Author: Thomson, Charles West
Biography:
THOMSON, Charles West (1798-1879: ancestry.com)
Records are surprisingly scarce for his early years: the names of his parents, for instance, have not been found. He was born in Philadelphia and raised in a Quaker household but at some point he converted and joined the Protestant Episcopal church. He was most active as a writer in his twenties, contributing poems and articles to periodicals and learned societies as well as publishing four volumes of verse and two collections of prose pieces, The Limner (1822) and Sketches (1822?). He appears to have been a man of the world: The Sylph (1828) is dedicated to Nicholas Biddle (1786-1844), and a silhouette of Thomson made in Philadelphia in 1842 shows a prosperous man fashionably dressed. His last collection, The Love of Home, and Other Poems, appeared in 1845. Ultimately, however, he was ordained as a clergyman and was appointed as pastor of St. John's Church in York PA in 1849. In the same year he married Caroline Prescott (1799-1880) of Newburyport MA. Although he retired from his post in 1866 they stayed on in York, where they died a year apart and are buried in Prospect Hill Cemetery. Some of his personal correspondence, including references to his conversion, are held by the New York Historical Society. (ancestry.com 25 Nov. 2020; findmypast.com 25 Nov. 2020; Appleton) HJ
Other Names:
- C. W. Thomson
- Charles W. Thomson