Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 56.djvu/152

 on board the packet-boat between Leith and London. A few years later a second exhibition of his work was organised in London by Jonathan Sparks, but proved a failure.

Tam and the Souter are now at Burns's Monument, Ayr, in which town Thom's statue of Wallace has been placed in the tower named after the national hero. The ‘Old Mortality’ group is at Maxwelltown, Dumfries.

About 1836 Thom went to America in pursuit of a fraudulent agent. Recovering a portion of the money embezzled, he settled at Newark in New Jersey, where he executed replicas of his favourite groups, ‘an imposing statue of Burns,’ and various ornamental pieces for gardens. While exploring the vicinity of Newark for stone suitable for his purposes, he discovered the valuable freestone quarry at Little Falls, and the stonework and much of the architectural carving of Trinity Church, New York, were contracted for by him. Purchasing a farm near Ramapo on the Erie railway, he seems latterly to have abandoned his profession, and died in New York on 17 April 1850. He was married and had two sons, one of whom was trained as a painter.

Thom's work is principally interesting as that of a self-taught artist. His design was not distinguished in line or mass, but his conception and execution were vigorous, and his grasp of character great. His Tam o' Shanter group has had, and is likely to retain, great popularity. It is an exceedingly clever and graphic embodiment of the poet's heroes. It has been reproduced by thousands in many materials; photographs and prints abound.

Another artist of the same name, (fl. 1815), subject-painter, was born in Edinburgh about 1785. He studied art in his native city, and exhibited some thirteen pictures, of which one or two were historical, three were portraits, and the rest of domestic incident (including two designs for vignette illustrations to Burns), at the Edinburgh exhibitions between 1808 and 1816. In 1815 he sent two pictures to the British Institution, and about that time removed to London, where he met with encouragement and practised for some years. In 1825 his ‘Young Recruit’ was engraved by A. Duncan.

[Edinburgh Literary Journal, 1828; The New Scots Mag. December 1828; New Statistical Account of Scotland, 1842; Anderson's Scottish Nation; Blackie's Dict. of Scotsmen; Redgrave's Dict. of Artists; Newark Advertiser, U.S.A., May 1850; Ayr Advertiser, 23 April 1896; private information.]  THOM, JOHN HAMILTON (1808–1894), unitarian divine, younger son of John Thom (d. 1808), was born on 10 Jan. 1808 at Newry, co. Down, where his father, a native of Lanarkshire, was presbyterian minister from 1800. His mother was Martha Anne (1779–1859), daughter of Isaac Glenny. In 1823 he was admitted at the Belfast Academical Institution as a student under the care of the Armagh presbytery. He became assistant to Thomas Dix Hincks [q. v.] as a teacher of classics and Hebrew, while studying theology under Samuel Hanna [q. v.] The writings of William Ellery Channing made him a unitarian; he did not join the Irish remonstrants under Henry Montgomery [q. v.], but preached his first sermon in July 1829 at Renshaw Street Chapel, Liverpool, and shortly afterwards was chosen minister of the Ancient Chapel, Toxteth Park, Liverpool. On 10 May 1831 he was nominated as successor to John Hincks as minister of Renshaw Street Chapel, and entered on the pastoral office there on 7 Aug., having meanwhile preached (17 July) the funeral sermon of William Roscoe [q. v.], the historian; this was his first publication. The settlement (1832) of James Martineau in Liverpool gave him a congenial associate; in 1833 his interest in practical philanthropy was stimulated by the visit of Joseph Tuckerman from Boston, Massachusetts; his personal connection with Blanco White [q. v.] began in January 1835. At Christmas of that year he was a main founder of the Liverpool Domestic Mission. In July 1838 he succeeded John Relly Beard [q. v.] as editor of the ‘Christian Teacher,’ a monthly which developed (1845) into the ‘Prospective Review’ [see ]. From February to May 1839 he contributed four lectures, and a defensive ‘letter,’ to the Liverpool unitarian controversy, conducted in conjunction with Martineau and Henry Giles (1809–1882), in response to the challenge of thirteen Anglican divines. Thom's chief antagonist was Thomas Byrth [q. v.]

On 25 June 1854 he resigned his charge, and went abroad for travel and study, his place at Renshaw Street being taken by William Henry Channing (1810–1884), nephew of the Boston divine. He returned to Renshaw Street in November 1857, and ministered there till his final retirement on 31 Dec. 1866. From 1866 to 1880 he acted as visitor to Manchester New College, London. His last public appearance was at the opening (16 Nov. 1892) of new buildings for the Liverpool Domestic Mission. Latterly his eyesight failed, and for a short time before his death he was quite blind. He died at his