Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 56.djvu/285

 In the conduct of the ecclesiastical affairs of his province Thomson displayed both strength and tact. Though he had been accused of narrowness and intolerance, he earned the gratitude of men of opinions widely different from his own and from each other's by interposing his authority to shield them from petty annoyance. The only clerical prosecution for doctrine or ritual which he promoted took place in 1869, when he instituted proceedings for heresy against the Rev. Charles Voysey, rector of Healaugh in Yorkshire, author of ‘The Sling and the Stone,’ who, among other things, had published a sermon entitled ‘Is every Statement in the Bible about our Heavenly Father strictly true?’ The case was finally decided against Mr. Voysey on 11 Feb. 1870. The result did not, however, affect the personal friendship which had existed for many years between Mr. Voysey and the archbishop. In the judicial committee of the privy council Thomson's voice was frequently raised for toleration, and when, on 16 Dec. 1863, (1809–1872) [q. v.], the bishop of Capetown, pronounced sentence of deposition against [q. v.], Thomson warned him of the illegality of his proceedings. On another occasion, in the case of William James Early Bennett, he laid down the maxim that the question to consider in cases of difference is not whether a man's views are in strict accord with the teaching of his church, but whether they are so discordant as to render toleration impossible.

Prior to the appointment of Archdeacon Crossthwaite in 1880 as bishop of Beverley, Thomson had no suffragan. He always despatched the business of the see with punctuality, but the labour and anxiety gradually undermined his health. He died on Christmas Day 1890. He was buried in the churchyard of Bishopthorpe, near York. The pall was borne by working men of Sheffield.

A marble bust of the archbishop by W. D. Keyworth was erected by the working people of Sheffield and placed in the parish church there. His portrait, painted by Walter William Ouless, R.A., and presented to him on 27 Oct. 1886 by the clergy and laity of the diocese, hangs in the palace of Bishopthorpe. A marble bust by Onslow Ford, R.A., was at the same time presented to Mrs. Thomson.

In 1855 Thomson married Zoë, daughter of James Henry Skene, British consul at Aleppo, and granddaughter of [q. v.] of Rubislaw, the friend of Sir Walter Scott. By her he had nine children, four sons and five daughters.



THORBURN, GRANT (1773–1863), original of Galt's ‘Lawrie Todd,’ and author, son of a nail-maker, was born at Westhouses, near Dalkeith, Midlothian, on 18 Feb. 1773. He became a nail-maker, and worked for several years at Dalkeith. In 1792 he joined the ‘Friends of the People,’ and in the winter of 1793, along with seventeen others, was examined in Edinburgh as ‘a suspicious person,’ but dismissed. In 1794 he emigrated to New York, where at first he worked at his trade. In 1796 he and his brother, having between them a little money, and getting credit for something more, started a hardware business, which presently became Thorburn's sole concern. Owing to the introduction of machinery, nail-making in the old manual fashion ceased to be a profitable industry, and in 1805 Thorburn became a seedsman. He struggled through discouragements, failures, and even (in 1808) bankruptcy, and ultimately made his seed business one of the greatest in the world. From his youth he believed that he was under the care of a special Providence, and minute scrutiny of the events in his career enabled him curiously to illustrate his theory. He first became widely known as the hero of John Galt's ‘Lawrie Todd, or the Settlers in the Woods,’ 3 vols. 1830. In ‘Fraser's Magazine’ for 1833, vols. vii. and viii., Thorburn's autobiography was published, with a portrait, and this excited fresh interest. In 1854 he removed from New York to Winsted, Connecticut, thence to Newhaven in the same state, where he died on 21 Jan. 1863.

In June 1797 Thorburn married Rebecca Sickles, who worked heroically with him among the sick during the great epidemic in New York in 1798, and died on 28 Nov. 1800. He married a second time in 1801, and a third time in 1853. With an easy and somewhat loose but energetic and pointed style, Thorburn won attention by his originality, strength, and candour. His quaint discursiveness, his allu-