign Bible Society, and engaged with characteristic vehemence in what was called the "apocrypha controversy." He was a strenuous advocate of the emancipation of the slaves in our West India colonies, and his last great public effort was made in their behalf. He took also a deep interest in the progress of education, and not only established an excellent school for the children of his poor parishioners, but compiled suitable books for the different classes it contained. His incessant toil of both body and mind at length broke down his naturally robust constitution and athletic frame, and he died suddenly, of heart disease, 9th February, 1831, in the fifty-second year of his age. In character, courage, eloquence, knowledge of the world, zeal not unfrequently intemperate, and firmness degenerating into obstinacy, Dr. Thomson was a worthy successor of the old Scotch divines of the
