Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 56.djvu/221

 and for the extension of the electoral franchise. For some time he was a member of the town council of Leicester; and he was one of the founders of the Mechanics' Institute in that town, and honorary curator of the Leicester Museum.

Thompson in early life took a keen interest in the study of archæology and antiquities. He began by publishing in his journal a series of 'Passages from the History of Leicester.' In 1847, in conjunction with William Kelly, he arranged the ancient manuscripts which were lying in a state of disorder in the Leicester corporation muniment-room.

In 1849 he brought out a 'History of Leicester, from the time of the Romans to the end of the Seventeenth Century.' This, his largest and most important work, was the fruit of much original research. In 1854–6 he edited the 'Midland Counties Historical Collector,' of which only two volumes appeared. In 1867 he published 'An Essay on English Municipal History,' a work which threw much new light on the origin, institution, and development of municipal government in Leicester and other ancient English towns. The manuscripts of the ancient merchant guild of Leicester gave him a mass of original materials for this book, which is referred to by and other writers (cf.  Town Life in the Fifteenth Century, 1894, i. 235 seq.). In 1871 he issued a 'History of Leicester in the Eighteenth Century,' supplementary to his earlier history.

Thompson was one of the founders of the Leicestershire Architectural and Archæological Society in 1855, and to its 'Transactions' he contributed numerous papers and communications. He was also local secretary of the Society of Antiquaries, a member of the British Archæological Association, and a fellow of the Royal Historical Society. To 'Notes and Queries' he was a frequent contributor, under the signature of 'Jaytee.'

He died at his residence, Dannett House, Fosse Road, Leicester, on 20 May 1877, and was buried on 24 May in the Leicester cemetery. He married at St. Martin's, Leicester, on 24 June 1847, Janet Bissett, daughter of John McAlpin of Leicester, but left no issue. His widow died on 29 Oct. 1879.

Besides the books above mentioned, his works were: 'The Handbook of Leicester,' 1844, his earliest work; 2nd edit. 1846. 'An Account of Leicester Castle,' 1859. 'Pocket Edition of the History of Leicester,' 1879.



THOMPSON, THOMSON, or TOMSON, JOHN (fl. 1382), Carmelite, was probably born, as Pits suggests, at Thompson, near Watton in Norfolk, where a family of Thompsons was settled. He was educated at the Carmelite house at Blakney, Norfolk, whence he proceeded to Oxford (cf., Hist. et Antiq. 1674, p. 103, col. 1). He graduated B.D. and attained some fame as a theologian before 1382, when he was one of the two Carmelite members of the provincial council summoned to meet in the Black Friars, London, in May to pronounce judgment on Wyclif's doctrines (, Concilia, iii. 158, 165;, Fasciculi Zizaniorum, Rolls Ser., pp. 287, 500). Subsequently he is said to have graduated D.D. and to have devoted himself to the study of philosophy and theology. Villiers de St. Etienne (Bibl. Carmel. ii. 127–8) gives a list of fifteen works by Thompson, and says he wrote 'plura alia,' all of which were preserved in Bale's time (circa 1550) in the house of the Carmelites at Norwich. None are now known to be extant, with the possible exception of a work, 'Ex Trivetho de transformatis,' attributed to Thompson by Bale, and beginning 'Abbas a monacho veneno occiditur;' a manuscript with this incipit is extant in Merton College MS. lxxxv. f. 111, and its full title is 'Tabula Nicolai Trivet super allegorias libri Ovidii de transformatis' (, Cat. MSS. in Coll. Aulisque Oxon. i. 46; cf. art. ). There is nothing to identify the Carmelite with the John Thomson who died vicar of Leeds in 1430, bequeathing his books to Gonville Hall, Cambridge (, Biogr. Hist. of Gonville and Caius College, p. 5).



THOMPSON, JOHN, first  (1647–1710), born in 1647, was the son of Morris or Maurice Thomson of Haversham in Buckinghamshire, by his wife Dorothy, daughter of John Vaux of Pembrokeshire. Morris, like his brother, (fl. 1643–1668) [q. v.], was a prominent member of Cromwell's government. He made his peace at the Restoration, but