Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 56.djvu/153

 residence, Oakfield, Greenbank, Liverpool, on 2 Sept. 1894, and was buried on 7 Sept. in the graveyard of the Ancient Chapel, Toxteth Park. He married (2 Jan. 1838) Hannah Mary (1816–1872), second daughter of William Rathbone (1787–1868) [see under, (1757–1809)], but had no issue.

In his ‘Life of Blanco White,’ 1845, his best known work, Thom does little to suggest the quality of his own religious teaching. By his published discourses he presented himself to many minds as a master of rich and penetrating thought. In the pulpit his powers were obscured by a fastidious self-restraint. On the platform he was brilliant and convincing.

The following are the most important of his publications: 1. ‘Memoir’ prefixed to ‘Sermons’ by John Hincks, 1832, 8vo. 2. ‘St. Paul's Epistles to the Corinthians,’ 1851, 8vo (expository sermons). 3. ‘Letters, embracing his Life, by John James Tayler,’ 1872, 2 vols. 8vo; 2nd ed. 1873, 8vo. 4. ‘Laws of Life after the Mind of Christ,’ 1883, 8vo (sermons); 2nd ser. 1886, 8vo. Posthumous were: 5. ‘A Spiritual Faith,’ 1895, 8vo (sermons; with portrait and memorial preface by Dr. Martineau). 6. ‘Special Services and Prayers,’ 1895, 8vo (unpublished). His ‘Hymns, Chants, and Anthems,’ 1854, 8vo, is perhaps the best, certainly the least sectarian, of unitarian hymn-books.

He has sometimes been confused with his Liverpool contemporary, David Thom, D.D., a presbyterian, who became a universalist, published several theological treatises, and compiled a very valuable account of ‘Liverpool Churches and Chapels,’ Liverpool, 1854, 16mo.

[In Memoriam, by V. D. Davis, in Liverpool Unitarian Annual, 1895, with complete list of Thom's publications; Martineau's memorial preface to Spiritual Faith, 1895; Christian Reformer, 1857, p. 757; Evans's Hist. of Renshaw Street Chapel, 1887, pp. 33 sq.; Christian Life, 8 Sept. and 15 Sept. 1894; Spectator, 8 Sept. 1894; Inquirer, 8 Sept. 1894; Liverpool Mercury, 9 Oct. 1894; Evans's Record of the Provincial Assembly of Lancashire and Cheshire, 1896; personal recollection.]  THOM, JOHN NICHOLS (1799-1838), impostor and madman. [See .]

THOM, WILLIAM (1798?–1848), Scottish poet, was born in Aberdeen about 1798. His father, a business man, died young, and Thom was left to the care of his mother, ‘a widow unable to keep him at home idle’ (, Recollections, p. 37). Run over in infancy by a nobleman's carriage, he was lamed for life, the nobleman sympathising to the extent of 5s. bestowed on the widow after the accident. Thom was educated at a dame's school, which he realistically describes in a note to his poem ‘Old Father Frost and his Family.’ Apprenticed as a weaver in 1810, he joined in 1814 a weaving factory, where his talents and attainments as talker, singer, and flute-player secured him distinction among his fellows.

About 1828 Thom married, and in 1831 he and his wife settled in Dundee; but his wife soon deserted him and returned to Aberdeen. Thom afterwards worked in Newtyle, Forfarshire, where he took to his home the girl Jean whom he celebrated in his prose and verse. She bore him four children, and died in 1840. In 1837 great depression in the weaving trade caused Thom much suffering. He hawked the country with second-hand books, and even played the flute in the streets. He soon found fixed employment at the loom at Aberdeen, and subsequently at Inverurie, Aberdeenshire. In the beginning of 1841 he sent a lyric—part i. of ‘The Blind Boy's Pranks’—to the ‘Aberdeen Herald.’ It was published with a eulogistic editorial note, and instantly secured generous attention and patronage. Through the practical friendship of Gordon of Knokespock, Aberdeenshire, the family had immediate comfort, and Thom was enabled to spend four months of 1841 in London, mingling with literary people.

On returning to his loom at Inverurie Thom chafed against regular employment, and, having published his ‘Rhymes and Recollections’ in the autumn of 1844, he settled in London, at the suggestion of Gordon. In the metropolis he worked for a time as a weaver and composed poems simultaneously. His friends included Eliza Cook, Richard, William, and Mary Howitt, Samuel Carter Hall and his wife, and John Forster. He is said to have been fêted at Lady Blessington's. He was entertained at dinner with William Johnson Fox in the chair, and working men of London held a soirée in his honour. Scottish admirers in Calcutta sent him an offering of 300l., and Margaret Fuller headed an American subscription list which rose to 400l. But Thom was an incorrigible Bohemian. He procured a new consort from Inverurie, by whom he had several children, and he neglected business for unprofitable company. At length poor, comparatively neglected, and very ill, he, by the aid of a few staunch admirers, left London and settled in Hawkhill, Dundee, where he died on 29 Feb. 1848. He was honoured with a public funeral, and was buried in the Western